Please help my runnoff PH is very low and my plant looks sick.. idk what to do

Strain: White Cookies (White widow x girl Scout Cookies)

plant: small plant been topped once

pot size: 1/2 or 1 gallon small black pot

soil: Roots Orgainic

light: 400 watt mh

temperature: 76-82F

RH: 32%

fan blowing lightly on them good ventilation

light is 18" off the top

Condition are optimum



Idk what to do!.. I have a strain of white cookies in one of those small black 1/2 or 1 gallon pots in some Roots Organic soil.. It's a pretty small sized plant and has been topped once.. so a couple few days ago I have noticed some leaves acting weird lil yellow even brown tips turnin a lil crunchy and a few of the serraded edges were turned up along the sides of the the leaves and im like wtf is goin on!!?? So a 2 nights later it needed to be watered again so flushed the plant with 3 gallons of 6.4 ph water.. Then im like hmm im gonna check the runnoff and its was fucking 4.0 bright red when you put the lil drops in the vial.. shit!! so I immediately started to flush again with like 8.5 ph gallons of water to try to raise the runoff ph.. and it only raised to probably 5 or 5.2 or so.. So I need to water again tonight and idk what to do.. I guess ima water it with 8.0 ph tap water and check the runoff then do the same thing as last time and flush it with very high ph water.. and feed it some food at the end since its been flushed so hardcore in such a small pot.. anyways anyone can input or drop some thoughts thanks.

Looks hungry and it looks like you need to repot it into a larger container. Also wouldnt hurt to start adding some calmag.

Alienwidow said:

Looks hungry and it looks like you need to repot it into a larger container. Also wouldnt hurt to start adding some calmag.

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This

It can take awhile for the ph to rise. You may be flushing too frequently, not letting the soil dry. The problem with this is the soil's ph rises as it dries, almost a full point. If you don't let it dry, it's like holding the soil ph lower.

Feed mild nutes (half strength of what you've been feeding) and feed for about 50% runoff (now that you've gotten some large runoff). Measure the runoff ppms. That's valuable information to have along with runoff ph.

Note: Runoff ph isn't hugely accurate. It would be better if you monitored it from the start and could show a *trend*. The runoff ppm is valuable that way too, so you could relate a runoff ph to a ppm level. It's good info to have for your next grow so you can see it happening again, before it turns into a lockout.

Just be patient. There's not a lot you can do to force it to be higher faster. Cultivating dolomite lime into the top soil takes 2 weeks to do anything (and I'm not sure it does anything because it may not make it into the soil like it should). I've treated acidic soil with hydrated lime, about 1/2tsp/gal. But, that's harsh. If you really feel like you have to make it rise now you could do that. But, it would be better to just take it easy and let the soil fix itself.

Best thing to know now is the runoff ppm. Best thing to do now is let the soil completely dry before doing anything.

Alienwidow said:

Looks hungry and it looks like you need to repot it into a larger container. Also wouldnt hurt to start adding some calmag.

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Acidic soil usually results from salt buildup (from over feeding). That creates a nute lockout. Adding calmag simply adds more salts.

I don't see ca def at all, so using calmag would add salts to treat a problem that doesn't exist. The top leaves could be mg, but an mg def should appear everywhere. Salt buildup can cause funky looking stuff like this. Or, it could just be N def. But, reducing the salts, letting the soil ph rise, should make nutes more available by itself.

I wouldn't add anything. Just half-strength nutes. If I thought there was mg def I'd do 1/4 tsp/gal epsom salt in addition to the nutes.

Find a b ennificial bacteria blend and start innoculating your girl.

The enzymes that bacteria emit are alkaline. It will bump your ph up into an acceptable level in a few days.

az2000 said:

Acidic soil usually results from salt buildup (from over feeding). That creates a nute lockout. Adding calmag simply adds more salts.

I don't see ca def at all, so using calmag would add salts to treat a problem that doesn't exist. The top leaves could be mg, but an mg def should appear everywhere. Salt buildup can cause funky looking stuff like this. Or, it could just be N def. But, reducing the salts, letting the soil ph rise, should make nutes more available by itself.

I wouldn't add anything. Just half-strength nutes. If I thought there was mg def I'd do 1/4 tsp/gal epsom salt in addition to the nutes.

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What? Salt buildup? Over feeding? He hasnt even fed the thing yet. Are you reading the same post as i am? The plant is probably just over a month old judging by looks, in a tiny pot, been flushed a bunch of times, never been fed, growing pale. I kinda figured this one was a no brainer. Like basic growing here, add some plant food and calmag when it starts wanting some.

Alienwidow said:

What? Salt buildup? Over feeding? He hasnt even fed the thing yet. Are you reading the same post as i am? The plant is probably just over a month old judging by looks, in a tiny pot, been flushed a bunch of times, never been fed, growing pale. I kinda figured this one was a no brainer. Like basic growing here, add some plant food and calmag when it starts wanting some.

