Would Like Advice From The Vets

[greenear]

This is my first outdoor grow, I do have some indoor exp. My soil is river loam, sandy and on one side alittle more clay type rocky on the other. I have 200X200. I dozed some ditches about 15ft apart by 150long 3ft deep and filled spaces with a few yrds of forest products like potting soil type that is supposed to have nitrgen injected and a wetting agent, ph buffered?. Some oyster shell, perlite, vermiculite a cup of dolomite lime. Some chicken manure compost with rice hulls in which was supposed to be composted but was not black and looked fresh when delivered by transfer trk. The forest products were mixed 2 parts to 1 part chicken mix. It started out really good, we were fertilizing organically, lightly at first. then stepped it way up. No signs of burn but some of the plants started looking sick, I sent soil samples to the lab and found that my levels were very high and very low in calcium and high in sodium. The ph was 5.7 and some at 6.3. my source water is 8.6 so I started flushing very heavy and adding meta calcium and bio pak. Things started looking alitttle better. Another soils reveiled my ph was up alittle but, a few of my plants look real sick. I have been watering alot no nutes and using a rapid tester probe to keep an eye on the ph. today I added a little calcium carb lime to the 2 sickies. Am I on the right track here. the side with the higher ph7 has the smallest plants the labs says add gypsum, on the side with low ph5.7 plants look good, they say add lime. I am affraid to do anything at this time. so have been watering with ph adjusted at 7. I will send some pics of the sickies
Thank you for this site , it is nice to have some place to go with this.

 

[THE BROTHER'S GRUNT]

Sure sounds like your on the right track to me but then again i don't grow outside. Let's see if we cant get a pro outdoor grower. Anyone?

 

[Hick]

hi green...I'm not sure what to make of your situation. Evidently, the soil mix is inconsistant, or wasn't thouroughly mixed to begin with, judging by the wide ph range. That is going to make troubleshooting and treatment difficult.
The oyster shell and lime "should" have buffered the ph somewhere in the 7.0 range, which is acceptable for soil. It should have also provided for calcium.
That 8.6 water should be checked gor ppm, too. It may contain high parts of something directly contributing to nutrient uptake. 8.6 is really high.

 

[greenear]

probably was not tilled enough. i have seen clumps of ckicken maure in it but only a few. the water was tested it is not bad atall low ppm's. i am guessing ph is the culprit, we have been foliar feeding a little with kelp (algimin) lightly, thinking of trying some omega 6 6 6 1/2 strength what do u think, Hick.

 

[greenear]

What would you do , Hick?

 

[greenear]

Here is the pictures of a sick plant. Do you have any suggestions on what could be going on? Thanks.

 

[Canso]

If the veins are staying green but the rest of the leaf is going yellow then it will be mg deficiency

 

[Canso]

try some Cal/Mag and half nutes, with next feed.

aleast thats what i would do indoors, not sure outside. maybe Epsom salts

Have you checked your water? PH >8 is a good suspect, probly 200+ppm's

 

[astra007]

ok bud, first 8.6 is waaayyy to high; gotta get it down to the sixes. ph down added to yer water. try using a 20 gal. garbage can on wheels. do you know what epson salts are? then use 1 heaping tablespoon per 20 gal. plus 2 oz. of thrive or b1. this will supply magnesium plus shock/stress relief. folier feed or water right to the area around the stalk.

i use chicken shit but i always put it above the plant site not directly into the soil mix. most organics and chemical ferts are designed for indoor 12 - 16 week crops; not for full season grows. i usually look fer an additive that has a large array of the trace minerals. i use lime/sulfur concentrate at 1/2 strenght folier - this kills powdery mildew and dust the ground with sulfer dust as a spidermite deterant. i usually only look fer calcium problems where i am. good luck.

 

[astra007]

well canso - great minds think alike eh? i got cal- mag plus on order. fer the iron it has as well

 

[greenear]

i definetly adjust the water, i am considering the epson salts. the source water is just under 200ppm's the lab says it is good for ag. while away for a spell the crew ferted real hard and my levels were very high. so I flushed for a week or so. The rest look pretty good but I have a few that ****. I am just starting to fert again. I have sprayed with kelp but it didn't seem to help the sickies. my soil gets dry on top so I am only watering lightly at this time so as to allow them to dry a little deeper but I am concerned about this if you dig down three inches it is only moist near the stalk the outer of the holes are pretty darn dry... If i use the epsom will it be ok if that is not the culprit?

 

[astra007]

epson salts is ok - remember 1 heaping tablespoon per 20 gal.