Kades soil noobness

[KADE]

Here it is... the continuation of my mother plants in limbo. 1/2 alive 1/2 dead. Always growing and dying.

I'll post pics in a few when I wash the paint off of my hands from my new stealth cloning box and grab a quick bite to eat.

To get ppl up to date.

soil ph was 4.3
flushed 60 or so liters through it
ph is now 5.1 but now the ph won't move no matter what ph of water I give it.
Bought lime today... added 3 tsps to top 3" of soil.

 

[Mutt]

My nutes are made for soil as well. It does not say it is.. nor do I think it is ph buffered... as when I add them to the water the ph drops. I added the lime today, we'll see how things go. I have some pics I took today showing what happens with the leaves... it does have ''necrotic spots'' but not necessarily on older leaves... altho... there are no older leaves..

Reason why i questioned the PH buffer. I was wondering if it was "setting" the PH for Hydro range not soil range. Does the DNF label have what mixture to use for soil ratios? The reason is you said when you add the hydro ferts the PH drops. Well thats what is going wrong. Too low of PH.
Just tryin to help, as really if decent soil is being used, ya really shouldn't have this major of a PH problem. I am seriously thinking your Hydro ferts are causing this low PH for the soil. It may be setting optimum range for hydro. Thus "buffering" the PH to that range. 5.1 is dangerously low for soil. So I'm just tryin to start at the begining and work through it to find the cause of the imbalance. There is something causing this huge drop in PH and In my experience it was either bad water or chem ferts.
Can you test the PH of the water before ferts are added and after for a comparison. Then it will eliminate or verify it as a problem all together. IMHO

 

[KADE]

yeah.. I thought I did, I'll double check tomorrow when I get back in the room. It isn't a drastic change.. but I know when changing my ph I use 12 drops when I do plain water... and i use 10 ph down when I add nutes.

I'll double check to rule it in/out 100%

 

[KADE]

Ok, here she is... the main man... err mother.
All pics will enlarge when clicked on.

As you might be able to tell, it has new growth all over (but does it very slowly) but no fan leaves basically..


Here is what the leaves start like... little whitish spots that look like spit or drying skin almost.


And then it turns to the "necrotic spots"

 

[KADE]

Mutt - I just took a plastic drinking cup of water.. ph of 6.50 put in 1ml of DNF A and B... and it went to 5.48 or so... so I was right.. most nutes do that however... thas why u flush. =) When I do water the girls in soil I only do so ever so often with nutes... every couple waterings..

So it is dropping because of that.. but I always ph my water after adding nutes. That does not explain why, after getting the ph to 5.00 adding 30 more litres of water made it only go up to 5.10. Shouldn't the water eventually wash out all the bad ph and even out?

On the DNF labels it is 5ml per liter of each for hydro and 2.5 of each per liter for soil.

 

[Mutt]

Hey Kade,
I have read the threads over and over. I'm confused on something. Are you adding PH down every time you add ferts or water?
You said your using PH down. when you add ferts. I think you're making this a lot harder than it has to be.
To be dead honest. I would cease adding any chems. What kind of soil are you using? If your flushing 60l of 6.5 PH'd water through it. The PH should be around 6.5 as everything is outa of the soil.
I would not add anything..lime, epsom, PH up or down, or ferts. I would even consider transplanting into fresh quality soil. I would also switch to a fert like fox-farms or something designed for soil grow.
The reason I say this is, I've never had those kinda of PH numbers in a soil grow. Its something thats being added or the chems that have put everything out of whack IMHO.
So to go to basics could save those plants before its too late. Use quality soil and an organic fert like fox-farms and nothing else. then your PH problem would be gone.
Leave the chems for the aero-system. IMHO

Edit:
Chem ferts build-up in soil. Causing excess ferts and salts. So all those yuckies have to be flushed out before harvest. I'm not sure if thats the same reason why you flush out hydro tho. Thats your area of expertise. The only other time I flush is incase of nuitreint burn.

 

[Hick]

hmmmm...that lime takes awhile to start working, kade. I've also found that it is nearlly impossible to mix it in after having plants in the pot. I would suggest getting it out of that dirt. Whatever it is, it isn't doing you any justice. Mix your lime in as a buffer, then transplant. The lime "should" keep your ferts from crashing the ph.

 

[KADE]

this thing is rootbound... there can't be any transplanting unless it is in a bigger pot... which isn't happening... i'll slice all the cutting available off first and start a new mother over.

Yes - I add ph down everytime... my tap water is 7.5 my nutes takes it to 7.3 then i add ph down to 6.5

My soil cost me an arm and a leg. (another reason I dont like soil =P )

What about a lime water tea or something? I did buy the powdered stuff, not the pellets... so it should dissolve half well.

So mutt/hick.... u want me to put 3x the volume with just normal plain tap water now? I'm just thinking... I dont care if she dies or whatever. Wanna try fixing it with all ur soil growing experience? If she dies she dies. I'm up for anything besides transplanting. The next time I create a mother it is gonna be 75% perlite. That stuff never lets me down.

 

[KADE]

Chem ferts build-up in soil. Causing excess ferts and salts. So all those yuckies have to be flushed out before harvest. I'm not sure if thats the same reason why you flush out hydro tho. Thats your area of expertise. The only other time I flush is incase of nuitreint burn.

Yeah, u do it to get rid of the harshness... unless u like it... I dont really like it... but my friends dont mind... they just think it is stronger lol.

 

[KADE]

ttt ladies