PH All Over The Place Yellowing

I have six plants I recieved as clones about 9 days ago. They were all 13 days old when I got them. They came in soil and some sort of peat or carboard containers in which the roots were already growing through. (Did not meet this source or am able to talk too directly, normally always got clones in rockwool) I put them in topsoil and perlite, 2 to 1 ratio and under 1000hps. I slowly lowered the light until it was about 12 inched above them. At that height it still did not feel hot to my hand after a minute. Well about 3 days ago they started to yellow. It looks like a iron deficiency but could be zinc or mg. moved the light up yesterday to two feet above them. Today I got a ph tester because I wanted to start with that first. The ph is all over the place but all on the low side. I measured in 4 different locations of each 8 inch pot I have them in and got a different reading each time. Basically, they are all averaging in the 5 range of ph but go down to as little as 4.25 and as high as 6.5. The plants are all growing and have grown about 4 inches in a week. The funny thing is the one with the best ph is actually not growing. This is how the readings went.

Plant one 5.25, 6.1, 6.5, 6.5

Plant two 4.25, 6.25, 4.5, 4.9

Plant three 6.1, 5.25, 4.9, 5.25

Plant four 5.9, 5.1, 6.5, 6.75

Plant five 4.75, 4.75, 4.75, 5.75

Plant six 5.1, 4.75, 5.5, 4.75



I think i should raise the ph by either adding dolomite lime or replant them in a different potting soil which I bought today. Can anyone give me advice on the best way? If repotting is the best way to do it how can I do it without hurting the plant but at the same time get rid of the bad soil? Also, how long until I can give them some nutes after cleaning up the ph, so can take care of these deficiencies?

I also have hard water with chlorine where I live. Watered only twice and was misting twice a day. Does this matter that much if the soil is adjusted right? I never had a problem before.

Thank you in advance. This is my first grow in 10 years so I am a little rusty. Never had a soil or discoloration problem before.

your plants are suffering heatstress get about three daylight CFLs and keep the a few inches above the clone's. if there still living after you've cooked them. you cant put clones straight under a 1000HPS.

the widowman said:

your plants are suffering heatstress get about three daylight CFLs and keep the a few inches above the clone's. if there still living after you've cooked them. you cant put clones straight under a 1000HPS.

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you can as long as your temperature stays within range and you have good venting...

Thanks for replies. Yea I had good venting and temps. Dont think it was heat stress. Today I am going to add some dolomite lime on the surface. See if I can straighten out PH. Hopefully that works. Then I will take care of nute problem. I will keep posted and try to add pictures so if someone else has this problem they can learn from my mistake.

Sprinkled dolomite lime on the surface and watered in ferts, Miracle grow for tomatoes 18-18-21. Just checked 6 hours after application and the ph has come up to good levels (6-7). Leafs that were yellow are still yellow. I am not sure if this will go away or not. I bought the best soil ph tester I could find and these just do not seem that good. People have told me to test the runoff. I would have to agree. When i pushed in the probe it would go from 4 to 7 with a little nudge. I just took the reading of the best nudge.

you can't put clones under direct sunlight you must wait till they've rooted well and are growing vigourously. before you put them under a HPS or MH or sunlight.

the widowman said:

you can't put clones under direct sunlight you must wait till they've rooted well and are growing vigourously. before you put them under a HPS or MH or sunlight.

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Quoted for emphasis.

Update, plants flourishing. Thanks for any input but it looks like my main problem was probably lights too low and misting at the same time with hard water with chlorine in it. It really looked like an Iron or Zinc deficiency and I did feed and try to adjust PH but it was too early for them to show those kinds of problems in my opinion. I also only used purified water this week. I will try using tap water again that has sat out for 48 hours and see if any discoloration comes back.

distilled and spring water are so inexpensive if you buy the generic supermarket brand. I find that safeway sells water for $1(USD)/gal; and then there are the Glacier machines at many supermarkets where you can fill your own jugs with this rediculously pure (triple distilled/carbon filtered/reverse osmosis) water for 43 cents / gal where I am.

I tried the setting tap water out for 48 hrs method, but then you have to consider that as soon as you set the water out it starts growing bacteria and other things. Plus the water remains hard; the minerals don't go away. In fact, as the water evaporates the ppm of the water would actually go up. Probably not so awesome.

Best bet is just to go with store bought gallon jugs of water. seriously.