Allright so a little expirement in the pH field
Problem: Leaves are turning odd colors and getting crisp.
Reason: a pH of 7 is locking out magnesium and iron nutrients causing a defeciency.
Solution: going to water her tonight with normal amount of water (or should i flush out a bit?) with a few drops of lemon juice. I will use my pH meter to get the water between 6 and 6.5 before watering. Will NOT add nutes to this.
Interesting fact: We throw around the word pH a lot, but does anyone know what it means? pH actually means "potential hydrogen", that is the amount of hydrogen a certain solution attracts. When a solution has a high amount of hydroge ions, it becomes acidic (pH lowers below 7) and blocks out the potential of attracting more hydrogens. When something becomes basic or alkaline (pH above 7) the number of hydrogen atoms decrease and the number of hyrdoxide (OH-) increase, hence attracting more hydrogen with its negative charge. pH certaintly is a popular term, but in the biology world it can be exchanged for pOH (potention hydroxide) that is the exact opposite of pH. pH of 5 = pOH of 9, pH of 1 = pOH of 14, etc.
So when people say their pH is blocking out other nutrients what they are saying is that the magnesium and iron atoms are binding with the hydroxide ions instead of being absorbed by the plant. To fix this, lowering the pH will lower the number of free OH- ions that are stealing the Mg and Fe from the plant.
Sorry for the lesson, but since ive been doing all this i have noticed lots of words that get thrown around and im sure 95% of people using them have no idea what it means in the world outside of growing plants (sampson im NOT talking about you at all) After taken several years of bio/zooology classes ive learned stuff that im trying to relate back to plants. Any other bio major or anyone else who knows a lot about this correct me if im wrong. I studied people and animals much more than plants.