Organic Earthbox PH Issue

Hey All!

I have three clones that I received on 2/16 and planted in 1 gallon pots using Roots Organic soil.

I am inexperienced with clones and overwatered them, turning the stems on 2 of the 3 purple. I let them dry out and they slowly recovered. i did not feed them during these two weeks.

Last Friday, 3/4, I transplanted them to two earthboxes using Coot’s soil recipe which I have had great success with in large beds. This time however I did not let the soil cook at all, I mixed it up, moistened the soil and planted.

i am seeing what I believe is calcium and magnesium deficiencies on 2 of the 3 plants.
I know these cheapo PH probes are not very accurate, but it is confirming what I suspect is the problem, low PH locking out calcium and magnesium.

Here is the Wedding Pie that seems pretty happy before and after transplant.

Apple Fritter on Tuesday:


Apple Fritter this morning.

Probe showing ph closer to 5 than 6.


My Sour Diesel cut is in it’s own earthbox and I believe the magnesium issue I am seeing is also due to low PH. I read that below 5.5 not much magnesium gets taken up.

Sour Diesel last week:


Sour Diesel this morning.



Leaf I plucked off the sour a few days ago:

im thinking that because my soil did not cook at all, the calcium carbonate in the form of lobster meal didnt get a chance to increase my PH. It does seem like the plants are improving slightly, new growth appears to be better but I am not sure. I am tempted to scratch in a little dominate lime to the Fritter and Diesel and see if they improve further but I wanted to get the opinion of someone more experienced than I am. Figure if it raises PH slightly and also provides calcium and magnesium it would be a good solution. I ordered some PH test strips that appear to be pretty accurate. At least within a half a point..

What do you all think? I really appreciate any feedback. These plants were gifted to me and I want to do anything possible to keep them happy. If that means a $200 soil ph probe I’ll order one today. Thank you so much for reading this much and sharing your experience!

Environment: Temps 74 lights on, 68 lights off
PPFD: 600
RH: 60%

Those plants are recovering. Give them some more time. They looked a little rough going into the EBs, but they'll bounce back. Earthboxes/ SIPS growing are great at "fixing" plants.

AFAIK, coots doesn't need a cook time.

No offense but that ph/moisture meter is junk
Unreliable readings on a good day

natureboygrower said:

Those plants are recovering. Give them some more time. They looked a little rough going into the EBs, but they'll bounce back. Earthboxes/ SIPS growing are great at "fixing" plants.

AFAIK, coots doesn't need a cook time.

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Thanks man, appreciate your reply.

Apple fritter is looking worse:


Sour Diesel still not looking too hot.

Wedding Pie is looking OK, not great. In. The middle.


I added a couple tablespoons of dolomite lime and gypsum as topdressing and watered in with a half teaspoon of big 6.

I wish I know what I did wrong. The coot mix has been successful for me in the past. I ran my first indoor in coot mix in a 70 gallon 2x4 bed and it came out perfect. It has to be my PH I guess. I have PH test strips but they’re difficult to read. I suppose a soil ph pen is in order?


appreciate any thoughts. I’m bummed this morning and really want to turn these plants around.

Any thoughts @hyroot?

Maybe transplant shock,if the soil is good they'll grow out of it.You should see dark green gaining at the base of the leaves.

How were the roots at transplant ? Did you use a myco product?

Next time cook the soil a bit,you should always have some handy.

It doesn't look like the soil is too hot,leaves would shrivel ,i dont see that.Perhaps some liquid fish could help?

You could give them a spray of epsom for some Mg.

I assume you've backed your light off? Like a lot?

I appreciate it, @myke. I’ve given three Epsom sprays over the last 10 days. I was using RO water while these were in 1 gallon pots and the deficiency was there prior to transplanting. The roots looked really good and I did sprinkle mycorrhizae on roots. I am adding 5ml of cal mag to me rez now. The EB with the fritter and pie was transplanted 12 days ago. The sour diesel has been in the EB for 11 days. I filled their rez‘s 11 days ago and just yesterday refilled the fritter/pie EB. The sour diesel is still on the first rez and does not appear to be drinking much.

I am tempted to just buy a bluelab soil ph pen to rule out ph issues.

I am using Coast of Maone lobster meal as my calcium carbonate source. wondering if oyster shell flour is more appropriate. Can anyone confirm?

cant thank you guys enough.

myke said:

I assume you've backed your light off? Like a lot?

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I will back it off now..

Have you checked for bugs? Specifically russet mites? I don't have firsthand experience with them, but all the pics I've seen online have that scrunched up look to the top leaves like you've got going on, granted most of the time they're a pretty heavy infestation and way worse in appearance than yours.

I dunno how much it's worth worrying about the pH of the soil being a bit low, it's the pH of the rhizosphere that matters to the plant. I guess the overall soil pH has some influence on that, but microbes and the plant itself can adjust the rhizosphere pH to suit their needs.

weedstoner420 said:

Have you checked for bugs? Specifically russet mites? I don't have firsthand experience with them, but all the pics I've seen online have that scrunched up look to the top leaves like you've got going on, granted most of the time they're a pretty heavy infestation and way worse in appearance than yours.

I dunno how much it's worth worrying about the pH of the soil being a bit low, it's the pH of the rhizosphere that matters to the plant. I guess the overall soil pH has some influence on that, but microbes and the plant itself can adjust the rhizosphere pH to suit their needs.

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I have been scoping hard for mites and will continue to. I haven’t spotted a mite or egg yet and have checked undersides and petioles carefully.

In the SIP thread I mentioned my issue and asked if the issue could be my calcium source. I have been using lobster meal for my source of calcium carbonate, but it sounds like that was the wrong choice and oyster shell flour would have been a better choice. So if that is true that lobster meal is made of mostly chitin and not calcium carbonate, I am dealing with a low ph and little ability to buffer?

myke said:

I assume you've backed your light off? Like a lot?

Click to expand...

The only thing I’ve changed the last 24 hours has been backing off my light and they look so much better this morning. Just wanted to thank you again @myke.

Jcue81 said:

The only thing I’ve changed the last 24 hours has been backing off my light and they look so much better this morning. Just wanted to thank you again @myke.

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Dam lights these days are powerful,took me awhile to figure out less is more.Hope she turns around for yeah.

I started experimenting with SIPS...I've never phed or checked anything like that lol. Pure tap water, and top dress some Dr earth when I feel it needs it. All green, no issues.