Going Green With JCTJ: Perpetual Autos With A Photo Here & There

[MrSauga]

You can find instructions here. Distilled water works fine and is probably better than RO from what I hear. Scroll down a bit for the test that says Slurry Test.

Testing Ph In Your Soil - Aptus Holland

In this article we’ll show you how to take pH measurements in your soil. I can hear you think, why would you need to measure the pH in your soil when you already measure it in the water you give your plants? Well, your soil is alive, and there are all kinds of processes going […]

aptus-holland.com

 

[MrSauga]

Once you know the pH we can address what the issue may be. There's nothing different that you have been doing so it's environmental or in the medium.

 

[MrSauga]

You still have the bag the Promix came in? I'm interested in the expiry date if you do. The product does not go bad, but it is different from when it is manufactured. Some of the changes that can occur include the elevation of pH.

 

[JCTJ]

You've sure had a rough go the last couple of updates.
Fingers crossed for those mystery seed babies!

Thanks! It's been a little frustrating haha. I also need to update on the monster outdoor White Tahoe Cookies that split in half .

You can find instructions here. Distilled water works fine and is probably better than RO from what I hear. Scroll down a bit for the test that says Slurry Test.

Testing Ph In Your Soil - Aptus Holland

In this article we’ll show you how to take pH measurements in your soil. I can hear you think, why would you need to measure the pH in your soil when you already measure it in the water you give your plants? Well, your soil is alive, and there are all kinds of processes going […]

aptus-holland.com

Once you know the pH we can address what may be the issue. There's nothing different that you have been doing so it's environmental or in the medium.

Perfect, thank you for that info! I'll have to pop out for some distilled water and update.

 

[MrSauga]

Oof! Bad week for gardening.

 

[MrSauga]

Perfect, thank you for that info! I'll have to pop out for some distilled water and update.

Sure thing.
I updated this post in case it got past you regarding the expiration on Promix and what could happen with it.

Going Green With JCTJ: Perpetual Autos With A Photo Here & There

You can find instructions here. Distilled water works fine and is probably better than RO from what I hear. Scroll down a bit for the test that says Slurry Test. https://aptus-holland.com/soil-ph-testing/

www.420magazine.com

 

[JCTJ]

You still have the bag the Promix came in? I'm interested in the expiry date if you do. The product does not go bad, but it is different from when it is manufactured. Some of the changes that can occur include the elevation of pH.

I'll take a look, if I remember right I saw you and or @InTheShed talking about the expiration on the bags.

Sure thing.
I updated this post in case it got past you regarding the expiration on Promix and what could happen with it.

Going Green With JCTJ: Perpetual Autos With A Photo Here & There

You can find instructions here. Distilled water works fine and is probably better than RO from what I hear. Scroll down a bit for the test that says Slurry Test. https://aptus-holland.com/soil-ph-testing/

www.420magazine.com

Oof! Bad week for gardening.

It's been interesting around here lately LOL. Keeping my head up though

 

[Konks Dirt Empire]

Thanks! It's been a little frustrating haha. I also need to update on the monster outdoor White Tahoe Cookies that split in half .

Seriously, what is happening!
Head up for sure, stay the course.

 

[JCTJ]

You still have the bag the Promix came in? I'm interested in the expiry date if you do. The product does not go bad, but it is different from when it is manufactured. Some of the changes that can occur include the elevation of pH.

REV_1.3_BAL_20200501

Taking that as May 1st, 2020 - so fairly new. Not going to make it out tonight for distilled water, slurry test first thing tomorrow morning

Seriously, what is happening!
Head up for sure, stay the course.

We managed to tape her up and use a few stakes to stabilize things and she didn't skip a beat! I didn't get any pictures but I was actually bbqing when I heard the big "CRACK". I think it was the quick repair that saved the day. Photo update on her tomorrow as well.

 

[MrSauga]

Taking that as May 1st, 2020 - so fairly new. Not going to make it out tonight for distilled water, slurry test first thing tomorrow morning

Thanks JC!

 

[JCTJ]

I decided to do a slurry test for the hell of it with my tap water since I won't have distilled until tomorrow. Between two different PH meters I ended up around 6.8. For reference, my tap water has a ph of 7.4.

The more I look at the lemon potion, the more it looks like an iron deficiency. If my promix ph is in range, then the only explanation would be it suffering from over watering. Am I seriously still overdoing the water?

Edit: maybe I've been so used to dousing my outdoor plants all summer? Oh hell, I should smoke one and revisit this tomorrow... .

The Sweet Skunk I harvested back at the end of July really knocked it out of the park. The skunk is no joke, this stuff stank outside for a small auto, smelled up my house during trimming and drying and now that she's all cured up... packs a big punch. Definitely a winner in my books. I think SS lists it at 20% thc and I would not be surprised for once if the plant actually hit that. One of the strongest I've grown in a while and doesn't take much of it to put me on my ass!

