# Proper PH for organic nutes



## Gooeydelta9 (Feb 14, 2010)

I am doing a experiment trying to grow organically with a spare room I have. 
In my main room I grow using fox farm nutes and soil. But as we all know only their dirt and big bloom is organic the rest is all salt based chemicals. So I decided to try growing with  100% organic nutes from Roots Organic. I added 1 tablespoons of sunleaves soil sweetener lime per gallon of dirt. Dirt consist of the 3 parts from foxfarm. Ocean Forest,Light Warrior, and their potting soil (red bag) and about 30% perlite added in. I have Budda Grow and Budda Bloom from Roots Organic. Its like earth juice but a one part formula. My question is when i mix up either the grow or the bloom my ph is like 4.3 should I adjust this to 6.5 or is it ok to feed without adjusting? Thanks guys sorry I post so many things in the organic section as im just getting my feet wet with this new grow.Everyone says 100% organic buds taste better so i just want to find out for myself. All of my friends grow hydro as im a former hydro person myself and I just recently switched over.


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## umbra (Feb 14, 2010)

I like about 6.2 to 6.5. add some dolomite lime next time you mix soil for your plants, it helps buffer it some. keep the micro organisms breeding and that should prevent too much ph swing.


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## Gooeydelta9 (Feb 15, 2010)

I add lime as I stated in my post. Do you ph adjust your organic mixes to 6.5 cause when I mix up the organic nutes my ph is like low 4's


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## umbra (Feb 15, 2010)

no i dont, thats where they are naturally for me.


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## Old_SSSC_Guy (Feb 15, 2010)

what's the pH of the source water gooey?  are you mixing the nutes or using BG or BB alone?  reason i ask is thinking that you need to nail down what ingredient is causing the pH downturn.  also, might test the pH of run off water too and see if your dolomite is buffering it was it washes through...


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## Gooeydelta9 (Feb 15, 2010)

I use tap water that is aged in a 75 gallon take circulated with a pump.The ph of the water in the holding tank is 7.0. Once I mix up the 7.0 water with the roots organic grow or bloom it's drops to 4.3. I even set up a mix batch of nutes bubbled it overnite thinking the ph would raise on it's own but it still was 4.3 after 24 hrs. I haven't started using this stuff in my grow yet because I'm still learning about the all organic thing. I'm just curious if I fed with the ph being this low will my plants suffer from nute lockout. I grew solely with foxfarm nutes with great results but as we all know they are not organic. I'm just looking to go green and use all organic stuff


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## legalize_freedom (Feb 16, 2010)

Gooey I'm going through the same thing right now, only mixing up General Organics line instead of the Roots.  Mine mixes to around 5.4 or so.  I have been told by other organic growers to not adjust with chem adjusters, becuase it is self defeating, and not good for the micro life.  If your soil is buffered, then the combination of the lime, and the micro life should take care of the pH adjusting.  I to feel uncomfortable putting something that acidic into my soil, but I was told to learn to trust the micro life...lol.  You could try adding some other ingredients to try and bring it up, like a tsp or tbl spoon even of molasses...your microbes will love that.  Or maybe whatever your using that is bringing the # down could be added in lower dosages.  Also if you just don't feel comfortable (which I probably wouldn't if mine were that low)  Earth Juice makes a natural pH up adjuster.  I think I would probably try it and see what my runoff reads.......this is all new to me to...I've been growing for awhile, but organics is now a whole new ball game.  Good Luck!


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## Gooeydelta9 (Feb 16, 2010)

Whats up Legal. I'm just going to take the advise from you and the others that said dont worry about the ph when mixing organic nutes and feeding. I tried adding 1 tablespoon of sunleaves soil sweetener which is just ground up lime to my 1 gallon mix of nutes that started off at 4.3 and after a couple of hrs it hit the target of 6.5. But im thinking that it may be to high in Calcium and Mag so im just going to hold off on this method. This is all new to me as well bro and all i want is to try and grow so good organic smoke. BTW  are you using FF dirt? And are you adding lime if so at what rate per gallon.


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## Mr.Wakenbake (Feb 16, 2010)

With a good soil mix... most organic grows take care of themselves pH wise. As long as you don't overfeed them between now and harvest. The buffers in the soil, and the micro organisms will take care of the pH. 

Soil pH  needs to be no lower than 6.0 and no higher than 7.0. 
The nutrient solution you feed the plants will be buffered in the soil. You can take a pH reading with any pH pen in most ANY organic grow, the pH  from pot to pot, or heck even just from one spot in the pot to another spot the pH can vary by a couple points sometimes.

pH is Important much much much much more when it comes to semi organic, or chemical grows. However, most all good nute companies put pH buffers in the nutrients themselves as well. Organic, and inorganic alike.


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## legalize_freedom (Feb 17, 2010)

I put fine dolomite lime at a rate of 1 tbl spoon per gallon of soil.  Yes I use FFOF mixed 2/3 to 1/3 LW for now.  But this spring I plan on either mixing my own, using either Subcools recipe, or I will check and see if any of the local greenhouses make their own soil.  I will probably use a local soil as a base ...only because the FF soil is so expensive, and I will be amending it anyway.


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## Gooeydelta9 (Feb 17, 2010)

Thanks for the advise guys. I'm going to post my grow journal tonight I hope to share great results with you all.


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## Gooeydelta9 (Feb 17, 2010)

Here is one of my chemical ladies shes 28 days into flowering. I will catch you guys in the grow journal section.Wish me luck on my new organic experiment. Happy growing to you all


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## Droopy Dog (Feb 18, 2010)

legalize_freedom said:
			
		

> I put fine dolomite lime at a rate of 1 tbl spoon per gallon of soil.  Yes I use FFOF mixed 2/3 to 1/3 LW for now.  But this spring I plan on either mixing my own, using either Subcools recipe, or I will check and see if any of the local greenhouses make their own soil.  I will probably use a local soil as a base ...only because the FF soil is so expensive, and I will be amending it anyway.



Why don't you just make your own mix?

Easy and cheap.

DD


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## legalize_freedom (Feb 18, 2010)

hats probably what I'm going to do Droopy....unless I find a good one for cheaper already mixed localy, and then maybe amend where I think it's lacking.  But yeah, if I can't find a good one I will make my own.


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## Amateur Grower (Feb 18, 2010)

Congrats Gooey, that is one sweet looking plant.


AG


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## Mr.Wakenbake (Feb 18, 2010)

I run my own custom mix. Matter of fact, I have used the same exact soil for almost 2 years now.... about 18 months or so. 

Bagged soil like Fox Farms is super expensive. 

For what it cost for 2 bags of FF, I could mix about 10x+ the amount of my organic mix.

Mix your own soil. It's fun to get your nails dirty man.

For those wandering... my soil mix is as follows.

Basic mix for  small garden.

1 bag of Humus
1 bag of organic cheap potting soil
1 bag of perlite
1 bag of coco coir or 1 block. (thoroughly flushed)
2 bags of worm castings


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