low p.h. in soil and flushing question

legalinsd

New Member
soil mix: 1 bag FFOF, 1/2 bag light warrior, 1/2 bag perelite, 4 handfulls of earthworm castings

water/nute p.h going in: 6.4


so i noticed the other day that my plants were showing slight signs of magnesium def. and that a few leaves were starting to twist up. I recalibrated my p.h. meter and found it to be off by 2-3 tenths of a point (on the low side) that i was using like that for at least 3 weeks. i took the runoff p.h of my soil and found it to be 5.7-5.8 from all of my plants. i started to flush with about a gal and a half of distilled and am getting a runoff now of about 6.0 from most all the plants. this is the first time that i have encountered a p.h problem.

so my questions are: for me to get back up to my desired range of about 6.4 again, do i have to just keep running plain distilled water through until my runoff gets back up to 6.4?
If so can i use p.h up in distilled to get the p.h. of soil up quicker than flushing tons of water through?
or will i be ok at around 6.0 and just keep with my same p.h.ed 6.4 water/feed schedule to gradually get back up to 6.4 over time?
will feeding my plant with calmag and other nutes to fix def. just add to salt buildup at this time?
Does flushing also flush out other beneficial bacteria and trichoderma that i have put in my soil via watering?

any help is greatly appreciated. thanks.:rollit:
 
Unless your plants are showing severe deficiencies, I'd just bring the soil back up gradually by continuing with your 6.4 p.h. water/feed schedule.

Flushing does also flush out beneficial bacteria, but salt build-up isn't good for them either, so flushing helps them come back strong. Even if it flushed them all out, you have to address the issue of correct PH before restoring the bugs. If you're using beneficial bug supplements, I would add some more after the flush to give things a kick start.
 
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