Thread: why is this soil plant droopy

using a soil mix organic blend with peat(1cu), and perlite(small bag)

all plants are fed the same with a GH3 @ 1/4 stregnth everyother feed after leaves started to yellow(water, feed, water, feed)every 3rd day

the sl has always been droopy and the 2 sk have not

a week just got a cheap soil ph meter and ph was about 7.5

3 days ago i bought a iron + soil acidifier(directions say use 2/3 cup to large bush to correct from a ph of 8 to 6.5)

3 days ago i also sprayed with recomended dose of vita grows antiwilt

and also 3 days ago i transplanted to alittle bigger square pot
the soil has added 2/3 cup bone,blood, iron + soil acidifier

ventilation is basicly perfect, no higher than 84 or lower that 68

light is 18/6 w/ 6 23w cfl in 1000 hood

heres what they look like now

will not water for about 5 day instead of 3 anything else
thanks for reply

is your soil meter the probe in the soil type?, or a PH pen that gives you a digital number

cheap probe from lowes
does ph wettness and light

oh yeah that white crap on top of soil is the iron + soil acidifier

those meters really suck, your way better off with a cheapo chemical PH test kits from the pet shop for aquariums

get it ...test the ph of your water and complete a soil runoff PH test.......
with PH corrected water (6.5-6.8PH ) pour enough water in the pots so the water runs out the bottom of the pot ...collect & test the PH of this runoff water....post both the watering going in the pots and the runoff ph

watch this video I made

http://ganjaguerrilla.net/PH%20&%20Flushing.WMV

just got the GH liquid test kit
lights were off til 8pm
so i tested ph of water out of tap, which was a dark green about 8ph
then i tested about 4 day old nute mix and it was a darker green so maybe about 8.4,

when lights come on goin to test ph of runoff water with just water, and then check with the nute mix

Now that you have your pH test kit, make sure you properly pH every drop of liquid that goes into your pot.

PC

tested soil runoff and it was a medium green so around 7.3-7.7

so would bring ph down on water to about 6.3-6.8 or?

would it be better to use the acidifier on the soil and water around 6.5

or water with a lower ph

Try and find a Hydroshop near you, they have a couple things that you will need.
1) pH down
2) pH Up

The ones that i use are from General Hydroponics. Keep in mind you will want your soil run-off water to be around 6.5 - 6.8. So you will want to flush your plants with some pH adjusted water. To break it down for you even more, you will want to make about 5 gallons of tap water that is pH adjusted to 6.4 and then pour that thru your soil. Test your soil after you have pushed some of the water thru the soil. When you reach the desired pH you will then put your plant back under the light. DO NOT USE NUTES!!! (trust me on this, you will en up putting your plant in what is called "Lockout" and that is harder to come out of than you would think and will take a LONG time, if you want to see a lockout plant, check out my grow log, my plants in the beginning were in lockout). While your plant is out from under the light, you could light mist your plant with water only (not mandatory, the water should be just about dried before you put it back under the light). In about 24 hours you will see that your plant has perked up a little bit and as time progresses you will see more improvement.


Hope that was enough detail, good luck with your grow.

ive already got the GH ph up and down

let me make sure i am understanding correctly. adjust my ph down til my runoff is about 6.5.

but is it better to keep the water phed low or try to correct in soil too, reguardless im goin to have to ph water down every time

Ive already got the GH ph up and down

let me make sure i am understanding correctly. adjust my ph down til my runoff is about 6.5.

but is it better to keep the water phed low or try to correct in soil too, reguardless im goin to have to ph water down every time

You will have to adjust your tap water BEFORE you flush the soil, and everytime you water/flush you will have to adjust your pH since your tap water is so high. So your going to be testing the tap water before you adjust each time, and then test the soil run-off water when you do the flush, so the min testing you will be doing is 2 per plant.

If your thinking of creating some water that can be used anytime, kinda like a reserve in hydro, your gonna need to keep that water from getting any light, put an air stone in the water connected to an air pump to keep the water fresh (this will be when you have nutes in the water). If you dont have nutes in the water you dont need the airstone and such since the water will be going into soil and the roots already have air.

The good side of this is that with soil your only looking at having to do this every 3-4 days depending on how well your soil drains. Flushing schedule i have decided to do once a week, others do it once every couple, but i want to keep the soil clean and only nutes in there. I am sure i am loosing some nutes with the flush, but i am running around 1500ppm in both my DWC hydro and soil plants, so they always have the nutes in each.

I think with the pH down of the tap water you wont need the other crap that you put on the top of the water, especially if your doing a regular schedule flush. just my opinion and others may thing different, but if i can control the pH of the water going in, and my soil is as consistant as possible, no time release crap nutes or other stuff added, then i know where my pH is in the soil at all times and it makes the grow ALOT easier.

well everything has been flushed very good and everything is starting to look like a healthier green

since the soil and everything has been flushed good, how long before i should start to give nutes?

anything anyone else sees?

and again thanks for all the help and
ganjaguerilla for the ph video it was very informative

Depending on the age of the plants will dictate the strength of the nutes that you will give them, along with where in the nute cycle or feeding cycle you are in. By the looks of them you can start giving them a diluted nute solution. You can start out at 25% strength and then work your way up. Your plants will react to the nutes so you will want to keep an eye on them. They will tell you when its too much or not enough. I personally use the Biotonicare nutes but each person has thier preferences to the which to use. The other thing that i do is as those bottom leaf tips die i cut the brown material off so the plant doesnt put any energy into them. There are people who will just pull it off so they know that it is dead and not taking any living material. I prefer the cutting of the tips with scissors so that its an even and sterile cut. This is more of a personal choice than a necessity, imo.

Glad to see things turning around for ya and always happy to help...