soil ph. levels 3.5 ???

roageone

roageone

Member
hay, soo I was flushing my plants the other day. I use 5 gallons per pot to flush.
so when I got to the last 1/2 gallon per pot,,, point. I waited for an extra 10 mins. then I plugged the drain. I pored the last 1/2 gallon per pot in each pot that's 8 pots total.
I used a ph. level of 7 to flush with. my drain water was 3.5.
my question is. Is this normal? or should I raise the ph. in my soil and how would I do that? by raiseing the ph. in my water would I have to go to 10 to level it at 6.5 or am I totally off?
 
A

anzohaze

Well-Known Member
roageone said:
hay, soo I was flushing my plants the other day. I use 5 gallons per pot to flush.
so when I got to the last 1/2 gallon per pot,,, point. I waited for an extra 10 mins. then I plugged the drain. I pored the last 1/2 gallon per pot in each pot that's 8 pots total.
I used a ph. level of 7 to flush with. my drain water was 3.5.
my question is. Is this normal? or should I raise the ph. in my soil and how would I do that? by raiseing the ph. in my water would I have to go to 10 to level it at 6.5 or am I totally off?
Click to expand...
You need.to add a soil buffer like lime.gypsum oyster shell flour... what soil or etc are you running. What's yur water ph and do you no if your ph pen is set properly
 
A

az2000

Well-Known Member
What do your plants look like? Runoff isn't a reliable measure of ph. Google for NCSU Pour-Through Method to see how runoff should be tested (most people aren't going to go to that extreme.). I have a $60 Control Wizard Accurate 8 soil probe which I've found to be very helpful for situations like this.

What are the ppms of your runoff? When I've had acidic soil it was due to salt buildup, over-feeding.

But, my plants deterioriated by the time the ph was around 5.0. I can't believe yours is 3.5 and you aren't seeing serious problems.
 
roageone

roageone

Member
anzohaze said:
You need.to add a soil buffer like lime.gypsum oyster shell flour... what soil or etc are you running. What's yur water ph and do you no if your ph pen is set properly
Click to expand...
my soil is ff o.f. I I ph to 6.4 per my nector of the gods say to
 
Labs Dexter

Labs Dexter

Well-Known Member
Does your soil hqve allot of peat? Because I had soil with allot of peat and it lowerd my ph runoff drastically, the lime stuff mentioned above is a must for peat.
 
roageone

roageone

Member
az2000 said:
What do your plants look like? Runoff isn't a reliable measure of ph. Google for NCSU Pour-Through Method to see how runoff should be tested (most people aren't going to go to that extreme.). I have a $60 Control Wizard Accurate 8 soil probe which I've found to be very helpful for situations like this.

What are the ppms of your runoff? When I've had acidic soil it was due to salt buildup, over-feeding.

But, my plants deteriorated by the time the ph. was around 5.0. I can't believe yours is 3.5 and you aren't seeing serious problems.
Click to expand...
 
A

az2000

Well-Known Member
I've used hydrated lime 3/4 tsp/gal of water to make serious corrections to my acidic soil (which was unnecessary because it was salt buildup.). It works. I would do it again if I were in a crisis. But, it's certainly not desireable to treat plants like that. I would only do it if you see serious lockout deficiencies. Amending dolomite into the topsoil takes 2 weeks to affect the soil. If I needed something serious, I'd flush with that high ph water, let it soak for an hour, then flush with pure.

But, that's a last-ditch resort. Only the worst possible case would I do it. I've done it and it works.

(I don't see your text in your reply to my post.).
 
roageone

roageone

Member
I don't know ppm. that's why I chose to flush them. I did have problems I got the bone meal one of the NOTG nutes on my leaves and it really messed them up
P12-03-15_09.26.jpg they are doing better except for front center rear center and left center those are bbg. clones
the other 5 are seedlings and the center is blue diesel auto flower but she is only a week old
 
Dr.Pecker

Dr.Pecker

Well-Known Member
Ph pens break really easy. Do you have another way to check the ph? I use the dropper color test because it never lies. A tds meter would be helpful for checking the runoff, they're only about $15. I can learn a lot from from a tds reading.
 
A

az2000

Well-Known Member
Without a larger picture, they don't look bad. Something doesn't sound right to me. From my own experience with acidic soil, your plants would look like they're dying at 3.5. And, I don't know how you could get 3.5 after flushing so much (i.e, the *last* part of the flush. The way the NCSU article describes proper runoff testing, your method and reading implies something even *lower*.).
 
A

anzohaze

Well-Known Member
roageone said:
my soil is ff o.f. I I ph to 6.4 per my nector of the gods say to
Click to expand...
Do you live east coast west coast. Ffof uses different ingredients depending on the coast or what your.closer to. East coast ffof has.pine bark which is acidic and has a 4.0 out the bag and needs to be heavily buffered. West coast ffof as previous was like 5.5 or so and need buffering but not as much. Add lime oyster shell flour to buffer ph and you will be golden. Ffof says it's ph balance and it's a complete lie. I wonder false advertising but it does not say what they ph balance it to
 
Dr.Pecker

Dr.Pecker

Well-Known Member
Could be bad bacteria from being waterlogged. Could be a broken ph pen. Could be soil made by idiots. If its just acidic soil, hardwood ash will straiten you out until you get some lime. If you use it only use a very small amount.
 
Dr.Pecker

Dr.Pecker

Well-Known Member
roageone said:
I don't know ppm. that's why I chose to flush them. I did have problems I got the bone meal one of the NOTG nutes on my leaves and it really messed them up
View attachment 3556522 they are doing better except for front center rear center and left center those are bbg. clones
the other 5 are seedlings and the center is blue diesel auto flower but she is only a week old
Click to expand...
You should use a better picture, I cant zoom in on that. If the the ph was that low the plants would show it.
 
roageone

roageone

Member
az2000 said:
Without a larger picture, they don't look bad. Something doesn't sound right to me. From my own experience with acidic soil, your plants would look like they're dying at 3.5. And, I don't know how you could get 3.5 after flushing so much (i.e, the *last* part of the flush. The way the NCSU article describes proper runoff testing, your method and reading implies something even *lower*.).
Click to expand...
so were do I find this info
 
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