Roots Organic Nutrient Line. pH is 4.0...Feed? Raise pH? Opinions!

curseddice

Active Member
Hello everyone!

I have some ladies that are just about to go into flower. They are in 7 gallon GeoPots with VermiFire Soil. I have not fed my ladies nutrients since being transplanted into soil over 30 days ago. They have been getting watered with pH 6.5 water and tea.

I chose the Roots Organic Nutrient Line to start fertilizing them. I will be using Buddha Grow and Bloom, Trinity, and HP2. When I mix up the nutrients, the pH comes out to be in the 4.0 range...and this is with using a 60% strength mix!

I have aerated the water with an air pump and air stone for 24 hours, which raises the pH slightly.

I tried using General Hydroponics pH Up to bring it up, but after dumping 3 tbs and only seeing the pH raise .2 or so...I became squeamish at adding more base to my nutrients and soil.

So what would you do? Anybody else using Roots Organic nutrients? Do you water with the low pH? If you raise the pH, how do you raise it? Any other experiences with Roots Organic nutrients that you feel like sharing?

Thanks!
 

smellzlikeskunkyum

Well-Known Member
no responses eh? im too curious about the effect of Roots Organics Trinity. im wondering if it is lowering PH or something. i dont have a ph pen or anything right now either to check. anyone know much about this, or even much about what the product does?

im really thinking that the PH must be low. i cant seem to provide enough nitrogen on certain plants w/o burning them. or at least whatever the deal is my plants are yellowing from the bottom up slowly as they finish in flower. seems like it would just be N but ive been giving them the buddha grow almost the entire time.
 

Mattyb400

Member
I know it sounds crazy but I'm 5 weeks into flower with roots organics line and haven't ph at all.
i have another quick tip for ya. Get you RO water and first mix is a tsp or 2 or 3 of there roots dry nutrient ELEMENTAL. This shit is the bomb and I've never before had such strong sturdy stocks in my life before elemental.
Is 20% calcium so it's strong as fuck. So use just a little. Then add your grow hpk Buddha surge whatever check the PH and I bet it's around 6. Elemental must work as some type of buffer. Idunno but remember you HAVE to add the elemental first then the nutrients.
 

cdd10

Well-Known Member
I use roots organic nutrients too and it for same thing to my water when I mix it. It drops it so low i just say fuck it. The soil will do it's buffer job like everyone else says on here if it don't then I'll give them one good bitching haha
 

cdd10

Well-Known Member
I haven't had the N problem you have been having though. I fed both grow and bloom for first two weeks of flower 5ml per gallon each. I also use trinity and amino aide in veg. But I decided to cut out those two to make it simpler.
 

cdd10

Well-Known Member
I haven't had the N problem you have been having though. I fed both grow and bloom for first two weeks of flower 5ml per gallon each. I also use trinity and amino aide in veg. But I decided to cut out those two to make it simpler.
 

qroox

Well-Known Member
4 is pretty low guyz,try to get a ph UP solution or different nutes? Way too acidic.Do not go anal on PH but,6.3 to 7 would be much better.
I've actually had this problem with a ROOT IT - first feed solution.Which it was crap.2-2-2+micros.Many micros yet VERY deluted macros..and WAY TOO acidic.I had to get a ph meter and i'm measuring my ph when feeding since then..6.5-7 from now on.Also keep in mind that different Ph levels make nutrient more or less available,which might be benefitial in short terms.
 

FLO-GRO

Member
Old thread, but having same experience.... I use roots organics everything I.e. Soil, grow, bloom, teas... Ect. At first I just used teas (terp tea bloom and veg) didn't have pH problems. Now I've brought in Buddha grow, bloom, trinity, and surge and have the pH drop to the 4's. I've tried bubble for 24 hrs just to get a miniscule 0.4 uptick.
I hear alot that you don't need to pH the roots organics at all to just roll with it, the most I've heard is to mix 24 hrs ahead of time and bubble it, heard it in forum and posted on feeding schedule from roots organics. But it does nothing for my pH? I'm sure it blooms the microbe colony thus a familiar thing with organic growing.... But not pH.
Does anyone have a definite experience and answer? My gut says to feed them after a 24 hr bubble regardless of pH. But I would like to be sure and hear from folks that have done this.
 

FLO-GRO

Member
Cfarm420- thanks for the reply on this, I wondered if my question would just got to the wind as old as this thread was, lol.
This was also my first instinct as it's always a golden rule of thumb due to nutrition uptake issues to correctly pH EVERYTHING that goes in and I understand why, therefore I agree with your statement.

