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 skunkyskerb
Stranger
Registered: 04/18/10
Posts: 5
Last seen: 14 years, 6 months
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 plants close to ph lockout?! 
#403610 - 04/18/10 10:00 PM (14 years, 8 months ago) |
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I am not a first time grower but this garden is definitely testing my skills. I have 5 plants all just under 2 weeks old. Its a closet grow but I eventually intend to get them outside for the duration of the grow season. I have a 400w hortilux wide spectrum light. I keep the temps around 76 degrees and aim for around 40 percent humidity. I have a small jug with flowing co2 (yeast/sugar) and a good vent fan. The plants have done very well and I'm astonished by how quick they went from seedlings to veg state. I noticed small signs of heat stress about a week ago and adjusted my light. Last night I noticed a fair amount of yellowing on some leaves and then today I noticed small brown shiny patches on several leaves. It got worse throughout the next day and leaves got brittle and fast! I believe it might be ph lockout. I have a soil ph meter but its not digital and I'm afraid its been misleading me. All new growth looks relatively fine but bigger leaves are showing some sort or stress. They are in 1/2 gal pots and I have started to water them once ever 3 days. I have allowed them 2 small doses of superthrive but the stalks and roots seem to be great so no need for anymore. I have ph up and ph down but no meter for the time being. I ran some water through two plants with 3ml of ph down in a gallon. Only used half the bucket. That was 3 hours ago and it looks a little better but I'm still freaking out. The small plant is shiva and the taller one is a nl hybrid that was grown outside last year. Please check out my profile pics to help me verify the problem and let me know whether to further ph up or ph down.
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 Hawksresurrection
Registered: 12/04/08
Posts: 13,464
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Re: plants close to ph lockout?! [Re: skunkyskerb]
#403688 - 04/19/10 02:25 AM (14 years, 8 months ago) |
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That's pretty dangerous using pH down without being able to check where it's at. 3ml's could make a HUGE swing in the pH. No one is going to be able to tell you whether you need to use more pH up or down just by looking at your plant.
Your just going to have to bite the bullet and buy a meter.
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Dude she isn't as young as she use to be.
-niteowl
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skunkyskerb
Stranger
Registered: 04/18/10
Posts: 5
Last seen: 14 years, 6 months
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I went out and dot a new but still not digital ph meter. It claims to be very accurate between 4 and 8 ph. I'm still skeptical about it but it showed that my soil was high 7 like7.8 or 7.9 and those were the ones I already dosed with half gal of ph down. Soo I'm in theory going to add ph down into my normal watering regiment I believe. Will add lower doses when ph seems to be stable and then I will just have to counter the waterr and the nutes. I was thinking about buying a water buffer down the line to make things easier. Please continue to post. The new growth seems fine but the yellowing and browning is still continuing on the previously affected baby leaves
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Hawksresurrection
Registered: 12/04/08
Posts: 13,464
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Re: plants close to ph lockout?! [Re: skunkyskerb]
#403818 - 04/19/10 01:54 PM (14 years, 8 months ago) |
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The leaves that have already been affected are not going to improve. Once the damage is down it can not be reversed. You need to look the the new growth only to see if the problem is being taken care of, as well as making sure that the problems with the old leaves are not progressing.
It's fine to be testing the pH of the soil, but you need to be testing the pH of your water as well. Just putting in a amount of pH down that you picked for an arbitrary reason is not a good idea. You don't know what your starting pH is, so you don't even know if it's pH down that you should be using in your water. Depending on your nutrient line you may need to be adding pH up to your water.
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Dude she isn't as young as she use to be.
-niteowl
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DoPeYsMuRf
Registered: 08/13/09
Posts: 645
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Re: plants close to ph lockout?! [Re: skunkyskerb]
#403820 - 04/19/10 02:14 PM (14 years, 8 months ago) |
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I never had problems like this until I used superthrive. Then I got the same browning of the leaves like you.
I quickly stopped using superthrive.
Plus, with the advice of hawksapprentice I started managing my pH better and my plants started looking much better.
It took a long time to figure out what pH my plants like best. I use 6.5-7pH tap water with great success.
Tap water holds a stable pH way better than RO/DI/distilled water. Plus, for seedlings its great because of all the nutrients it contains.
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skunkyskerb
Stranger
Registered: 04/18/10
Posts: 5
Last seen: 14 years, 6 months
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Re: plants close to ph lockout?! [Re: DoPeYsMuRf]
#403910 - 04/19/10 07:38 PM (14 years, 8 months ago) |
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Ok so proper ph checking/control consists of what exactly? I have an educated guess but I'm sure there is a set list for ph control I should be following and adjusting it accordingly. The browning/yellowing has drastically slowed down on the already affected leaves. Old leaves still looking brittle though. One plant is dark green with new yellowing on outside of new growth. I'm don't with vitamin b for awhile. The first time I used it it was close to 50 percent strength and realize the mistake now. I'm still worried as to how to fix my problem and whether its ph problem over nute or some sort of nute deficiency. I will try to add more pics but they will be attached to my profile rather than attached here. As far as ph goes should I be dropping my hard well water down to 6.5 and then bring it down more if my soil is over 7? I'm good with math and calculations just not sure what is needed to get to my goal ph.
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skunkyskerb
Stranger
Registered: 04/18/10
Posts: 5
Last seen: 14 years, 6 months
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Re: plants close to ph lockout?! [Re: skunkyskerb]
#403917 - 04/19/10 07:55 PM (14 years, 8 months ago) |
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Should I flush it all at once to get desired ph or gradually?
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Hawksresurrection
Registered: 12/04/08
Posts: 13,464
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Re: plants close to ph lockout?! [Re: skunkyskerb]
#403968 - 04/19/10 11:08 PM (14 years, 8 months ago) |
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Proper pH checking consists of checking the pH of you water after you add all of your nutrients. And then using either pH up or down to get it into the range you desire. Personally I never check the pH of my soil. But I use FFOF so there is no real need to. I know it's pretty close to wear I want it to begin with and never allow my water to be out of the range I want it to be in.
I would just start focusing on the pH of your water and let that gradually bring the pH down.
On another note, you shouldn't re-use soil. That's just asking for trouble. All of my used soil, and there's a lot of it, goes out side into my raised garden beds. If that doesn't work for you then dump somewhere in the boonies.
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Dude she isn't as young as she use to be.
-niteowl
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skunkyskerb
Stranger
Registered: 04/18/10
Posts: 5
Last seen: 14 years, 6 months
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I am also using FFOF but I see all of my tap water is so hard its close to 8. I made a gallon of 7ph. Ill let it sit and check it again before I water. No more vitamin b and def no food for a couple weeks.
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