ph and organic's

Yea I did use tap water, but i brought it down to 7.0 with vinegar before testing the soil. I repeated it tonight with soil from a different pot and it came out 7.4.
I'd say that they'll all be pretty close to the same. I have a couple of inches between the soil and the top of the pots so i think i'm gonna fill that space with peat,
which is acidic and maybe put some of that lime in it if i can be sure that it won't bring things in the wrong direction. I know that dolomite lime is a stabilizer, but i'm not sure if this Garden Lime is going to act the same way. I just want to free up all the nutes that are in the soil. I don't want to add any more nitrogen or epsom salts right now, cause i don't want to get nute burn if and when the soil starts working again. I don't want to be giving it extra nit. when it's just going into flowering if i don't have to' don't you think? Thanks for the tips man. i'll check out that lime and see what's what.

Bambu

I just transplanted into these 11 liter pots on Nov 26th so it's going to be a while before i transplant again, but its looking like i most likely will. I was foliar spraying with nitrogen and with epsom salts, but it hasn't stopped the leaves from turning yellow. It's really pissing me off that all the nutes in this Bat Mix are just sitting there doing nothing untill i can get this thing sorted. Everything is so expensive these days. Back in the 60's you could afford to make mistakes cause everything was so cheap and seeds
didn't cost anything. Now it's like one wrong move and your f***ed. Thanks for the help og.

Bambu

Yes true organics the microbe life helps adjust but to a point. If u don't ph your water/nute mixture and it's at 8 it will slow down or kill microbes and in turn throw everything outa whack. So put greatwhite in soil before using and once or twice in veg and at start of flower that's it. If that even. Use molasses or coca cola or bud candy to sustain microbes. And for carbs in flower. I prefer my nutes and all right there for the roots to use when needed. So I make my soil. Months in advanced to break down for immediate uptake and to cool it off. I hope I could help. Peace

i was as lost as you are about thats y i started this and i was also looking for help
but one thing ill tell you is that here at riu they are quick to help and dispute is if they think someone is leading you in the wrong dierection
thats why im here peace and love and ask OSG what he told me worked and havent had ne problems

Big Bambu said:

I just transplanted into these 11 liter pots on Nov 26th so it's going to be a while before i transplant again, but its looking like i most likely will. I was foliar spraying with nitrogen and with epsom salts, but it hasn't stopped the leaves from turning yellow. It's really pissing me off that all the nutes in this Bat Mix are just sitting there doing nothing untill i can get this thing sorted. Everything is so expensive these days. Back in the 60's you could afford to make mistakes cause everything was so cheap and seeds
didn't cost anything. Now it's like one wrong move and your f***ed. Thanks for the help og.

Bambu

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Bambu... When you're soil pH is out of sorts, and you need results now. Not weeks from now. Using pH adjusted water **, pH adjusted compost tea, or pH adjusted feeding teas, will render quicker results.
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Dry amendments take more time to act on soil pH, because they have to be acted upon by bacteria, fungi and weathering.
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When you make a compost tea, or mild guano tea, (you're speeding along the process of breaking down what Mary needs). By pH adjusting it to 5.5 to 6.5, it starts off, in the most useable range.
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Before someone goes and tells you micro-life in the soil will balance everything, just let me say two things - first it has to be there (harsh pH swings call kill it off), plus it has to be in proper ratios of bacteria to fungi, to work correctly; secondly dry amendments take time to do their thing.
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For anyone who disagrees with the 5.5 to 6.5 pH range, let me clarify that. In nature, rain fails to the Earth in that range, weathering minerals in the soil, helping to make them available to, bacteria, fungi and plants.
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The suggested hydro range of pH, for feeding, is based on the natural pH of rainwater.... It's not the other way around....
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** (for adjusting pH, you can use Potassium Bicarbonate as a pH up - available at Brew Stores, used in making beers / wines, or at fine Nurseries - used for treating pm & blight on Roses. and Citric Acid for a pH down - available at Baking Stores, and some Brew Stores)
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Earth Juice brand pH up & down, is Potassium Bicarbonate & Citric Acid - both are natural, organic and beneficial to plants
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i would listen to him he helped me and what he told me wa right no ph problems since then

hey guys so im having a similar problem where i jus started flowering two weeks ago and i am getting alot of yellowing and feel that they are not getting all of there nutrients and i have ph tested my water and it is high like a 7 or 8 so jus by using some ph down will that correct my soils ph or is there a way to add lime as a buffer without transplanting

i have some pictures of the plants in my journal if anyone would wanna take a look any help would be much appreicated because the buds are growing but i dont feel like there growing fast enoough and dont want my babygirls to die before i can harvest them. thanks guys and merry christmas

wht type of soil,and the lower leaf's that do not get light will yellow thats why they say its better to clean up the bottom i usual for weeks 3-4 give a little nitrogen not too much just a lil like 2ml per gal but thats just my .02cents i like mine to stay green your plant look healthy by the way nice job

if your doin organics you shouldnt have to even check your ph come on bite the bullet and spend 25 cents a gallon on some R/O you can find that every week in your couch. and there is shit in tap water that kills bacteria thats not good if you want a healthy soil

yea i think im gunna have to start filling up some jugs of the filtered water for the plants because i live right next to downtown san jose and man the tap water is terrible down here

and the soil is fox farm ocean forest

on your next watering check your run off that will give you a ph of your soil and then see what it is
for better help

og18 said:

on your next watering check your run off that will give you a ph of your soil and then see what it is
for better help

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The only problem with this is that nitrogen leaches much more readily than basically everything else in your soil. This really isn't too accurate to your soil pH.

