Hey Guys & Gals, I recently set up an indoor growing area in my closet. I have 6 plants growing in Fox Farms Ocean Forest that are almost two weeks old now (planted 9/13). They are looking good to me (pics below), but I just got my ph tester today, measured the runoff after watering, and I was a little stressed by the fact that the runoff was measuring 5.5. I need to calibrate I think, distilled water was measuring 6.6, but I am still a little concerned. I was going to transplant later this week but now I am not sure what I should do. I have ph raiser, should I add that to my water next watering (have not been adding nutes at all) to try and raise before transplanting or should I just transplant (having put some dolomite lime into the soil first this time)? Any advice on what I should do would be awesome. TLDR The soil my seedlings are in is testing 5.5, what should I do?
You shouldnt be worrying about ph when you are lining your grow area with blue tarp. A plant in vegitative stage needs the blue spectrum. and by you lining your area with blue....you are stealing that blue from the plants
You need to calibrate your meter and run fresh water thru them with a PH of 5.8 or 5.9 during veg u never wanna go lower than 5.8 and during flower you want to take it up to 6.0 for the first three weeks then bump it up to 6.2 no higher than 6.3 till finish. That's what I do anyways I hope it helps.
Ok. Your pH is fine. You've got an organic soil, and lime added. Measuring the "runoff pH" is really futile if you are trying to get a reading on the actual pH of your soil. If you want to measure your soil pH, take a small amount of your soil (a spoonful or so) and mix it into a little bit of pH neutral water. Allow it to sit for a little while, then measure the pH. Honestly, if you're not adding chemical nutrients, there is no reason to mess with the pH. I know that people tell you that you have to measure your runoff pH, and I'm sure somebodies going to come along and tell me I'm wrong. That's okay, I have a degree in chemistry, and I'm telling you that's it's an inaccurate way to measure the pH of your soil. What you are reading is the pH of the water you added, after it ran through your soil. This is not the same as the pH of your soil. Your soil pH is fine-an organic soil will buffer its own pH as long as you don't add chemical nutrients. Also, the pH of an organic soil will be different in different areas of the root zone. This is the way it's supposed to be in an organic soil. As long as your plants look healthy, leave them alone and let them do their thing. HTH
OK, thanks for the help. I will ignore the ph for now and stick with my plan to transplant later on this week. When I do transplant, I will put some dolomite lime into the soil first. The soil they are in now does not have any in it, sorry if that wasn't clear. Does that sound good? On a side note. After transplanting into Fox Farms Ocean Forest, how long do you think I should wait before starting to feed them nutes? Thanks for the help!
I wouldn't add lime. I trust that Foxfarm knows more about a balanced soil than I do and I don't muck with it. Wait at least a couple weeks after transplanting to add nutes and start light.
If you want to add a small amount of lime to your transplant soil, like maybe a tablespoon or so per pot, that will be fine. Mix the lime into the soil before adding the plant. How old are they? Wait a week or two at least before you start feeding, and even then start feeding at a low strength. We think that the nutrients are the best thing for our plants all the time and will always give them a boost, but fertilizing a stressed out plant can actually stress it even more. I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with your plants, but all plants are stressed to some degree after a transplant. Give them a little while to settle into their new home before you start feeding. HTH EDIT: A few weeks after transplanting, if your plants are healthy and happy, do not add any nutrients. If the plants are happy, the last thing you want to do is come in and mess with them (remember that fertilizing does not always help your plants)