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- #121
DominaMortem
Well-Known Member
Also, once I fix the problem I'll be trimming all the affected leaves off and doing some light LST. After that I'll give them 2-3 weeks to recover then flower time.
So I've been told Phosphorus deficiency by 5 different people and that's what I was thinking myself. This leaves me with 2 possible solutions.
1. Do a complete soil transplant and stick with pH neutral water for a week (while it uses what's already in the new soil)
2. Flush the hell out of it and re-feed.
Now here's the problem....
The only place I could get pH Up or pH Down is closed all weekend. I could use basic home ingredients however without a buffer it will quickly revert back. Also, I have no idea how to properly flush a plant.
Told my husband I'm doing nothing but working on my plants today hahah.
Ps: What the hell is up with this Oregon weather? It got too coldThankfully the grow room is fine. Hurray for being underground.
Florakleen and flush 3x the size of the pot YouTube how to properly flush I was watching some the other day to learn
vespertine
New Member
Personally I would leave the affected leaves for a few days to make sure you fixed the problem. They won't get better, but if you get it right they won't get worse & your plant won't attack new healthier leaves to show you it needs help. I think a proper flush is the way to go... you don't want to stress her any further with transplant shock~ good luck!
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- #124
DominaMortem
Well-Known Member
I would prefer to flush them however I don't have a way to regulate the pH of anything.
vespertine
New Member
You shouldn't need anything to regulate ph~ I did my first flush with tap water right out of the sink... the flush should (as I understand) reset your soil to neutral. This is just my crude understanding of what a flush does~ but maybe other more experienced growers have more info. Make sure your soil is dried out before you flush though... could cause overwatering & nitrogen toxicity if you drown them out
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- #126
DominaMortem
Well-Known Member
Sadly I can't use my tap water (it has a pH of 8.5 and a ppm of 150) so I've been buying distilled water.
vespertine
New Member
Oh yeah... don't do that! Whatever you decide I'm sure will work out~ you seen to be very thoughtful & caring with regard to your plants. They will show you love back. I wish i could help more~ Good luck my friend!
Scientific
New Member
I'm quoting vespertine's advice again.
Flushing and adding exotic chemicals seems like overreacting to me. Remember that big changes in the pH of the water and the nutrient concentration (the "osmotic pressure") alone are going to stress the plant.
If you do want to start correcting and monitoring pH and fertilizer, I'd suggest getting a pH pen, a dissolved solids tester, a bottle of pH 7 calibration fluid, a bottle of 1000 PPM calibration fluid, pH Up and pH Down.
When you mix up your fertilizer, measure its pH and PPM, then add enough to the pot to get 10% to 20% runoff and measure the pH and PPM of the runoff. Then you noodle about how much the pH and concentration changed and figure out what concentration and pH you want to use next time to move closer to the mark.
It's a lot of work and takes some extra thought and record keeping but you'll have a pretty good idea of the state of your media.
Of course a big part of the appeal of a soil grow is not fussing with all that stuff, but the knowledgeable and dutiful farmer does get bigger yields...
Scientific
New Member
To return to a previous thought on this thread, if you're watering with mineral-free water, you might want to add a Calcium/Magnesium supplement like CALiMAGic.
Scientific
New Member
Flushing is also going to wash out a lot of the nutrients in your expensive soil and throw its nutrient balance off...
Scientific
New Member
And just by the by, the it's possible that those 150 PPM of dissolved solids are Ca and Mg salts. Did you ever check with your water utility?
OK, that's enough from me. Happy growing!
Scientific
New Member
Can't resist one more comment: Rather than a nutrient deficiency, with that fancy soil and small plants early that aren't using that many nutrients and haven't had time to deplete the soil yet, I would guess that slight nutrient toxicity from excess would be the more likely problem. Again, as vespertine said, if the new growth looks good, I'd just leave (or leaf) well enough alone.
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- #133
DominaMortem
Well-Known Member
The new growth doesn't look good. It's all twisted. They have been in this soil for a good while now. Also, I did test the pH when I first fed them and it was very acidic. Far more than was safe which I didn't realize at the time.
Scientific
New Member
So... how acidic was it? Down in the pH 4 region? That could be your problem. Weren't you using a commercial soil though?
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- #135
DominaMortem
Well-Known Member
It was at 4.9. And the soil is something made and sold locally .
coopexquisite
Well-Known Member
So I've been told Phosphorus deficiency by 5 different people and that's what I was thinking myself. This leaves me with 2 possible solutions.
1. Do a complete soil transplant and stick with pH neutral water for a week (while it uses what's already in the new soil)
2. Flush the hell out of it and re-feed.
Now here's the problem....
The only place I could get pH Up or pH Down is closed all weekend. I could use basic home ingredients however without a buffer it will quickly revert back. Also, I have no idea how to properly flush a plant.
Told my husband I'm doing nothing but working on my plants today hahah.
Ps: What the hell is up with this Oregon weather? It got too cold
Can I suggest waiting until Monday to try and treat the problem? That way you won't be blindly trying methods to fix the issue, and possibly make it worse.
If it were me, I would use pH'd water in the soil to get enough runoff that you can test. If the runoff pH is off, you could have a nutrient lockout and that could be why there is a phosphorous deficiency. If the pH is high, you could flush the soil, but I wouldn't if its enriched with nutes.
Scientific
New Member
As you probably know, the ideal soil pH is supposed to be about 6 to 7. A pH that low is going limit uptake of the macronutrients, which may very well be the problem. I think if it was my grow, I'd water it with higher pH water until the runoff was at pH 6, the minimum acceptable level (only pH 6 so as not to shock the roots too much--you could correct some more later).
It occurs to me that that alkaline tap water of yours might be just the thing to correct the soil pH upwards!
As long as that's not sodium or sulfates making the particulates high, you should be good.Scientific
New Member
I looked at Klamath Falls water report. It shows just Calcium hardness, so if that's your area, you should be fine to use it to neutralize the acidity in your soil.
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- #139
DominaMortem
Well-Known Member
I checked with the water company awhile back and they haven't updated their info since 2011 I believe.As you probably know, the ideal soil pH is supposed to be about 6 to 7. A pH that low is going limit uptake of the macronutrients, which may very well be the problem. I think if it was my grow, I'd water it with higher pH water until the runoff was at pH 6, the minimum acceptable level (only pH 6 so as not to shock the roots too much--you could correct some more later).
It occurs to me that that alkaline tap water of yours might be just the thing to correct the soil pH upwards!
Scientific
New Member
See my post 138. That's a link to 2014 numbers. I don't think water really changes all that much...