Jewgrow... Is correct, the best way to check soil pH is using a soil pH meter. The reading will be far more accurate (pH wise). Run off can however, reveal if your medium has excessive nutrient buildup. Which would be reflected by a high TDS reading.
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Since your tap water is so high in pH (and probably full of unhelpful things), the R/O water from a grocery store or drug store, would be a much better choice. The pH of that R/O water will fall into the range of 5.5 to 6 with 0 to 10 ppm TDS, which is what you want.
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Discount Hydro carries a new line of decholrinator filters, that will remove chloramide (the new enemy of micro life). Unlike chlorine, chloramide does not off gas, but remains in solution, meaning you have to remove it by proper filtering, or by using chemicals. A good filter setup runs about $ 180 shipped. Adding more chemical, to remove chemicals, is not a good choice IMHO.
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OSG said:

Jewgrow... Is correct, the best way to check soil pH is using a soil pH meter. The reading will be far more accurate (pH wise). Run off can however, reveal if your medium has excessive nutrient buildup. Which would be reflected by a high TDS reading.
.
Since your tap water is so high in pH (and probably full of unhelpful things), the R/O water from a grocery store or drug store, would be a much better choice. The pH of that R/O water will fall into the range of 5.5 to 6 with 0 to 10 ppm TDS, which is what you want.
.
Discount Hydro carries a new line of decholrinator filters, that will remove chloramide (the new enemy of micro life). Unlike chlorine, chloramide does not off gas, but remains in solution, meaning you have to remove it by proper filtering, or by using chemicals. A good filter setup runs about $ 180 shipped. Adding more chemical, to remove chemicals, is not a good choice IMHO.
.

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Having a high soil pH, I've looked into tap water conditioners. I've read a few studies saying the ingredients are actually used by microbes, and some make heavy metals more available to plants (good or bad?). www.pw.ucr.edu/textfiles/PNAS_5189.pdf www.jstor.org/stable/4250976 datasheets.scbt.com/sc-204735.pdf

OSG said:

Jewgrow... Is correct, the best way to check soil pH is using a soil pH meter. The reading will be far more accurate (pH wise). Run off can however, reveal if your medium has excessive nutrient buildup. Which would be reflected by a high TDS reading.
.
Since your tap water is so high in pH (and probably full of unhelpful things), the R/O water from a grocery store or drug store, would be a much better choice. The pH of that R/O water will fall into the range of 5.5 to 6 with 0 to 10 ppm TDS, which is what you want.
.
Discount Hydro carries a new line of decholrinator filters, that will remove chloramide (the new enemy of micro life). Unlike chlorine, chloramide does not off gas, but remains in solution, meaning you have to remove it by proper filtering, or by using chemicals. A good filter setup runs about $ 180 shipped. Adding more chemical, to remove chemicals, is not a good choice IMHO.
.

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soil ph meters suck. They say on the package that organic matter will throw off the ph reading and soil is full of organic matter.

cannabis absorbs a lot of metals already, they don't need any help. I read that cannabis was planted in Chernobyl to leech a lot of the metals out of the ground

OSG said:

Jewgrow... Is correct, the best way to check soil pH is using a soil pH meter. The reading will be far more accurate (pH wise). Run off can however, reveal if your medium has excessive nutrient buildup. Which would be reflected by a high TDS reading.
.
Since your tap water is so high in pH (and probably full of unhelpful things), the R/O water from a grocery store or drug store, would be a much better choice. The pH of that R/O water will fall into the range of 5.5 to 6 with 0 to 10 ppm TDS, which is what you want.
.
Discount Hydro carries a new line of decholrinator filters, that will remove chloramide (the new enemy of micro life). Unlike chlorine, chloramide does not off gas, but remains in solution, meaning you have to remove it by proper filtering, or by using chemicals. A good filter setup runs about $ 180 shipped. Adding more chemical, to remove chemicals, is not a good choice IMHO.
.

Click to expand...

K thank you for the advice ive been getting water from filtered water place for the past two weeks. SO I jus bought myself a hanna combo pen and tested out the ph and its saying that the ph is a 9.43 and the water was from a reverse osmosis machine inside of sav mart. do u guys think that i calibrated my pen wrong or is it possible that the water has that high of a ph, i hope not cuz i jus bought like 12 gallons of it haha.

If somebody is inexperienced enough to ask where ph should be....they should DEFINITELY be ph'ing nute solutions, IMO. Its just one less thing to eliminate when troubleshooting.

There is a reason all the nute companies suggest 6.3. It is the easiest range for the microherd to adjust to. If the bennies are going to make the soil be 6.3ish anyway...why make them work to get there?


EJ Catalyst is awesome to use for 'down'. The plants love it

Protekt makes for an awesome 'up'...


These are both things I use anyway...I just use them for up/down when needed. A few extra ml of Silica never hurt...same with the catalyst. I feed lightly anyway...so there is nothing in the catalyst that goes uneaten.

Why add something that the plants cant really absorb?....ie; harsh up and downs

Buddy Hemphill said:

If somebody is inexperienced enough to ask where ph should be....they should DEFINITELY be ph'ing nute solutions, IMO. Its just one less thing to eliminate when troubleshooting.

There is a reason all the nute companies suggest 6.3. It is the easiest range for the microherd to adjust to. If the bennies are going to make the soil be 6.3ish anyway...why make them work to get there?


EJ Catalyst is awesome to use for 'down'. The plants love it

Protekt makes for an awesome 'up'...


These are both things I use anyway...I just use them for up/down when needed. A few extra ml of Silica never hurt...same with the catalyst. I feed lightly anyway...so there is nothing in the catalyst that goes uneaten.

Why add something that the plants cant really absorb?....ie; harsh up and downs

Click to expand...

is protekt a silica product because i was looking at getting some rhino skin for my next grow since i had some powdery mildew problems this time, but didnt want to go wit advanced nutrients because i thought i could find something a lil cheaper than that.