But....
I'm new to organics. And in research I've learned how totally different organic style of growing is from other traditional methods which is basically in a nutshell "feed the soil" rather than feed the plant. It's all about the microbial colony, hence all the bubbling and brewing. I've read in multiple places that ph'ing with uo/down base solutions actually harm the microbial colony you just brewed/bubbled?! It's a "no no" to do this. I'm told to just dump it in as the microbial colony in the soil will act as a buffer and create its own pH in the soil for the plant.
I've experimented a little with this. I saw negative response in my veg room when ph'ing up after bubble and brew. Also to note I discovered if I do not pH the soil pH will always remain neutral at 7 as opposed to a slight variation when otherwise ph'ed up. In my observation it appears to me ph'ing prior to feed application causes instability in the colony and disrupts the ability of plant to uptake nutrients it needs and is otherwise used to. It's crazy to me that the manufacturer suggests to its customers to massacre the crux of their product line by killing the microbial life I just bloomed in my 5 gal bucket with up to 6 table spoons of pH up?? At this rate I will literally spend more money on pH up base than actual roots organics product. Maybe roots organics should also sell ph solution instead of creating the business opportunity for other pH mfg'ers. I'm pretty sure it's the "trinity" that's dropping my pH like this. I may need to cut it out of the regimen as it's not worth all the pH base required to follow their recommendations.

-Frustrated grower
 

Cfarm420

Active Member
Thanks for the response. I was watching some routes organic videos on YouTube made by aurora. Someone commented Asking if they should PH because it is always so low. Their response was they suggest to PH all of their nutrient lines.
But I am definitely going to try the no PH, Because yes I am going through a lot of PH up.I have some in veg that I am going to start trying not to ph this on and see how it goes.
 

FLO-GRO

Member
Thank you cfarm420,
What I've done with success (thus far, still an experiment) is as follows...
I'm in 5 gal fabric pots, my girls take liquids about twice a week (7 days). One feeding a week I follow the schedule from roots organics using the products I've chosen (budda grow, bloom, trinity and surge) in a compost tea with terp tea grow and/or bloom and earthworm castings. I brew/bubble for 24 hrs and apply. I DO NOT allow runoff here. I want to feed the microbes not wash them away. The next time they need water (usually within 2 to 3 days I use ph'ed water from my well (typically runs 8.4). The only reason I would do runoff is to check ppm and pH to help in addition to foliage characteristics to help me troubleshoot deficiencies and burns due to lockout or what have you. And I do this with regular ph'ed water only for a clear baseline reading.
This has worked for me.
The only time I've noticed anything off was a slight nitrogen diff when I pH up the roots organics cocktail pre application. This is privy to lockout symptoms I've experienced in the past, so I got scared and backed off since this was my production crop. This test was done in veg on some of my extremely heavy feeders... And yes I hesitate to conclude my test due to this. This strain is such a heavy feeder in veg its common for me to see onset of N diff.
So, I have some other strains coming along soon that I will again test on, until then I take to the forums! Lol.
With that said, I continue my routine of no runoff, alternating compost teas with regular water.
I've watched those videos and read their content/literature.... I researched them heavily prior to making the switch... I am gaining suspicion roots organics lineup is the product that gave birth to their "soul" lineup it possibly being an answer to their flagship flaws. It's just not truly organic though.
 

Deristotle

Member
I’ve been dealing with the same worries regarding Roots Organic nutrients. I was excited to see responses here so recent. Something I will share is that despite never being able to get my solution to the suggested 6-7 range, (I usually get it up to about 5.1-5.3 before I no longer feel comfortable adding ph up), yet when I test my runoff, it’s coming out to a consistent 6.4-6.5. It’s somehow getting corrected at some point.
 

FLO-GRO

Member
Yes, thankyou deristotle.
This I believe is the beauty of organics. Also a great indicator your doing it right as in the microbial colony is alive and doing its job in your soil. The microbes will buffer (for lack of better term) the application and convert it to a more workable ph level.
This is why testing runoff is one of many checks we need to monitor in order to give us clues to how we're running. I test mine once a week for ppm in vs out and pH of runoff as well as soil ph.
So many things to watch over, lol.... But we love it!
 

Pissonit

New Member
I'm pretty new at using these type of sites I've always used nectar for the gods and was very happy with it I wanted to try out roots organics though I do have the same problem with pH 4.0 even if I aerate for 24 hours. But now I add Herculean harvest to it in Olympus up and get it up there between the 5.5 and 6.5 and if I add too much Olympus up I just add some of the Trinity cuz it has hemic acid and that works like Hades down. Seems to work pretty good I just don't understand why Roots organic is so acidic Maybe I need to cut back on something anyway stay lifted
 
Top