Hey everyone. So I just got these two clones and put them under CFLs with around 180 actual watts. I didn't have a ph pen for the first few days and now that I do I realized my waters ph was way to high at around 9 ph. I got it down to 6.5 ish now and the plants seem to be doing better and having more new growth but I'm wondering how you guys think they're doing. The tacoing and curling was from before the ph was adjusted. The plants have slowly been recovering. No nutes yet only water in ffof. I am completely new to growing so any advice or criticism is appreciated. The clones were transplanted into the two gallon pots 5 days ago. Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
Good thing you fixed the ph, they were dyin! But if the new growth is green then all is well again Dont give them food for a few weeks.
pshoo haha, the new growth is green but i still feel like the soils ph might be slightly high, i dont want to overwater them, what can i do to get it down more quickly if it is high, ill test the runoff again tomorrow after watering.
Flushing will drain the nutes and essentially starve the plants. It fixes nutrient disorders a lot of the time by exacerbating the problem so its more clear, which allows the next feeding to occur quicker. Dolomite lime can neutralize soil ph to 7 but a little goes a long ways. Its typically used to raise soil after sulfuric acid accumulates in the soil (rapid decay) and drops ph significantly. Lime raises it by neutralizing the sulfuric acid. If your plants continue to green up top but worsen on bottom foliage youll want to flush then start back with your nutes at 1/4 to 1/2 strength. However ph is not necessary if youre feeding organic nutes (not in a bottle) ~ poke
Odd suggestion....pine needle mulch. Seriously, run a bunch of green pine needles (so hard to find this time of year, right?), mix them in with your topsoil, just the top couple inches. Water will leech it downwards. But be CAREFUL monkeying with pH...change it too fast, fight it too much, plant's going to go shocky, and you'll get nutrient lockout (where it can't take up either the nitrogen or the potassium). All changes need to be slow and gentle. Soil pH tends to be naturally high where there's larger amounts than normal of lime mixed in, more than anything else (called "sweet" soil), there are products out there to cope with "over sweet soil"...both organic and manufactured.