Repotting thousands of plants alone so I am not in a funny mode...
However:
- dolomitic lime, or the lime we want to use is calcium/magnesium carbonate, CaCO3 MgCO3. Usually it dissolves only according to the acidity of the environment, therefore, if you put real carbonate lime in water, you should expect a pH of at most7.5.
- when pelletized, dried, or whatever, if you get a high pH, like 9, it means the calcium carbonate has been partially converted in calcium hydroxide ( same for magnesium), and it is not what you want.
I went further than anyone else in the world with foliar and root analysis. Some results start to be more clear, however:
- At 100ppm N, MSU provides way more micronutrients than a Peters or Plant Prod. I think it is one of the reasons why people got 'amazing results' with MSU at first.
- MSU is not suitable for many growing environments. I agree it can work with some potting mixes, but for me and some other people ( including the largest phal seedling grower in the world in the Netherlands), it proved to be a mess, plants would grow slowly after a while. All the serious professionals agree that a ratio NH4/NO3 has to be matched to the crop being grown, and MSU is nearly only nitrate, pretty useless for some species and even toxic ( nitrate increases the requirement of molybdenum by the plant, something some species cannot cope with as they don't take molybdenum at a regular rate).
Fern roots + rain releases something that can make the paphs grow very well, actually a gas ( ammonia). I think many paph species evolved to take up ammonia through the roots, in fact I have evolved a new setup and growing conditions, and the plants have never been better... At least for some species.