HELP. .
Hello good people.
I have 4plants that went in the ground right at 2 months ago (BB and SS?). At first everything was going great. Everyone seemed healthy and were growing like weeds… about a month into this, first one plant would start looking sick but the others would be fine. Then another would show signs of being sick but with different symptoms. They all seemed to slow down in growth and had pale leaves and spots and brown tips and were turning red/purple and so on and so on and so on. I have struggled with these poor and completely innocent children for a month.
I just flipped them. It is Halloween, ya know.
It seems that they have had so many and varied symptoms -and frankly one symptom can look like 4 or 5 other symptoms- I have just given up and am hoping they make it to the end.
Ok, enough whining. I’ve decided that ph is maybe, possibly the root (ha!) cause. But no matter what I do the ph, which is way too high, will not come down. I’ve used everything I could find to lower the ph and was on the verge of using pool ph down when the Minnesota Viking guy talked me out of it. But the craziest thing so far is that the plant with the highest ph (7.5) is the one that’s doing the best!! Ugh. WTF? And yes, I’ve flushed and flushed these poor things until I was afraid I would drown them.
I guess my question is, can I turn this around since they are now in the flowering portion of the show or should I just try to keep nursing them along? Poor babies. I did buy some flowering nutrient but am sort of afraid to do anything at this point.
I do use good water and correct the ph down to about 6 but with in hours the soil (organic potting soil and worm castings) is back up to 7.5.
I guess I’m mainly venting. Thanks for listening and any advice is appreciated.
Chasing PH is a frustrating experience. However, once you get a handle on it, the results are worth it.
Some prefer hydro growing because it the water goes bad, it can be dumped and changed in minutes. It can also kill everything if the nutes are too strong. Yeah, more than once…sigh.
It’s a learning process.
Unless your plants are in ground, you have control of the PH and NUTES.
Best Wishes
Can we see a few pictures ?
Stand by. They are tied down to some degree in a tent. Sort of a hillbilly technique I’ve pioneered.
But I will send some shortly.
When you say good water what type of water is it
City well ? Etc
If well is it filtered or softened?
Sorry, but I can’t really get a lot of natural light in this “room”.
I’ve used rainwater, bottled water, mineral water, RO water and tap water that’s been left out overnight.
Are you testing the soil with that probe? Or are you using runoff to test? I have one of those probes and it isn’t accurate. Mine always read high, but after I tested runoff it was actually extremely acidic. So don’t trust the probe.
Yes I have been using it for ph. I’ve also used pool test strips. I’m going to get a better tester.
Hahaha pun caught! Ok back to reading.
Ok caught up. I was gonna ask if your meter is properly calibrated but strips and soil leaves a huge potential for error. Invest in a decent probe. I got a cheapo for $14 off amazon but the Apera is gon be a next purchase. And we would really benefit from natural light. Impossible to diagnose in blurple. A good way is to catch them right after lights out of before lights on and snap a flash photo or 20. But yea. I suspect pH to be the issue as they are all showing different signs.
I think I see part of the problem. You are measuring the soil PH using a soil probe. Those are completely worthless. As @PurpNGold74 just stated; you need a better method for determining PH. Here is a good unit I and many others here use:
@Aquaponic_Dumme here’s another one. I ought to buy stock in Apera haha!
Perhaps you could tell us exactly what your conditions are. What brand of soil, what water, what lighting and for how long, when you water, etc.
Ok. Here goes.
The soil is 1/3 worm castings and 2/3 Eco Scraps organic potting soil.
The lighting is a LED 600 watt. RoLh brand? Came with the tent. They’ve had very little nutrients. I had heat issues early but not anymore.
What kind of water are you using, how often do you water, do you water to runoff, do you PH your water etc.
Your LED is more than likely around 200 watts at the plug; this is a more rational description of LED output.
It is entirely possible, using a soil probe meter, that you’re unable to get an accurate reading and your soil is just fine.
Agree those dual
Probes style don’t work check the run off with a pen style and get it corrected you’ll be fine
Thanks for help everyone!
I have question about using coffee grounds to lower ph. Coffee is very acidic and I’ve used it for composting before. I’m trying to lower the ph and have had no luck with, well , anything. I flushed and flushed my plants and am waiting for them to dry a little before I try again.
Could I try this? Thanks!
I only use ph up or down myself
I’ve seen many members try natural adjustments and have nothing but issues ?
So I don’t recommend it myself
Ok. Thanks, I’ll keep trying the ph down. Maybe napalm next time…