Too alkaline

[CanDoit]

I looks a little limp and a bit dark in the middle of the stem and two true leaves are starting to show (not the cotyledons). I cant get a picture from my pc since the webcam is inside the thing and idk how to get cell phone pics on here. ill have to look it up and then try to get a pic on here.

[hippylee]

I may be way off, but if the soil is too alkaline, wouldn\'t adding dolomite lime make it MORE alkaline? I added dolomite lime to my pH 4 soil and re-potted the plants, and one of them now has soil with pH 8.5! I believe peat-moss helps lower pH. But like I said, I could be totally wrong! But get a soil testing pH kit anyway (I paid $10 for one with 10 tests in it - oh, and stay away from soil pH meters). Good luck!

[LabRat]

Originally Posted by CanDoit

One more thing. I'm sure yall are familiar with the 3 in 1 meter with the light, ph, and moisture. Dealing with the moisture scale with a range of 1-3 (dry), 4-6 (moist), and 7-10 (wet) I keep it between 4-6 in the middle (moist). Is that good enough or maybe a little more water would be necessary? Also, when i do transplant it to the 12 inch pot i think it might hold 6 cups of soil seing that the 4 inch holds 2. this mix im using right now is one and a half cups of scotts moisture guard potting soil (best i can find at lowes) and half cup of sta greens vermiculite. I cant get decent soil here as far as my experience goes and home depot didnt even have anything decen. all the dro shops are in houston and my car, Im afraid wont make it that far and i need a few trips at least to keep up with the plant so im stuck in town not to metion this damn reccession and cant get a damn fast food job...its sad yes but im doing what i can do or it will never happen and college kinda prevents me from getting jobs that need 100 percent of my time. as for the dang question maybe i can use this mix for the 12 inch pot and tell me if theres anything i can do to make this mix better please let me know.
4 parts soil, 1 part vermiculite, and 1 part dolomite.

Swap the vermiculite for perlite and reduce the dolomite by 75% and you'll have a winner.

[LabRat]

Originally Posted by CharlieMopps

You need to get a new way to measure your ph. I think you need a permit to get anything like that with a ph of 1. I'm talking hydrochloric acid, battery acid. Theres no way it is 1, measure again.

Not to bust your balls or anything but lemon juice can be pH 1.0 and stomach acid is hydrochloric, HCl, battery acid is sulphuric, H2SO4. On a scale of 1-10 for strengths of acids. Lemon juice/vinegar, (organic acids), are 1, HCl is around 3.5 and H2SO4 is up around 10. If you're soil growing and need to acidify your soil, (sour), a nice organic apple cider vinegar will let you tweak your pH and give a nice little boost of micronutrients to your girls. Inorganic acids like HCl and H2SO4 will only change the ph. And unless they are reagent grade are likely not very pure. Vinegar sold for human consumption will be fine for plants. My mom always dug used coffee grounds around the rose bushes and we had the hugest roses in a neighbourhood of gardening junkies. Mom said the soil was too sweet and the grounds would sour it a bit and help build the soil. We always had the best veggies and fruit trees and cupboards full of home preserved food in mason jars. Whaaaaaaa! I wanna be 10 again!

Fourty five years too late for that.

Just babbling at this point but the point is that we all pull together to make this glorious hobby as easy or complicated as you'ld like but with the precise information that can guide you to your ultimate goal.

Smoking the best herb on any planet in the known universe!

[CanDoit]

thank you all. that will be useful

[Lil Neutrino]

Why....would you post that without providing some reasoning with it? Hydro is not known for being the easiest or cheapest route either, something some people have to contend with :) Nothing wrong with soil once you get the procedure down...just like with hydro.

[CanDoit]

I cant go to a dro store seeing its in houston and my car wont make it that far so its hard to get decent supplies and for delivery, i cancelled my card because of thievery so its a pain. the leaves at the bottom are starting to curl and one look a little what it looks like to me "light burn" I switched over to the sylavania 120w spot gro lamp and it works better than the flurs, but adjusting the light can also be bad for the plants if not adjusted correctly. Right now its about 18 inches from them. heres some pics; there horrible, but its a horrible phone as well, but anyway...

87 far. and 37 percent humidity



heres the curl


hers the cheap ass setup



the oldest of the two

[Lil Neutrino]

Originally Posted by Yung Stikky

Oh, and NEUTRINO, [b]I don't need to explain why or why not with hydro, there is a WHOLE section on Hydro and its pro's n cons, it only takes a click of the mouse, AND, why would you post on HIS thread just to debate me? THIS IS A THREAD FOR HELPING CANDOIT understand his journey in cultivation, no a f*cking political debate..you wanna argue with me, then PM me, Im a master debator...haha...peace n love to the posi-people.

Very astute observation, but this is a thread for helping CanDoIt with his S-O-I-L. And what did I say that was in any way political?

Negative reps for you too since you want to be an ass because I pointed out YOU were OT (funny how you said that when you gave me a negative rep, "off subject" was the text I believe) and said nothing other than that neither is necessarily better and that it depends on the individual.

I'm not arguing with you (fyi, arguing and debating are two different things), no point in dragging myself down to your level...but YOU were the one who drug this off topic and posted a completely useless comment that had ZERO to do with topic at hand and nothing to back up that comment. Posts such as that one are worthless, back it up with some reasoning and you have a useful post. Comprende?

[Lil Neutrino]

Originally Posted by CanDoit

the leaves at the bottom are starting to curl and one look a little what it looks like to me "light burn"

Those are the "baby" leaves, they don't stick around forever...they usually turn yellow and fall off the plant fairly soon. As long as the other leafs are looking good you're fine, no worries. This recently came up in siscokid's journal...click here to read

87 far. and 37 percent humidity

87F is too hot for everyday average temperature as you probably know, you need to drop that 3-4F at least if you can and some would say even farther than that. What's your ventilation system looking like?

[CanDoit]

this is more of an learning experience rather than a "im better than you kinda thing" so im going to cut a hole in the door and cover it with mesh tape when the lights are off. Oh I dont think i also mentioned that this is a low budget project as well.
I just put in some osmocote fertilizer around the top of the weaker one to see w hat happens first. cant tell so far...