Soil turns acidic, every time.

Hi folks!

I'm having problems with my soil..
I've done three grows now, and every time, the PH of the soil goes down to between 5.2 and 5.6.
It seems to happen 3-4 weeks into flowering. The plants get PH-burned and eventually what I think is Potassium and Calsium def.

The first two grows, I used BioBiz LightMix. Now I am on Canna Professional, with the same problems.

Nutes: Advanced Nutrients PH Perfect Grow Micro Bloom. B52, Overdrive, Big Bud, Voodoo Juice.
Water: Tap water, PH6.9, EC0.1

I've usually waited about 4 weeks until adding nutes.
No matter how much I flush with PH-upped water, it won't up the soil-PH.
Getting tired of it

Anyone knows what the problem might be?
Any thoughts are highly appreciated!

hey bud, I used to have that same problem and still get it sometimes. they Key is to add plenty of dolomite lime into your soil mix. Then I add it to the top of the soil at about 3-4 weeks into flower.

This should help with the Calcium deficiency too.

As far as your water source I saw you use tap water. Do you let this sit for a day before use? If not you should. tap water has chlorine in it to disinfect. It is not good for the plants, but will evaporate after a day. If you do that you should put a fish tank air stone to keep it oxygenated (Will also speed up the evap of Chlorine too)

Thanks for the reply man!

I've been thinking of the dolomite lime thing, and yeah, I'll totally do that for my next grow (only a couple of weeks left for the current grow).

The tap water here should not have chlorine in it, as they use UV-light and other methods for disinfection, but I guess you never really know.
At least it doesn't smell anything like chlorine.But to be safe, I'll let it sit out for a while before using it next time.

How much lime do you normally add?

Yeah, lime is the key, try to find dolomitic as it will give you calcium and magnesium. You can use calcitic, but it will not give you any mag and you may need to supplement with epsom salts if you get a deficiency. Do not use hydrated lime!

willmakebud said:

Thanks for the reply man!

I've been thinking of the dolomite lime thing, and yeah, I'll totally do that for my next grow (only a couple of weeks left for the current grow).

The tap water here should not have chlorine in it, as they use UV-light and other methods for disinfection, but I guess you never really know.
At least it doesn't smell anything like chlorine.But to be safe, I'll let it sit out for a while before using it next time.

How much lime do you normally add?

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I would be willing to bet there is still chlorine in the water after disinfection. The reason is they want to keep it disinfected while in the pipes. They dont put enough in to smell it (Shouldnt smell like a pool). Like you said, better safe then sorry.

As far as the amount I mix up a big batch of my soil mix in a tuperware storage tub. It has about 10-15 gallons (bit of a guess) of soil. I add about 1.5 cups of lime to this. hard to overdo it really. Then i add a tablespoon or 2 to the top of the soil at 3 or 4 weeks flower.

hope this helps

brotherjericho said:

Yeah, lime is the key, try to find dolomitic as it will give you calcium and magnesium. You can use calcitic, but it will not give you any mag and you may need to supplement with epsom salts if you get a deficiency. Do not use hydrated lime!

Click to expand...

^^^^^That^^^^^

Get the lime, use the lime, problem solved.

Dolomite lime is under $5 for a 40lb bag at Lowes or HD.

I also use straight tap water 90% of the time, no worries, but it is good tap water.

Wet

Thanks a lot guys!

I'll go and buy some lime right now, and start a new grow using it.
If this works, growing will be a dream!

Peace!

Add 2tbl/gallon of mix, or 1cup/cf of mix and don't skimp.

It's hard to over apply, but you can certainly under apply it.

Wet