I have 10 plants and I keep taking digital readings of the pH and it is coming up with a 5.5 reading at the bottom of the 5 gallon pots. When I take a digital reading from the tops of the pots they are showing 6.6. I am experiencing cupping and twisting of the leaves. I have eliminated all other factors for the cupping and twisting...(temp in grow room, distance of lights to the plants and humidity) Does anyone have any tips? I want to balance my pH back out to 6.2-7.0. Should I use egg shells or put a base substance in my water for feeding? I would prefer the process be organic but if worse comes to worst I will use any method possible to improve my current situation. The photos of the plants in the chopped water bottles are my new plants that are experiencing the same thing.
what is your water source? a lot of times distilled water can have a low ph(i learned the hard way). get either some ph up from a hydro shop or get some ph up from a pet store(aquarium stuff). but don't make huge adjustments. do it slowly
I am using distilled water. I would give my run off reading but it started this problem the day after watering. So I'm yet to re-water again. I've heard distilled vinegar and baking soda can adjust ur pH but I dont know amounts to use or when and how often to use them on the plants.
Distilled water has a pH as close to 7 as you're ever really gonna get. Egg shells have calcium, which is a cation. It will make your problem worse. The reason why your pH is getting acid is that nutrients are acidic. Distilled water+acidic nutrients = acidic water. You need a pH tester and a jug of pH up. I recommend flushing the plants and then creating pHed nutrient solution from here on out.
What are you using to test the ph? I noticed you said the bottom of 5 gals have one reading while the tops have an other. Are you taking soil samples? Have you measured runoff?
@bulletcatcher: I knew my soil was going to be on the acidic side because it is organic and I used...(Organic potting soil, bat guano, worm castings, blood meal, bone meal, vermiculite, perilite, dolomite lime and peat moss) I got the soil list off of High Times and it had great reviews so I went with it. I only put that soil into the bottom 1/3 of the pots and then I used just the basic potting soil, vermic and perilite to fill in the sides and around the root bulb. So basically it is layered at the bottom for extra nutrients when the plants grow a little larger and can handle those nutes. So I understand why the pH is lower at the bottom but I dont get why the leaves are twisting and cupping already. The roots couldnt have hit that soil yet, its only been 4 days! Other than that I have been using only distilled water with a 1/4 dose of superthrive and 1/4 dose of fish emoulsion for foilage spraying every other watering. Then on my other watering I just use the straight distilled water. I check the pH of my water every time to make sure it is at 7 and it has been on every watering so far. I read that the egg shells help to neutralize the pH so thats why I put that....Do you know what pH up is made from? Is it chemical based or just made from organic materials like calcium? I only ask because this medication is for a very sick friend of mine with Fibromyaliga and I promised her I wouldnt use any chemicals. She is very holistic and we dont have any dispensaries in our state. I appreciate the advice you have been very helpful so far! @askEd: I am using a KCB-300 (4 in 1 soil survey pen) I noticed the difference in the soil pH when I was doing my last rounds of checks. Since these plants were just transferred into the 5 gallon pots I was only checking the soil about half way/three quaters the way down and I was getting a reading of 6.5pH. But I am still getting the twisting and cupping. I just want to handle this before the plants hit the bottom one third of the pots and get all those nutes in the soil and the pH is even lower down there. I havent checked the run-off because they just started showing the effects of the pH the day after their last watering. So I will be watering again in a day or two and I will check my runoff then. I also want to say thank you for reading my post! I am a huge fan of your grows and responses to all the other members! I greatly appreciate your advice because you are a very trusted source on this site!
Thanks for the kind words, very appreciated. Don't know how much help I can be here, but I'm certainly willing to try LOL I was asking about the meter because I was curious to how you got the soil readings. Those meters are usually affected by moisture, the wetter the soil the more acidic it reads (I don't trust them). Peat is acidic, but bone meal, blood meal, lime - those all raise the ph a bit. In fact that looks like a pretty balanced mix - don't know about the organic soil though. Normally with low ph soil, you'll see calcium & magnesium lock out pretty fast. With high ph you get stunted growth, twisting, spots, just strange stuff. This is why I say it looks a bit odd to get those low readings, from the looks of things I'd guess you have a high ph soil. Normally I'd say just to look at your runoff ph, it'll tell you enough of whether you need to adjust your water going in or not. But you have a mix of layers, so that kinda complicates things Hell it may be the 'hot zones' causing the issues. I'd still take a look at the runoff though. Don't know if that's the right reading to use so just take it as a suggestion. I hope all of this makes sense! If you have enough plants, and don't mind experimenting a bit, try giving one a little lower ph water and see if she likes it. Additionally you can give one plant a higher ph and see who's happiest. Goodluck!
They seem to have devloped some spots on 3 of the 10 plants so I figured I would throw some pics up to see if this opens any ideas up... I appreciate the tips and I will definetly do some extra tests to see what I come up with...