droopy plants...not overwatering, i promise

[wild95cat]

Originally Posted by kaBLAM

ooookay...but what i was insisting was that it wasn't an overwatering/underwatering problem. which is what everyone was quick to label my problem. it wasn't an AMOUNT of watering problem.

i agree that water ended up being PART of the problem...but my water tests at 6.8. The REAL problem is that the soil I bought is VERY alkaline. Which I didn't know until I did some research on the individual components of the soil.

So sticking with my original watering schedule (1x per week) and adjusting the ph downwards to accommodate an alkaline soil (i'm using lemon juice to get it to 6.0 until I get some ph down)...and foliar feeding to combat the rootlock that occured at such a high ph...my plants are no longer droopy.

Nice job KaBlam! Figuring out these things by ourselves is so much more rewarding than just gettin' the answer from someone, u kno?
I'm having a bit of the same issue, except that my soil is acidic because of the compost tea I added wasn't diluted enough.
My big question for you is this: HOW did you go about finding out what your soil's Ph was after you discovered that the Rapitest is crap?
I just used the little one-use kit which has a tube and a capsule, and says to fill to the 1st line with your soil. Then add the powder, then the distilled water. After letting it sit, it said it was green, 7.0, roughly.
I used a Ph Test from the makers of 'Ph up' and 'Ph down'. It's just a bottle of liquid(iodine? not sure) that I add 3-5 drops of, to the solution I need tested. I ran 6.5 water through the soil and into the tube. Added the 3-5 drops, and it was saying that it was around 4.0 and acidic.
So, I don't know which one to believe. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

[kaBLAM]

Originally Posted by wild95cat

Nice job KaBlam! Figuring out these things by ourselves is so much more rewarding than just gettin' the answer from someone, u kno?
I'm having a bit of the same issue, except that my soil is acidic because of the compost tea I added wasn't diluted enough.
My big question for you is this: HOW did you go about finding out what your soil's Ph was after you discovered that the Rapitest is crap?
I just used the little one-use kit which has a tube and a capsule, and says to fill to the 1st line with your soil. Then add the powder, then the distilled water. After letting it sit, it said it was green, 7.0, roughly.
I used a Ph Test from the makers of 'Ph up' and 'Ph down'. It's just a bottle of liquid(iodine? not sure) that I add 3-5 drops of, to the solution I need tested. I ran 6.5 water through the soil and into the tube. Added the 3-5 drops, and it was saying that it was around 4.0 and acidic.
So, I don't know which one to believe. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

hmmm...so you started with a soil test kit...then switched to a runoff tester...if i'm understanding correctly??

i would believe the liquid one. i've never heard of a "fill the soil to this line" kind of kit...and I'm doubting that your soil was perfectly neutral. that's really hard to ensure.

use a bromethyl blue kit...i got mine from an aquarium store...they are only a few bucks and are near the ph up and ph down solutions.

[ministergreen1]

Holy crap I have been looking for this thread for awhile now. Every thread out there says that drooping leaves are from overwatered or underwatered conditions. My plants leaves look healthy but just refuse not to droop. I have 2x40watt 6500 fluros, and 2x15 watt 7000 fluros about 2-3" surrounding the plants. Humidity is like 35% and my room stays at 78-82 degrees. 18/6 on the light schedual. I checked the Ph level today with the same test kit that you used (fill to the first line, add the powder from the capsule, add distilled water, shake, wait a minute) and it showed that my soil is between 7 and 8. So my soil is way too Alkaline. I bought a $20 soil ph tester (analog) and ckecked the soil according to it and it said that the soil was about 7. My tapp water (that I run through a filter and let sit out for a few days) is at about 6.5. I water like every 2-3 days when the soil is dry like 1-2" down from the top. I also watered today with a small amount of nutes maybee 1/8th strength(just enough to get my water ph to 6) and checked the ph level of the run off and my meter says that its like 6.5. I still need to get this ph level down a bit, but don't need to be feeding nutes to seedlings that are only 12 days old to accomplish this. I have heard that vinegar is better than lemon juice for lowering ph levels in you water. But if I have to use lemon juice I will. My question is......
Anyone please chime in.
How many drops of lemon juice did you add to what amount of water?
Can I just add drop until my meter says the ph level of my water is right?
What ph level of water are you using to water with?
How many days did it take to see a difference?

[kaBLAM]

Originally Posted by ministergreen1

Holy crap I have been looking for this thread for awhile now. Every thread out there says that drooping leaves are from overwatered or underwatered conditions. My plants leaves look healthy but just refuse not to droop. I have 2x40watt 6500 fluros, and 2x15 watt 7000 fluros about 2-3" surrounding the plants. Humidity is like 35% and my room stays at 78-82 degrees. 18/6 on the light schedual. I checked the Ph level today with the same test kit that you used (fill to the first line, add the powder from the capsule, add distilled water, shake, wait a minute) and it showed that my soil is between 7 and 8. So my soil is way too Alkaline. I bought a $20 soil ph tester (analog) and ckecked the soil according to it and it said that the soil was about 7. My tapp water (that I run through a filter and let sit out for a few days) is at about 6.5. I water like every 2-3 days when the soil is dry like 1-2" down from the top. I also watered today with a small amount of nutes maybee 1/8th strength(just enough to get my water ph to 6) and checked the ph level of the run off and my meter says that its like 6.5. I still need to get this ph level down a bit, but don't need to be feeding nutes to seedlings that are only 12 days old to accomplish this. I have heard that vinegar is better than lemon juice for lowering ph levels in you water. But if I have to use lemon juice I will. My question is......
Anyone please chime in.
How many drops of lemon juice did you add to what amount of water?
Can I just add drop until my meter says the ph level of my water is right?
What ph level of water are you using to water with?
How many days did it take to see a difference?

it was quite a few drops to a gallon of water. i had to keep retesting until i got down to 6.0.

I saw a difference within hours. Less than 12 hours.

The ph of my water without lemon juice is 6.8. WIth lemon i was bringing it down to 6.0.

unfortunately i started all over again with a different soil mix. everything i read on lemon juice was that it was not a good ph lower-er because it had nothing to keep it from breaking down in the soil. so we would have had to water more often than we should have, turning a ph-drooping problem into an overwatering problem.

now we are using the same potting mix but with a moderate amount of sphagnum peat moss mixed in. we have not started plants yet because we are waiting for our digital meter to be shipped to us so we can test the soil with a proper meter before we begin.

we thought it prudent to start over because our plants were so stunted that we thought it might effect yield later. that was the biggest problem with diagnosis...i thought the plants were growing fine because they had the correct number of nodes...however the leaves were small...even when they perked up they weren't that impressive looking, even at the 5th and 6th nodes. it wasn't until i asked folks for pictures of their four week old plants that i realized how stunted they actually were.

hope that helps.