Need Help With Plants Please!!

Budzbuddha said:

I use " L A " water too .... I leave out container ( gallon , or large food grade container , pot , whatever ) to gas off some chlorine .... I use PH DOWN to drop to 6.5 .

For feed , I mix nutes in first , then PH DIWN mix to @6.5 .

DONE

Think about it , you water your grass and shrubs / roses / ivy with this MUNICIPAL water.
It's a plant it will be ok. PH your water and mixes ( soil tends to have buffers ALREADY mixed in )

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Only because I try to grow more organic and don't want ANY chlorine & because my starting point for this water is so high in PPM and PH I choose more stable water. I don't want to add tons of PH down and even if I cut it with RO whats the point.. would rather just add what I need exactly to the water or dirt.

gjs4786 said:

Dude, you need to rule out nutrient lockout. You shouldn't be fertilizing them right now, foliar or otherwise. Rule out nutrient lock out or you'll just run it to bigger problems. Trying to help ya avoid that.

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Then just RO for a few waterings?

gardensofgreen420! said:

Right, but even when I test the soil out of the bag still getting a 6.0 PH. From what I understand this soil does not have much lime in it and its common people adding dolomite lime to HF & OF soils? although I never have and kind of just used cal mag+ starting to think I should be amending it to buffer that PH better and get the extra cal mag too?? Also yto me if you look at the leaves they look light, more lacking then anything? thanks for the input.

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Yeah, people add buffers all the time. At this point, you would only be able to pH your water and add a top dressing. It's a good idea to test your soil before you put plants in it. I had some soil not too long ago I didn't do that with and it was testing at 4.3! The FFOF I'm using now tested at exactly 6.5 so I left it alone. The leaves do look light, but it seems like it's because your plants aren't able to take in certain nutrients, no matter how much is available, due to the pH lockout.

gardensofgreen420! said:

Then just RO for a few waterings?

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Well, ideally you'd want to flush through several gallons all in one go for each plant with water that is at the correct pH. Add top dressing such as oyster shell, wood ash, dolomite lime, crushed marble, bone meal. Then water with 1/4 strength nutes after a couple days and see how they respond.

Something else I've seen people do, is to take the pH of the water they are using for the plants, then the pH of the run off, and from there, figure out how much the soil is buffering, and compensate for that. For instance: 6.5 water in, 6.0 water out. 6.5 - 6.0 = .5. So, in this case, you would add .5 to the water going in, for a total of 7.0 pH. This method is a little more iffy though. I've seen people have success with it, and I've seen people say it's all wrong.

gjs4786 said:

Yeah, people add buffers all the time. At this point, you would only be able to pH your water and add a top dressing. It's a good idea to test your soil before you put plants in it. I had some soil not too long ago I didn't do that with and it was testing at 4.3! The FFOF I'm using now tested at exactly 6.5 so I left it alone. The leaves do look light, but it seems like it's because your plants aren't able to take in certain nutrients, no matter how much is available, due to the pH lockout.

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Thanks again, you have a valid point, I think I just needed to hear that.. its going to be easier to troubleshoot by taking it away then adding more in. Yea I will be testing all my soil in the future. I think I got lucky up until now. I read its best with these soils to amend to about a 6.8 that way you have a bit of a buffer and will normally end at a 6.5 after a few months. Also if I do lime my soil can I ditch the cal msg+.. I want to get away from it.

Plants utilize chlorine as an element in growth ... It uses many different elements other than JUST NPK ... Boron , copper , manganese AND magnesium, plus good ole chlorine.

Even if you use RO it is only filtering large particle contaminates / salt and leaves many things behind still. Perfect for CLEANING up questionable ground and other water sources but really isn't that different . Besides the calcium being stripped out ... You still have to " put it back in ".

They even blast UV during process to elimate most water borne bacteria and such.

Good luck.

gardensofgreen420! said:

Thanks again, you have a valid point, I think I just needed to hear that.. its going to be easier to troubleshoot by taking it away then adding more in. Yea I will be testing all my soil in the future. I think I got lucky up until now. I read its best with these soils to amend to about a 6.8 that way you have a bit of a buffer and will normally end at a 6.5 after a few months. Also if I do lime my soil can I ditch the cal msg+.. I want to get away from it.

