Have you pulled that plant and flushed with PHd water at 7.0 to get that back in range of 6.3-6.8. Don’t beat yourself up there’s a lot of growers struggling with PH and the FF mediums 
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What they said
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Did you use Sledgehammer to flush?
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Full on sledgehammer - 2 tsp per 1 gallon. Followed with pure water (7 pH) 1.5 gallons and 1 gallon of pH’d week 8 fox farm nute mix. Ive done this 2 times before without issue, but i got hammered this time around! Do you use sledgehammer or just water? Think imnsticking to water going forward!!
The pH is an issue with happy frog if you dont mix in lime when potting - learned this the first grow, used it on my 2nd, and forgot by the 3rd a year later… the crazy thing is it has barely gone up despite my adding lime as a soil dressing for multiple feedings… can put 9 pH’d water in and get 4.94 out - always seems to give approx 5.0 pH runoff readings. I have a feeling the soil at the top is higher pH than at the bottom, but would think all the overflow watering ive done would somewhat resolve! Double lesson learned this time
Good news, i have 8 clones bursting to go lol!! Took them late once plants fully mature for quicker turnaround on upcoming grow.
Sorry to always @ you, i just saw that you used fox farm nutes in a prior post and think we have a similar set up.
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Trying to avoid the temptation to water again with full nutes for 3rd time since last Saturday… those clones may come in handy lol.
What size pot is it growing in and did you flush using 3 times that pot size? 3 gallon pot takes roughly 9 gallons to flush for a reset you should water in slowly so it runs out the bottom and not the top and sides
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Theyre in 5 gallons, i did not use 15 gal each when i flushed. Used 1 gallon with sledgehammer, 1.5 of pH’d water, then 1 gallon of pH’d water with nutes. I thought the point of sledgehammer was to keep from having to use that much water? Or do you do this when using sledgehammer for flushing? Or just suggesting i do to reset now?
I actually use a 12 oz cup to water to be sure its slow and even, my OCD rules my life, drives me nuts when ive seen a bit leaking down the side starting midway down lol. Let it soak in, pour in another cup, let settle etc etc. Takes a long time but makes me feel as though its more even and throughly watered and not just passed through as runoff…
I still just cant figure out why 1 is perfectly fine lol… all leaves still green and healthy, flowers looking good, healthy plant - super low pH runoff though, 4.98 (went in at 7.1).
Thanks!!
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I’ve heard a lot of sledgehammer horror stories. I promise that what happened.
From what I remember, it’s basically a detergent that binds to minerals and comes out in a flush.
I’d put my plant in a shower tub with a long hose/handle. I’d turn the hose on slightly and leave it gently spraying for an hour or so. I have good tap water. 7.0ph and 140ppm.
Sledgehammer scares me, I won’t use it again.
You still have the “detergent” in your soil.
Search “sledgehammer” on here, you’ll find other stories just like yours. Flush it as much as you can
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Without knowing your watering or feeding routine, several things could have caused this.
-PH at every watering or feeding should be precise. There’s a big difference between 6.0 and 6.5 as an example.
-run of should be ample, 20% minimum of what goes in should come out the bottom. This helps rinse the root zone of the salts from the previous feeding. Salt accumulation lead to PH crash/lower PH. Plus testing the run off let’s you know if you should feed or water the next round.
- When I grew in soil it was feed, water, feed occasionally when the PPMs of the run off was above 1400, target for this should be 1000. Soil like a wet to dry cycle.
I like @NeoGroR suggestion with the bath tub flush for that 5 gallon flush.
The FF sledgehammer and only 1 gallon used is suggested to use as part of the routine to help rinse the root zone and not a reset flush. Flush using straight tap water checking the run off numbers around 1/2 way though the flush to see where your are
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When i ran fox farms soil and nutes i found I had better luck using a small 2ml dose of the sledgehammer at every watering instead of flushing. I always watered to run off with ff.
Sledgehammer is saponin derived from yucca. Once i started growing in living soil, I continued using my sledgehammer without any problems. I only ised a couple ml per gallon and used it for watering. I dont like to waste and wanted to use it up . Once it was used up, i started using RAW brand of yucca. Now i use quillaja for the saponin.
Saponin increases resistance to heat and water stress. It will
Increased water penetration
Increased fertilizer uptake
Increased permeability of heavy clay soil with salt and alkali problems
Improved drainage, reducing salinity
Increased water intake
Increased root growth.
I feel the reason some have problems because the flushing of all the nutrients out of the soil at once and not replacing with fresh nutrients. If there are living microbes in the soil, chelating your nutrients into a form the plant can uptake. Microbes dont like being flushed. Be sure to replace the microbes ( FF bush dr, microbe brew)after any flushing.
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I put full load of week 8 nutes plus boomerang in after the flush. Did not have this issue the last 2 grows, so not sure what i did differently this time!
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KeystoneCops warned me 2 years ago… i threw the sledgehammer out! On gallon 8 of water flush rn - will probably do the final 2 with nutes. Not sure i can save 2 of them, the damage appear to be in the flower tendrils now, turning orange brown way too early (based on what insaw my last 2 grows).
Really appreciate everyone’s input and patience - cant wait till i can chip in and help people - i can clone with aloe like a champ, but not much past that lol.
Following the feeding schedlue minus sledgehammer from now on - stick to the ff feeding schedule religiously.
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Up to 6.09 pH on the damaged ones.
Wondering if you suggest i do the same with the healthy looking one? PH always comes out at 4.98 from the healthier one. Looks to have a bit of nute burn but nothing else that i can see, also have one of the other damaged plant.
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I don’t think that’s nute burn Growmie, most like a deficiency related to the low PH
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Oh, looked like nitrogen burn on the tips to me, but i clearly have no idea what im talking about lol!!! Ill do a reset and just see what happens. Clones are rearing to go, so thats the only good note at this point!
Will be remebering to add lime to the soil mix when transplanting, 2nd time ive had learn this lesson.
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The leaf tips can show a sign of over feeding and get increasingly worse. It can get difficult to recognize the difference between deficiency and toxicity and this is where run off helps keeping a healthy root zone to prevent the toxicity and testing the PPMs for deficiencies and feeding
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