 

[MrSauga]

Hi JC! The test should be done with distilled so I'm not sure how accurate it is. With the tap water reading the pH is way too high. You should be reading under 6.0 with the Promix.
Pure distilled water should be neutral with a pH of 7, but because it absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, it's actually slightly acidic with a pH of 5.8.
If the pH is high in your Promix there are ways to get it back down. The simplest is to try and get a hold of a fertilizer with a 20-10-20 NPK value. This will contain ammoniacal nitrogen which will drop the pH down. It takes about a week at 1-2tbsp/gal.
If it's too acidic we can add a nitrate based N to correct it.

If all is fine and the iron def is still there then typically the issue would be in the water or over watering.

 

[HutchBenedict]

What a mystery! I can't imagine it being you over/under watering and the Promix shouldn't be off. I will be really interested in seeing the slurry test with distilled water.

 

[InTheShed]

While we wait for the results of the slurry test and the amazing story that accompanies the trip to the store for distilled water, I would like to say two things:
1. It was I who bought the bags of old ProMix and engaged in a long back and forth with my guy at PremierTech.
2.

The simplest is to try and get a hold of a fertilizer with a 20-10-20 NPK value. This will contain ammoniacal nitrogen which will drop the pH down.

It's not that all 20-10-20 fertilizer will have ammoniacal nitrogen in it, but that is what you are looking for if your slurry pH ends up over 6.2. As we learned here, nitrate nitrogen with raise the pH of the substrate over time, while ammoniacal nitrogen will lower it. That's what I used to bring my old ProMix back into alignment and keep my summer plants on track to harvest in the next week or two. @oldsmokey has successfully done the same with his.

Probably one of the biggest mistakes I made was starting LST while they were already visibly stressed. I ended up successfully stunting two of the three to the point that they were just fading away and stopped growing.

Don't blame yourself. I think they would have stalled even if you just sat there and stared at them. Small stresses can stunt autos, which would include whatever was going on with the yellowing.

 

[MrSauga]

It's not that all 20-10-20 fertilizer will have ammoniacal nitrogen in it, but that is what you are looking for if your slurry pH ends up over 6.2.

My understanding by following the chart below that these are standard commercial grade ferts and the nitrate and ammoniacal are found in those accordingly. 20-0-20 is neutral, or balanced between nitrate and ammoniacal.
15-5-15 has a couple of variants where there may be more nitrate compared to the other one which increases the basicity more as you can see in the last column.

High pH can be corrected by switching to a more acidic fertilizer. One example is 21-5- 20 fertilizer which has a potential acidity of about 410. Application of 1 ton of 21-5-20 causes acidification which would require 410 pounds of calcium carbonate limestone to counteract. Similarly, 15-0-15 has 320 pounds of potential basicity and can be used to increase a low pH.

 

[InTheShed]

All true, but the key is the type of nitrogen rather than the ratio. With all the hundreds of brands and mixes of fertilizer out there it's important to flip the bag over and check out the source of the N. If you can only find 15-0-0 that's the correct N you can use other supplements to balance out your NPK.

And the commercial 20-10-20 out there has little to no calcium or magnesium, so supplements may be in order anyhow!

 

[MrSauga]

All true, but the key is the type of nitrogen rather than the ratio.

Well that's what I'm getting at. It's not the ratio. The nitrate is already heavier than ammoniacal in a 15-0-15. I don't think you could have a 15-0-15 with higher ammoniacal than nitrate or then it would have a different value. I'll dig around for more info.

EDIT: OK I did find the info and yes you are correct. I did find some 20-10-20 that was high in nitrate as opposed to ammoniacal.

 

[JCTJ]

Better late than never right! Sorry fellas, busy work weekend and the grow related stuff got put on hold. I have now acquired the greatly coveted distilled water

Slurry results are in. At 19.9c we have a PH of 6.3 (taken with two different meters)

Edit: I let it sit even longer just to see and it came down to 6.2. Is this an acceptable reading?

 

[InTheShed]

From PremierTech:
"I would use it for any time you find growing media pH climbing above 6.2" (referring to using ammoniacal N to lower the pH).

So 6.2 seems to be within the range of okay, but the upper limit.

the amazing story that accompanies the trip to the store for distilled water

I have now acquired the greatly coveted distilled water

Bor-ing!

 

[JCTJ]

I'm at a bit of a loss now. Optimal soilless ph being 5.5-6.0 and I'm sitting at 6.2 (distilled slurry) with a brand new bale of promix. In addition to using a nitrate based fertilizer that will only continue to raise ph over time.

A 20-10-20 with 12% nitrate nitrogen and 8% ammoniacal nitrogen would suffice if I wanted to try to bring it down a little more?

Whatever the reason, the combination of this fresh promix and my tap water don't seem to be playing nice with any of my plants.