Do my girls need more "N"

dannyboy602 said:

Isnt hydrated too caustic on plants roots? I only know from what ive read and so i avoided it. However if u think it may work better im interested to know...and what rate would u use? Would u mix it as a solution and water in? Thx.

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It is a quick acting stabilizer, that will cook your shit if applied too heavily. The advantage is that in 2 weeks, your soil will be heading back to neutral.. Much better than 5.4, which is usually the case in a standard soil situation after 4 weeks of nutes. (organic will be self regulating) If your soils PH is way out, I personally would do a flush with a mild nute solution/hydrated lime to stabilize PH. I have done it with no issues, and my PH starts to head back home to 6.5. I got my lime from Amazon ( Hi-Yield horticulture hydrated lime) Apply as directed(1 tbl spoon per gal) and you are good.to go) Always apply with water

Cpappa27 said:

Don't get hydrated or fast acting lime. Plain powdered lime.

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Why not? And what is plain powered lime?

Jimdamick said:

Why not? And what is plain powered lime?

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Dolomitic Lime (calcium-magnesium carbonate) is the primary choice for agricultural applications. It is slower acting and almost non-caustic in comparison to Hydrated Lime (calcium oxide), which is far more caustic and can burn roots if used incorrectly. It also contains magnesium, which is an essential micro-nutrient.

I'm with Jimdamick. As a solution it can't hurt. Thanks for the knowledge Jimbo.

Jimdamick said:

It is a quick acting stabilizer, that will cook your shit if applied too heavily. The advantage is that in 2 weeks, your soil will be heading back to neutral.. Much better than 5.4, which is usually the case in a standard soil situation after 4 weeks of nutes. (organic will be self regulating) If your soils PH is way out, I personally would do a flush with a mild nute solution/hydrated lime to stabilize PH. I have done it with no issues, and my PH starts to head back home to 6.5. I got my lime from Amazon ( Hi-Yield horticulture hydrated lime) Apply as directed(1 tbl spoon per gal) and you are good.to go) Always apply with water

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Cpappa27 said:

You also just top dress the soil and work it in with your fingers about 2 inches deep. 1 Tblsp per gallon of soil is what I use. The plants look great. A couple yellow leaves in flower is ok. Its probably a little hungry that's all.

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Absolutely that is a method,

Cpappa27 said:

Dolomitic Lime (calcium-magnesium carbonate) is the primary choice for agricultural applications. It is slower acting and almost non-caustic in comparison to Hydrated Lime (calcium oxide), which is far more caustic and can burn roots if used incorrectly. It also contains magnesium, which is an essential micro-nutrient.

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Absolutely true, but it is recommended to add it to the soil, before planting. In an 8 week grow, you have to add into soil from the beginning, or you are fucked. If in the middle of a grow, the water diluted hydrated is the only way out. I always add dolomite now, in the beginning, to head off PH problems. Lime at this stage is a problem anyway you look at it.

good luck with whatever you chose my friend.

Cpappa27 said:

good luck with whatever you chose my friend.

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Good input on all your posts. Rep+

dannyboy602 said:

Isnt hydrated too caustic on plants roots? I only know from what ive read and so i avoided it. However if u think it may work better im interested to know...and what rate would u use? Would u mix it as a solution and water in? Thx.

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You are correct, hydrated lime can roast roots it a hurry. Stay away from hydrated lime when growing in containers. It also contains almost no magnesium unlike dolomite lime. And when over applied can send the pH sky high.

Alexander Supertramp said:

You are correct, hydrated lime can roast roots it a hurry. Stay away from hydrated lime when growing in containers. It also contains almost no magnesium unlike dolomite lime. And when over applied can send the pH sky high.

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True again as far as cooking roots, but if applied as directed, there is no real issue., that is why it is specially made for houseplants and containers. I would only use it as a emergency treatment. and the lime added to soil, unless really overused, should max out at 7. I agree wholeheartedly that dolomite is the best option, in the beginning, but won't work with only 4 weeks remaining It needs a longer time to be absorbed by the soil. It does not contain any beneficial nutrients,so you will need a supplement, such as Calmag, which you need anyway, really. This is all my own opinion, but I have gardened for awhile. Good luck

RottieLvr said:

Since the argument seems to be completely related to the addition of hydrated lime, I think I'm going to top dress with the dolomitic lime. I don't want to experiment with these girls as they are my first successful (so far) grow. Would it hurt to use some earthworm castings at the same time?

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The EWC would be fine.. They are a container growers best friend.

