Thanks. What would you suggest besides the plastic pots?Before you start adding nutrients check to see that the roots are drying out before you water. One of the most common problems is overwatering. Drooping leaves and discoloration always looks like too much water to me. Those plastic pots are notorious retaining moisture.
Thanks. What would you suggest besides the plastic pots?
Ocean forest used alone is a VERY "hot" and dense soil and I would always mix it with something light and bland like promix. I know there are other CalMag -like options, look on the "customers also viewed" section on the Amazon listing.
Ok here's the steps:
RO+ minerals to 150ppm
Add fertilizer, aerate if you want but not necessary, that's for if you're making a tea
Check and adjust pH immediately before use, mixing well during the adjustment
Why did you choose to use RO water over tap, is your tap water horrible?
Thank you all so much for the help. I will start this procedure immediately.That's way too low. 6.5 is the lowest runoff you want. I'll bet the 6.1 plant is the worse looking one, that means it has been sour for longer. It is in much more danger. You have to correct that by watering heavily with nothing but calmag and water. bring it up to 150-200ppm for the flushing before you pH adjust it- I'll get to that in a sec- well, might as well do it now.
When you're making a flush solution that is intended to quickly correct pH, rather than correct simple overfeeding, you need it to have decent ionic strength or the pH of the solution is meaningless.
You need something in there to neutralize the acid in the soil. This is carbonate. Your calmag will actually interact with the dissolved carbonic acids in the water, and the organic acids in the soil, and one of the products of that reaction is carbonate ion, which is an excellent pH buffer.
It's a lot to write out, just trust me.
Mix your water and calmag and then adjust the pH all the way up to about pH 7.2.
Water the whole surface of the soil slowly. Like drizzle it over. The neutralization is not instantaneous.
Just let it seep in and keep going til as much is going out the holes as you are pouring in.
Let it hang out and drain and go get the 6.4 plant because they BOTH need the next step.
Mix your calmag to 150, put in your base veg fert at about half strength, and then adjust the pH of this mix to 6.9-7.
Re -drench the 6.1 plant to runoff.
Drench the 6.4 plant to runoff.
Let them sit to drain, too. And leave them alone til they get pretty dry.
Honestly at this point I would consider cutting vertically down the sides of the pots so you can sort of crack/peel them open like a flower to air out, fertilizer isn't useable to the roots in the anaerobic conditions in wet oxygen starved soil. You can't transplant a wet root ball safely, they tend to tear apart under their own weight but you can open up the pot. Just wrap it with a bungee after drying, to protect the ball til you are ready to up pot.
You can foliar feed to help green back up. You can use your 150-200ppm calmag solution in a sprayer too with a drop of mild liquud soap to stick it. I'd alternate that with a spray of GH micro or other micronutrient solution like, micro morning calmag evening, until you notice life coming back into the leaves.
Just complete your pH correction flush asap and then dont water til they are dry. When you do, check the runoff pH and repeat as necessary to correct for soil souring
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