Sickish plants

[jhoppa]

So here's the deal with my plants. The bottom leaves are yellowing (the bottom set died completely, the next set up are nearly dead and the set above that are still mostly healthy), and all of my leaves have a very slight bit of yellow on the tip. New leaves are curling under and growth appears to have slowed down a lot.

So I looked this up in the sick plants sticky and it said nitrogen deficiency and suggested that I change the pH.

So now that I know the problems and a general solution, this is what I am wondering:
-Is there any way to know whether my pH is too high or too low without testing it? Does the fact that it is most likely a nitrogen deficiency indicate anything one way or the other?
-If not, where can I get testing supplies real cheap? I need to buy them locally, rather than from the internet because I am going out of town tomorrow for five days. I'm afraid that if I don't fix the problem before I leave that it may kill/maim the plants while I'm away.
-Once I have determined whether my pH needs to go up or down, what can i use to treat my water in order to achieve this?

[rye_led]

hey jhoppa..
Some more info your grow would help alot if you want someone here to be able to help you. Pictures would be fantastic. Regarding your ph question, i beleive the only way to measure ph is with a tester and the litmus strips are not the best way, they dont give an accurate enough number from what i understand. I have discovered that soil ph is EXTREMELY important from reading hundreds of threads about sick plants and problems and from personal experience. Check your soil, check your water and check your water again after you add nutes. I check my water evrytime now because i have had two bottle of tap water that i let sit for 24 hours have a ph of 7 and 6.5 in sterilized containers. Some nuters will lower ytour ph when you add them and some will raise it. Use that tester and test evrything before you dump anything on your babies. I solved a world of problems just by changing my ph from 7 to 6.5 ( thanks VTEC).. Hope this helps you..
rye

[fatbob166]

Pics would be great, but your problem sounds a lot like the problem I had recently. In my case my plants were rootbound in their little 2L pots. All I did was repot them in bigger pots, and a few days later, they were green and growing again. Like rye said though, give some more info on your grow, and more people will be able to help you. Good luck bro.......

[Perp]

I use PH litmus paper to check PH. It comes with a color chart and all you do is dip the paper in the solution and compare the colors. It measures down to the .5 of a PH so 4, 4.5, 5, 5.5 and so on. It is cheap, about $1 for 250 strips, and I get it from my local army surplus store, in the section where they have lab supplies.

If you don't have a surplus store look for a store that sells laboratory supplies.

This is good for measuring the PH of liquids. For soil go to WalMart and buy a PH probe that you stick in the soil. They are cheap too, about $3-4.

To lower the PH of nutrient solution use phosphoric acid, available at local hydro shop. Cost about $8 for half a litre, lasts for a long time. Chances are you will not have to raise your PH if you are using tap water.

[SmknVTEC]

Originally Posted by rye_led

I solved a world of problems just by changing my ph from 7 to 6.5 ( thanks VTEC).. Hope this helps you..
rye

Nice to see my help can help others who then help others...