pH too high in soil

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kiksroks

kiksroks

Fat Farmer
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Hello fellow MPers. My journey to epic grower status continues! I'm finding it amusing that as I learn more and experience more the advise given on this forum applies more and more to what I do. So for this, my final round of this indoor season for me I have made a few changes. First; I switched to ProMix HP soil so I could control the nutrients my plants are receiving throughout the grow. It is a mix that, outside of the medium, only contains some myco and lime, no nutrients what-so-ever. To this I've added 1c/cu.ft. dolomite lime and a bit more perlite. Second; I got pH meter and have been testing/balancing everything that I feed them and last night I tested the runoff just to see how things were going.

I noticed that the vast majority of the plants were right around 6.8, yay! But a few were reading 7.25. Oddly enough these plants are also starting to look a little different with a few rough looking leaves and one that is starting to turn a tad purple. I am convinced that the pH is the issue. So my questions are these:

Is the solution to just feed these few plants at a lower pH to balance them out or is there something more I should be doing? Also, what pH should I be shooting for with the feed to bring these down into the correct range?

Thanks for reading!
 
First off I hve to say that I don't ever check the ph of run off....I ph everything that goes into my pots to 6.5. I use a soil with no nutrients in it (MG Seed Starter Mix) and I control all of the feeding. I use a lil sweet lime in my soil mix to help keep the ph stable. I believe there are basically two types of soil grows. Those of us that use chemical nutrients like GH 3 part and those who are Organic and rely on micro herds. If you are an all Organic grower then for the most part you don't hve to worry about ph'ing your water (within reason) , if you are like me and rely on Chem ferts then you need to make sure everything going in falls within the ph range of 6.3-6.8. Jmo
 
Well, I make my own, but you can call it ProMix+++++:holysheep:

I add lime to the basic mix, myco's to the transplants.

I've used this basic mix with both organics and chems, you just vary the recipe a bit. I don't pH anything with either method.

Didn't know any better for the first 35 years or so:rolleyes: , got a meter when I started doing organics, but haven't used it in the last 8 months at least.

You get your soil buffered right and there is just no need to pH anything going into it. Anything you add (liquid), is just going to affect the pH of the soil for a very short while. No permanent nothing.

What kind of meter do you have and how are you testing? ProMix is pretty acidic and even with lime added, a pH of over 7 is a bit strange. But even 7.25 doesn't seem wildly out of whack for a soil grow.

Wet
 
Hamster Lewis said:
If you are an all Organic grower then for the most part you don't hve to worry about ph'ing your water (within reason) , if you are like me and rely on Chem ferts then you need to make sure everything going in falls within the ph range of 6.3-6.8. Jmo
Click to expand...

Hammy may have a very valid point here ^^^^^^^^

I never pHed the Jack's Classic (didn't know to), but apparently it fell into that 6.3-6.8 range with the water I was using. IDK, I never checked it.

Wet
 
I have a hanna meter (like this one hxxp://www.eseasongear.com/hannahi98103.html ) and I calibrated/recalibrated to be sure. I'm using foxfarms nutrients and RO water. The RO water runs about 7.0 iirc. I typically mix up 15 gallons in a tote that has an air stone and a small pump running continuously. I add my nutrients, mix, and then check and adjust the pH using general hydro pH up and down. If I add nutrients I have to bring it up and if its just water, as it was last night, I have to bring it down a bit before feeding.

As I said, I have added (powdered) lime at 1cup/cu.ft. and perlite to Pro-MixHP brand soil that lists only peat moss, pelrite, lime, wetting agent, and endo myco on the ingredients.
 
So it seems that testing the runoff is not the best way to go here? I guess I will just continue pHing everything they eat to 6.5 and forget about what comes out the bottom.
 
kiksroks said:
So it seems that testing the runoff is not the best way to go here? I guess I will just continue pHing everything they eat to 6.5 and forget about what comes out the bottom.
Click to expand...

:aok:


6.5..and when farther into flower bump closer to 7.0.....your RO water will be great at the end stages...I dont check run off either..if I see trouble I flush with 6.5 water..mojo your way:48:

take care and be safe
 
Correctly working alive soil needs no PH adjustments. Don't even look at it......
 
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