Date: Fri, 29 Aug 1997 08:03:49 -0700 (PDT) From: steve steve <stevesteve@rocketmail.com> To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com Message-Id: <aabcdefg3291$foo@default> Subject: Baking Soda ... a couple of thoughts.
Firstly I would like to say that I have never tried this so I have no
evidence either way for the effects of Baking Soda on CPs and like
others I would be pleased to hear Randall Palmers data.
I would not be even tempted to try this on my plants and would not
recommend this to any one else untill there was more information.
Most of these plants have evolved to grow in soil that is acidic. I
have heard various pH levels quoted (from memory pH5 - 7) although
there are notable exceptions that will tolerate limestone environments
that are presumably more alkaline.
Personaly I don't use anything but moss peat and additions such as
perlite or clean silica. Peat seems to be very good at providing the
soil conditions that many of these plants thrive in. Which is no
surprise as it is often their natural soil type in the wild.
So what could baking soda do? Well the only possible effect that I can
think of is that it might act as a buffer to regulate the acidity
(c.f. sodium citrate in lemonade). However my last bichem. lecture was
a decade ago and I cannot be sure that bicarbonate would have this
effect. Also I would expect that if anything our growing conditions in
cultivation would tend to be too alkaline and that this type off
buffering effect would be wasted.
If anyone has a chemistry background and has actually tested their
soil conditions that might give some more insight to this area. If
sodium bicarbonate really does have a beneficial effect then it would
be great to have some evidence.
Steve
Oil? sounds like a bad move to me Im certainly not letting that near
my plants >:-(
_____________________________________________________________________
Sent by RocketMail. Get your free e-mail at http://www.rocketmail.com
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Tue Jan 02 2001 - 17:31:09 PST