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Sorry, I didn't catch the part that he hadn't fed (and I still don't see it.). But, I don't understand how new, unfed, only watered soil could produce such low ph. He can feed and add all the calmag he wants at that ph and it won't be taken up.

az2000 said:

Sorry, I didn't catch the part that he hadn't fed (and I still don't see it.). But, I don't understand how new, unfed, only watered soil could produce such low ph. He can feed and add all the calmag he wants at that ph and it won't be taken up.

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Oh you must be one of those firm believers in the ph chart that shows availability of food at different ph levels. If those charts were accurate plants would be dying all over the place, ph of 5.2 would kill a plant if it couldnt get the macro nutrients plus mag and iron. Dead. Ive run hydro at a starting ph of 8 and it would climb to 10 in a week. Great yield. Personally i think phing soil is pretty much as useless as those nutrient availability charts. My two cents.

Alienwidow said:

you must be one of those firm believers in the ph chart that shows availability of food at different ph levels.

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Yes, I'm one of those types. Because I've seen it personally 4-5 times. But, I agree, if he hasn't fed his plants, I don't see how it could be salt build-up. If it were me I'd be watering hydrated lime into it as a final option. If you think feeding is all it needs, it will be interesting to see how that works out.

(I'd ask the OP to continue monitoring runoff ph and ppm. If feeding does work out, it would be interesting to know if the runoff ph remained at 4. I don't believe nutes will be taken up at that level. It would be informative to know this info along with the outcome.).

Transplant, feeding, calmag.

The plant has not been fed yet and tonight when i go to water it im flushing it with a few gallons of raised ph water to try to raise the soil runoff.. And on the last gallon im gonna feed it half strength grow and i little half teaspoon of epsom salt.. And hope it starts to raise up and not lockout and start to be beautiful again.. ill have to check next watering what the soil runoff ph is at.. Any thoughts?

juststl said:

The plant has not been fed yet and tonight when i go to water it im flushing it with a few gallons of raised ph water to try to raise the soil runoff.. And on the last gallon im gonna feed it half strength grow and i little half teaspoon of epsom salt.. And hope it starts to raise up and not lockout and start to be beautiful again.. ill have to check next watering what the soil runoff ph is at.. Any thoughts?

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Jist one, make sure your letting that soil dry well with all the flushing your doing. Waterlogged roots dont take nutrients up well. Some new soil will fix your ph issue.

She has only been in the pot for 3 weeks.. she just grew so fast since seed shell came off lol.. Also wanted to mention I do have baking soda.

Alienwidow said:

Jist one, make sure your letting that soil dry well with all the flushing your doing. Waterlogged roots dont take nutrients up well. Some new soil will fix your ph issue.

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yea i always wait till the soil is dry before next waterings

So I ended up just repotted the plant in a 6 or 7 gallon pot, in the same Roots Organic soil.. But knowing that the soil was either hot or the ph was just extremely low for some "odd" reason.. I added dolomite lime semi heavy throughout the entire seven gallon mixture of soil.. When I pulled the plant out of the 1/2 or 1 gallon pot and held it in my hands on its side to rotate it in my hands spinning it or rotating it to let as much soil as possible fall off and just kept rotating it.. I even got a little rough and dug my fingers through the bottom of the roots and kinda tore em apart a little as to expose them.. It's stressful on the plant but iv'e done it maaany times like that.. So I repotted it in the new pot and added a little extra lime to the plant going in around the roots on top ect.. Then.. I went and filled 2 gallons of luke warm water.. knowing the ph of the soil is soo low I didn't ph the water and left it at 8.0 knowing it WILL be going down when I water.. This was a couple days ago.. Since the potting I have topped it 6 more times, super cropped it, and slightly LST'D it. Lot's of stress but it's a champ and has handled it well.. now i'm thinking the lime should help keep the soil stabalized towards 7.0 but I will keep watering at around 6.7ph.. So hopefully I don't have anymore super low ph runoff in this bigger pot..(plus it adds calcium and magnesium). SOOOO!! She (White Cookies) looks much, much more beautiful since the repotting and lime and "LOVE"... Still gonna veg her for quite awhile until flower... WELL HERE SHE IS NOW...

Bingo!

Now simply FORGET about the pH and feed it properly!

Soil self pH's.

If you must. pH all ingoing to 6.5

You water and the pH makes a major swing one way. As the soil dries out, it swings back. This is how nature supplies the proper nutrition in relation to soil pH......

Don't get anal about it!

If you are going to use a synthetic,,,,,use a "zyme" product too!

Ya buddy! She looks great! I like what you did with the lime and getting the old soil off and new stuff in, smart move. I also get rough with the roots, especially if theres been bad circleing going on. I dont find its too stressful.