Leaves curling up

[Emilya Green]

The tap water is also a good idea because the only time you really need to filter is if you're running organic and you could also supplement with a foliar feed of Epsom salts to temporarily get some magnesium in there

 

[grower420512]

I have a great recipe for a supplement made out of egg shells but it'll take you about 20 days to get it fermented up... Check my links.

grate i'll look into it, appreciate it!

 

[grower420512]

The tap water is also a good idea because the only time you really need to filter is if you're running organic and you could also supplement with a foliar feed of Epsom salts to temporarily get some magnesium in there

just to confirm. is apple vinegar good ok for lowering ph? (it lowers it, but is there side effects)? i always water at around 6.6 ph

 

[Emilya Green]

yes, apple cider vinegar is perfectly fine to use, although some don't like it because it can draw in gnats. That really isnt much of a problem outside though. One suggestion though... 6.6 is a bit high since when the soil begins to drift the pH upward, you only have 2 points in the 6.2-6.8 soil range to work with. Try coming in at the lower end, around 6.3pH instead, and I think you will see a better magnesium pickup as well as some of the other heavier minerals. 6.3pH mathematically is the point where the most elements are the most mobile, and then the soil can drift it right through the entire usable range to pick up everything else.

 

[grower420512]

yes, apple cider vinegar is perfectly fine to use, although some don't like it because it can draw in gnats. That really isnt much of a problem outside though. One suggestion though... 6.6 is a bit high since when the soil begins to drift the pH upward, you only have 2 points in the 6.2-6.8 soil range to work with. Try coming in at the lower end, around 6.3pH instead, and I think you will see a better magnesium pickup as well as some of the other heavier minerals. 6.3pH mathematically is the point where the most elements are the most mobile, and then the soil can drift it right through the entire usable range to pick up everything else.

should it be at 6.3 even during flowering? btw, the soil i'm using has a ph of 6, i don't know if that matters....

 

[Emilya Green]

should it be at 6.3 even during flowering? btw, the soil i'm using has a ph of 6, i don't know if that matters....

If you are in soil with an actual base pH of 6.0, you should send it back. Most people do not have the proper lab equipment to do a real slurry test so as to test their base pH, I know I don't, so I really doubt your soil is that low... probably near 6.8 or so. But... and this is a big big but... The pH that the nutes see, that you are actually adjusting for in your fluids, is the pH of the fluid itself, not the soil. The soil's pH is set high so that as it dries out and loses the lower pH influence from the adjusted fluid, it reverts back up to the base pH. This allows the nutes in that drying region of the container to swing through (drift) the entire usable range of 6.2-6.8 pH as the soil dries out. Outside of that region, where you still have a column of fluid suspended in that soil, the pH of that "solution" is the pH of the liquid, simply because its molecular weight is massive and outswamps anything else in that container.
There is a school of thought recently (probably originated by a deep thinker on one of these online forums) that the plants have differing pH needs at different times in the cycle. While it might be argued that the potassium and phosphorus that are more needed in bloom are most mobile at a different pH than 6.3 pH and that it is best to adjust to that particular ion level just to concentrate on them, I will argue back that some of the other important and needed building blocks are most mobile at the lower portions of the pH range and by artificially coming in high, you miss out on those. I believe that a lot of the sulfur and molybdenum deficiencies that we see in late flower are because of this, and I have proven in my own garden that I could avoid some of these predictable deficiencies by coming in low at least a few times in mid flower. Indeed, I have seen benefit in mostly coming in at 6.3pH, but about every 3rd watering or so, jumping up to 6.5 or even down to 6.1, just to give a push for those so needed macronutrients as well as the heavy minerals at the bottom of the range.

 

[grower420512]

If you are in soil with an actual base pH of 6.0, you should send it back. Most people do not have the proper lab equipment to do a real slurry test so as to test their base pH, I know I don't, so I really doubt your soil is that low... probably near 6.8 or so. But... and this is a big big but... The pH that the nutes see, that you are actually adjusting for in your fluids, is the pH of the fluid itself, not the soil. The soil's pH is set high so that as it dries out and loses the lower pH influence from the adjusted fluid, it reverts back up to the base pH. This allows the nutes in that drying region of the container to swing through (drift) the entire usable range of 6.2-6.8 pH as the soil dries out. Outside of that region, where you still have a column of fluid suspended in that soil, the pH of that "solution" is the pH of the liquid, simply because its molecular weight is massive and outswamps anything else in that container.
There is a school of thought recently (probably originated by a deep thinker on one of these online forums) that the plants have differing pH needs at different times in the cycle. While it might be argued that the potassium and phosphorus that are more needed in bloom are most mobile at a different pH than 6.3 pH and that it is best to adjust to that particular ion level just to concentrate on them, I will argue back that some of the other important and needed building blocks are most mobile at the lower portions of the pH range and by artificially coming in high, you miss out on those. I believe that a lot of the sulfur and molybdenum deficiencies that we see in late flower are because of this, and I have proven in my own garden that I could avoid some of these predictable deficiencies by coming in low at least a few times in mid flower. Indeed, I have seen benefit in mostly coming in at 6.3pH, but about every 3rd watering or so, jumping up to 6.5 or even down to 6.1, just to give a push for those so needed macronutrients as well as the heavy minerals at the bottom of the range.

i didn't test the soil, it just said on the packaging 6ph so i don't know.... thanks for the info