I top dressed my plants with EWC this afternoon. I'll feed them sometime tomorrow and hopefully that will correct my soil Ph problem. I'm gonna ride this one out and put it in my hat of knowledge for my next grow. I'll keep everyone posted on how they do. Peace

RottieLvr said:

How many gallons of solution would you say to flush a 3 gallon pot? I'm going to have to flush them when I get my hydrated lime. I'll mix up a batch of lite nutes with the lime and flush them. Hopefully in a few days they will be on the road to recovery. My yeilds are going to be crap if i don't do something soon. My plants are on day 70 since sprout, and they have been in flower for 20 days. I hope I'm overreacting. Peace

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3x the pot size for a flush, so 9 gallon of water is recommended for a 3 gal pot. What I do to make it as easy as possible, is get two 5 gallon buckets at a hardware store, and a really small aquarium pump with say a 5' piece of tubing, which will be like $15 for the pump and $3 for the tubing. Fill 1 bucket with your flushing solution, and using 2 small pieces of wood resting across the top of the empty bucket, place you plant on the wood, with the empty bucket underneath. You then pump your solution from your bucket through your plant, with the empty bucket catching the runoff. Once your bucket is full of the run off, dump it, and do it 1 more time, and you are done. Hope I have been some help.

Jimdamick said:

3x the pot size for a flush, so 9 gallon of water is recommended for a 3 gal pot. What I do to make it as easy as possible, is get two 5 gallon buckets at a hardware store, and a really small aquarium pump with say a 5' piece of tubing, which will be like $15 for the pump and $3 for the tubing. Fill 1 bucket with your flushing solution, and using 2 small pieces of wood resting across the top of the empty bucket, place you plant on the wood, with the empty bucket underneath. You then pump your solution from your bucket through your plant, with the empty bucket catching the runoff. Once your bucket is full of the run off, dump it, and do it 1 more time, and you are done. Hope I have been some help.

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Yea, that's a good way of doing it. I can leave them under the light that way. I have everything at my place to do that. When I watered my plants last my nutrient solution pH was 6.5 going in and the runoff was 5.7. I've got at least twenty gallons of water in reserve to flush them in a couple days. I went ahead and top dressed them with dolomite lime at 1Tbsp/gallon. I mixed it in to the top couple inches of soil. Now that I know what I was doing wrong it should be easier to stay on top of the soil pH. Thanks again.

Not sure if anyone has posted this yet but bottled organics like earth juice are pretty forgiving by dosage. I do believe FFOF loses its strength in 30 days. I'd suggest u start using your earth juice at full strength.

personal lux said:

Not sure if anyone has posted this yet but bottled organics like earth juice are pretty forgiving by dosage. I do believe FFOF loses its strength in 30 days. I'd suggest u start using your earth juice at full strength.

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Yea, I flushed them last night, and fed them a lite dose of nutes. My runoff water ph was 6.5 and the tds was 163. So next watering I'm going to feed them at full strength. I'm glad I got the ph adjusted right. Think they will be ok with such low food in the soil till next watering?

If your in veg foliar feed them until they pick back up.

personal lux said:

If your in veg foliar feed them until they pick back up.

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I'm half way in flower

Well there isn't a lot you can do since you decided to flush...I find excessive flushing bad. I usually will just use straight water regular watering amounts twice in a row. Just go to full strength after your ready to water again.

personal lux said:

Well there isn't a lot you can do since you decided to flush...I find excessive flushing bad. I usually will just use straight water regular watering amounts twice in a row. Just go to full strength after your ready to water again.

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Yea, that's what I'll do. Thanks

My girls probably could have gone a couple more days without being watered, but after flushing them with nine gallons of tap water and a very light feeding there was very little of anything in the soil. So, I fed them this morning with 1 tbsp. Grow and Bloom, 1 tsp Catalyst, and 1 tsp Microblast per gallon 6.5 pH tap water. My nutrient solution TDS was 859 going in and the runoff water was pH 6.2 and TDS 605. I think I'm on track now, but I have to watch the soil pH closely. I top dressed my plants with dolomite lime right before I flushed them. I've had very little vertical growth since flipping so it will be interesting to see how they do now that they can actually absorb some nutes. Here is a couple pics a week apart I believe. I definitely see bud development, but are they where they should be? They are on day 28 since being flipped, so I'd say they are about three weeks into flower? I thought they were in flower since the day I flipped the lights to 12/12 but read that you count days in flower since the day they started actually flowering. How cool is that.