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Hard to say. Dolomite lime is slow release. You might need to still supplement with Cal Mag. The good part is, it's pretty easy to figure out once your pH is dialed in. The plant will tell you. If it were me, I'd flush one plant with 7.3-7.5 pH'd water and then give it a light feed with pH 7.3 water and see how that one plant reacts to that.

Budzbuddha said:

Plants utilize chlorine as an element in growth ... It uses many different elements other than JUST NPK ... Boron , copper , manganese AND magnesium, plus good ole chlorine.

Even if you use RO it is only filtering large particle contaminates / salt and leaves many things behind still. Perfect for CLEANING up questionable ground and other water sources but really isn't that different . Besides the calcium being stripped out ... You still have to " put it back in ".

They even blast UV during process to elimate most water borne bacteria and such.

Good luck.

Click to expand...

Budzbuddha said:

Plants utilize chlorine as an element in growth ... It uses many different elements other than JUST NPK ... Boron , copper , manganese AND magnesium, plus good ole chlorine.

Even if you use RO it is only filtering large particle contaminates / salt and leaves many things behind still. Perfect for CLEANING up questionable ground and other water sources but really isn't that different . Besides the calcium being stripped out ... You still have to " put it back in ".

They even blast UV during process to elimate most water borne bacteria and such.

Good luck.

Click to expand...

Budzbuddha said:

Plants utilize chlorine as an element in growth ... It uses many different elements other than JUST NPK ... Boron , copper , manganese AND magnesium, plus good ole chlorine.

Even if you use RO it is only filtering large particle contaminates / salt and leaves many things behind still. Perfect for CLEANING up questionable ground and other water sources but really isn't that different . Besides the calcium being stripped out ... You still have to " put it back in ".

They even blast UV during process to elimate most water borne bacteria and such.

Good luck.

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Well at a ppm of 11 its not leaving that much, but perhaps a few things.. I understand the schools of thought and what you take away only to add back in when you strip your water like that, and I water my garden with half tap and RO thats sat for 24 hrs and it works pretty well so I am sure it would be fine. I just want to use RO and only give them what they need, at least for my MJ. Eventually I would like no PH down or UP and no cal mag.. nothing just pure water maybe a feeding here or there. Thanks for your input btw.

gjs4786 said:

Hard to say. Dolomite lime is slow release. You might need to still supplement with Cal Mag. The good part is, it's pretty easy to figure out once your pH is dialed in. The plant will tell you. If it were me, I'd flush one plant with 7.3-7.5 pH'd water and then give it a light feed with pH 7.3 water and see how that one plant reacts to that.

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Right, I would really like to send this soil for a test and see exactly whats in it before I add anything anyway and the exact PH out of the bag. Ok thanks, I will give it a shot see how one or two respond. Thanks.

You ph is probably as low as it is because of the 5ml per gallon of calmag every watering with ro. I still say ditch the cal mag or ditch the ro the next few waterings

Yea

Rakin said:

You ph is probably as low as it is because of the 5ml per gallon of calmag every watering with ro. I still say ditch the cal mag or ditch the ro the next few waterings

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Thanks Rakin, going to give it a shot and see how they look.. I will post back.

Ok its been at least 2-3 waterings with RO only. Looks to have got worse in the past few days. Purpling on stems and leaf veins has increased. Spotting in-between leaf margins and tips mid-plant has increased, with light spotting starting on some new growth. Old growth yellowing out, burnt leafs.

I have to believe its a Magnesium deficiency or potassium deficiency. I gave them half strength nutes at around 400ppm at 6.3 ph. 3ml of cal/mag, 4ml veg nutes, Natural ph up.

Thoughts? thinking I should go water, feed, water, feed 1:1 or do you think in order to get back on track just keep feeding light doses and go straight water every 3rd feeding?

Nothing like growing herb to keep you on your toes and humble. Thanks all.