hey guys as the title suggest I am going to try to flush my plants today to lower pH. Here's the situation I have a Alaskan thunderfuck mini-mom and a banana og mini mom in 5 gallon Terra Cotta pots that the leaves are turning yellow. I believe the pH is too high (around 7.4 is my guess). Yesterday I flushed a blueberry clone in a small 5" pot, but I only had lemon juice and apple cider vinegar to lower pH, it took almost 8 liters of water to flush a pot that could hold maybe 1-1.5 liters. What the fuck did I do wrong? I don't have that much Dechlorinated water to flush the big pots, so I want to do this right. I only have about 8 gallons of water to flush with today. here's what I have at my disposal: MG Blood meal (12-0-0) 3 pounds Urea (46-0-0) 4 pounds Apple Cider Vinegar 16 Oz I also bought 1.5 lbs of Lime, but I'll save that for once I get the pH settled. So how do I do this? The plants are in the same soil as the blueberry was but I will have to lower the pH much more drastically than the blueberry, as I don't have enough water to run it through nearly as many times. I believe the pH is 7.4 and I believe there is a strong natural buffer in the soil somehow. Basically Ive never done this before and could use a little step by step advice, or at least someone to point me in the general direction. Thanks
ya right on man. anybody else? Is blood meal more readily absorbed by the roots than urea? I'm still now sure how to do this properly. I kept flushing low pH water with apple cider vinegar (as low as 3.3) through the pots until the runoff read around 6.5, then I rinsed them one last time with 50/50 RO water/tap water with a few drops of ACV to get the waters pH down to 6.5 to match the soil. I finished 2 plants this way, will wait for proper pH down, I'm afraid using so much vinegar will kill them
too much lemon juice, maybe, but ACV is all natural & organic (if u are using real organic ACV, not just vinegar), & shouldnt cause any probs, & when u have a high ph, dont try to fix it in 1 setting or 1 day, it might take a few days or whatnot to lower the ph in the correct range, eg: fresh FFOF (fox farm ocean forest) has a low starting ph, around 6, so i water w/ 8.0 (which is what my tap is) for a few waterings & eventually the ph (runoff water) comes out around 6.5-6.8, then i keep my waterings/feedings @ 6.5-6.8 & then the soils ph should stay there as long as u water til u get 20-30% runoff to flush out any unused fert salts. wow, 46-0-0, i wouldnt use, b/c thats just too much N imo, & the blood meal can be done either way as a top dressing, or a water feed, just try to follow the directions, but be careful blood meal can burn plants easy. whats your starting water ph, tap or other source?, b/c ACV isnt real strong, & can take alot to get it down to 6.5, if the starting ph is 8 or higher. & ACV really doesnt have that strong vinegar smell, only a slight vinegar smell. & if your water source is RO water, it should only take a few ml/cc of ACV to lower its ph (7) to 6.5, b/c RO water has no/little buffers in it to make it stable, & chemical ph down will be more harmful to the plants than ACV, b/c its Phosphoric acid. wikipedia "urea" & "ph down", & "apple cider vinegar" you have to give the soil a chance to absorb & hold the ACV, your just flushing it all out, thats why its not changing, or hard to change, thats why i said to do your ph'ing over a few days.
okay all good to know in the future, I believe it is real ACV, it is diluted to 5% acidity though, but isn't all vinegar you can buy in a store? When you say lower the pH over a few days do you mean water them every day? if so how much water? I still have one plant that I watered fully yesterday with pH 5.5 water but the runoff was still 7.5. I did not continue trying to lower the pH, I figured I'd wait and get some advice. My RO water is 7/0 and yeah it lowers very easily my tap water is 8.0 and has some conjugates but still lowers fairly easy. thanks for all the help