I can't find anything on this topic, but I know it has to exist somewhere. I figured since I can't find it... it can be considered 'advanced'. In a nutshell, the PH run off using Happy Frog is really low. It's between 5 and 6 right now, and I believe it was lower before hand. I only had PH problems once I moved to larger 2.5 gallon buckets though. In party cups, the run off was around 6.5, which is quite baffling. Anyhow, I've been watering with water that has a rather high PH upwards of 8. I'm not seeing any super damaging going on to my plants, but the PH of the soil isn't moving very quickly. I just started nutrients last watering at about 1/4 strength. I'm concerned that if by the next few times I water, I'm going to get nutrient lock-out. My plants look pretty good, with only a few leaves that show any signs of anything, but I'd rather work ahead of time so I don't lose my grow! On one plant, I experimented with trying to flood the soil with 8 PH water to move the PH. I have no clue how, but if my memory serves me correctly, the PH after the 3rd pitcher through the soil was lower than the first. So, in the end, I guess my question is; how many of you guys have changed your PH drastically in soil with watering with adjusted water? I'm not referring to making sure your water is around neutral PH, but using PH up or down to change the run off PH by at least 1.
run off is useless baffle!! it dosnt matter what comes out of the bottom its all about what you put in the top!! years of experiance with Run off as low as 4.6 with perfectly healthy plants!! dont worry about it!!
Hm. Now that's a point I really didn't think of! Although, it seems pretty standard that PH has a huge deal with growing any plant. I was having PH problems though, with watering with neutral PH water. I suppose I'll see if watering with 8 PH water and nutrients will clear it all up. I'd just really love to find a quicker solution than what I am doing.
hey. Iv tried the putting PH8 and even higher in order to bring up low PH run off levels but what i learnt was by givng a plant that likes ph 6.6 a dose of ph 8 or higher you are only going to lock out nutes and cause more problems!! flush the plants with ph 6.6 and leave them alonf for a few days and just keep addind 6.6 water/feeds you should be fine!!
Just to get down to the bottom of it, define flush! I've seen like 300 different ideas behind the word flush now...
an emergency soil flush is when you run a lot of water through your medium to remove excess salts and crap left over from fertilizing (usually a response to over fertilization). the amount of water you use should be about three times the size of the pot you are using (so for a 3 gallon pot you should run around 9 gallons through it). obviously this can be shocking to the plant and hence why it should only be done in emergency situations. just a regular soil flush at the end of flowering before harvesting (to flush out all the rest of the nutrients and such in order to achieve a better tasting product) is usually just watering with only water (could still be pH-ed) for the last week or so and not using any nutrients. for hydroponics, it can vary. for example, for DWC some say a flush is not necessary at all.
Yeah i also flush wit x3 the amount of the pots so 25l pot gets flushed with 75l of water i wouldnt worry about ph-ing the water as its always around the 7 mark so you should be fine and if you want to bring the ph up from like 5ish a standard flush will do the job!! peace
just add some dolomite lime. its a soil buffer (pH 7) along with cal/mag works great, i have used it with miracle gro soil and it seriously helps bringing the pH up in the soil. mix it into the top layer of soil and do a heavy water. check the ph in a day and you will be back on track. i wouldnt flush at all, you just need to raise the ph up little bit. -Teapot
ph run off is important. ones who say it isnt dont understand it or understand how foods and cation exchange works...no offence do noit adjust water to adjust run off ph. always use same ph and use more water till it risesw to what it went in as or close to that. if run off isnt close to what was used then its not feeding right. sure it may look ok but its not at its peek potential nor will the final product and uses way more food than is needed to get the same results. i even see some say organic dosent need ph..not true. i work at a nute co and we all recomend using ph for any food. but then we like the ones not and having to buy more food so we usualy dont care to say anything. if you run the right ph and keep a correct wet/dry cycle you shgould never need to flush except for final clearing at harvbest., i never do unless in trouble what ph do you use for food and waters normaly in this fox farm soil..??....6.3?.
I'm having the same problems with Happy Frog! I've been watering my veggies right now with PH'd 7.0 tap and no nutes for two weeks now and my runoff has been at 5.3! Now that is a problem. Since everytime I water them they get worse off so I know something is up. I just recently started to water with 8.5 PH'd water to see if that will help because what I'm doing now sure isn't helping!
DCRUNK33, I ended up just using regular PH'd water around 6 with my nutrients and it seems to be helping. I'm having issues with undergrowth being a little crunchy, but new growth and buds look great. It seems to be only effecting lower leaves. I don't think Happy Frog is really suitable for growing cannabis. It's too acidic. I'm having no PH problems in party cups with it though, which is odd. I didn't start having PH issues until I transplanted to larger pots. My grow is coming along, but I think some Ocean Forest would have prevented all of this mess.
well no feed or water is ever at 7 ph so your making all messed up by not using right pH for the medium. its salted up now with low pH cause the food ph isnt what it wants so its building up and not eating...lock out time. dont move the pH of the water. does nothing to adjust the mediums pH. soon as it begins to dry again its still low. it cant eat at that level and isnt fixing the issue also noticed you say veggies.,..what veggy. some need diff pH and ellement needs. veggies arent pot plants for food or pH. tomatoe is 7.2 and lots of potassium
theres nothing wrong with happy frog or most other soils. its always us that ,messes up the medium. only medium ive seen hard to control for some in ph is miricle grow because of type of ellements they use in their nutes...cheep crap and dosent process well or release from roots verry well..
G A, a little Googling shows that using Happy Frog just ends up requiring too much work. For marijuana, it's not the best soil. Happy Frog works, but there is no reason to buy it knowing that there will most likely be PH problems.
So my girls are in SOIL and also in mid-flower and I just tested my PH for the first time and it was 5. How do I safely bring PH it up so that my girls can absorb the Potassium and Potash properly? Preferably on the cheap as I just spent my last $$$ on my cat's vet bill and am broke until next month now.
In short, watering will not change soil's PH level. Run-off water is used to measure the PH level of your soil (instead of adjusting it). The way of adjusting soil's PH level is to mix it with materials that are higher or lower at PH level. In your case, you want to take out the plant, wash away your soil, and add new ones that are more appropriate for your plant. Using imbalance soil will not kill your plant, but it will limit its growth.
If you are using a healthy living organic soil, pH is not a concern. Ever. Sent from somewhere over there. No, not there...over THERE.
I completely understand CEC - and testing the runoff of soil and especially an organic soil and basing anything off of it is, in my opinion a fools errand. Soil pH is constantly changing as different types of organic matter break down - this is referred to as a "dynamic pH". This isn't an inert medium you're referring to here - it's soil and it's not made up of one single item, it's made up of many different materials and all with their own unique pH. Make sure the pH of your soil is reasonably close and let the microbes sort it out. J Edit: Nevermind! Lol - I just noticed the post I responded to was 5 years old lol
I've been on this site for years now and all the experienced growers never test ph. To me it's just a useless task for people that want to constantly mess with their plants. And it seems like those people are the ones always having the exact same issues over and over and over lol Sent from my SM-G935V using Grasscity Forum mobile app