Ph’s soil

ph is a logrithmic scale of h3o+ : oh- ions .. the average of each as it's always perpetually striving for equillibrium. so it depends on the volume of water absorbed in teh pot and the volume of water you add. whether or not any of it is buffered or just adding acids and bases until something adds up to a target pH --- unbuffered means it will drift and oscillate and potentially in wild ways after you balance it out. simply put - it's complicated as to what will happen and depends on several things. if you add an acid it will bring the pH down. my suggestion -- after you add whatever brings it down to pH 5, buffer it up to 6. try to always add your target pH whether it is fertilized or water only. starting at 7 is great. just add at your target and go from there. spot cherk. learn the nuance of your soil pH meter, becuase it's as much art as science. try to measure at same weight (water volume contained in pot). Try to measure at different depths. Hopefully you don't have many superficial roots, so the surface is mostly irrelevant as far as measuring. Expect it to be off from your target, even though it very well could be just fine... observe plant. learn baseline of "safe". if things are going well and it's consistently reading X pH off from your target, assume that's the norm relative to the difficulty of measuingp H in a solid substrate. within a short time it should be your target pH without doing anything crazy. 7 is an okay place to start so keep it simple. unbuffered products will result in potentially wild pH swings. learn a baseline so you don't react to "normal" ... soil sluries, reading runoff, soil ph meters are all wonky measurements, fwiw. not quite teh same as measuring a liquid's pH.