Setting Up My SRP

Dear Blog,
Yesterday was the day I was long anticipating. I finally managed to set up my SRP. I went to Bunnings warehouse yesterday and I was able to find all my necessities for the SRP.... Except for alkaline soil. This posed a problem at first, but due to my previous research, I was able to come up with an alternative. My research concluded that in order to raise the pH levels of a soil, the substance that needs to be added is called lime. This comes in the form of either powder or liquid. The lime is usually used in order to correct an acidic soil but adding excess amounts results in achieving alkalinity. This is shown in an article called 

RAISING LOW SOIL pH

This article explains that in order to raise the pH of soil, you should add lime but it should be mixed into the soil as it is a low soluble substance, meaning if it is just placed on the surface, it won't be saturated into the whole pot. 

My dad and I began to set up the SRP at 3:00 pm and it took a long and tiring two hours to set up. Before we began to place the soil into the pots, we had to test the pH of the different soils. We were able to locate a pH probe that tests the pH level of soil. The acidic soil was measuring in at 5.5 pH, the neutral soil is a 7 pH and the alkaline soil has been gradually increasing from 7. It is currently at 7.5 and continues to increase. The problem with the lime is it doesn't provide an immediate effect, rather it gradually increases the pH over a week. Nevertheless, it is still reading at a pH that is higher than neutral, providing alkaline properties. 

We then removed the basil that we bought from their pots and washed away the soil that they were originally in. Whilst my dad was doing this, I was measuring three metric cups of the neutral soil into three different pots. Dad then placed the plants into the pots and I added another three metric cups of soil, followed by one cup of water. We continued this for all the 9 plants. This is shown in the video below. 

I then continued on to label all my 9 pots. On the label, I wrote the number of the plant (1-9) and the type of soil that was in the pot. I then took an initial measurement of each of the plants and added it into my results table. This all took place in our garage. Once it was finished, we moved them to the backyard and placed them in the same spot, exposed to the same amount of sunlight and rainfall. I will continue to measure these every second day for the next 15 days. Lets hope my SRP works!!!