High PH signs, symptoms and correcting...Pictorial!! A must read for newb'z

dubcoastOGs said:

No, He's right. A proper, healthy, living soil will maintain it's own ph, And if your giving it good water, the microbes will have no problem buffering it to their liking. If your Ph is not right in bag soil, your doing something else to cause the slide/drift. The inconsistent ph is just a side effect. There's too many variables to say this, that, do this, your wrong, or what. but I find people that have a messed up ph, don't know the first thing about microbiology. Just my opinion though.

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Alexander Supertramp said:

Thinking that you can majorly alter a soils pH by simply running a certain pHed water through it is foolish.

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sativa indica pits said:

In the month I have been on roll it up, I have read countless threads of plant problems, dark green leaves drooping, claw like looking, slower growth and purple stems to name a few. High ph is problem for many growers including my self.

Here are a few plants that are healthy, growing fast hell, and the ph is right around 6.5-6.8 range.
View attachment 2930066View attachment 2930067View attachment 2930068

I selected a few plants that I dont really like to do this experiment on. Here are the pics of the root systems before the experiment.
View attachment 2930071View attachment 2930072View attachment 2930075 They are healthy, white and very fast growing, this is after 4-5 days after my second round of transplanting.

This is the water I flushed through the plants. It was the highest possible ph I could get. Above 8.5 would be my guess.
View attachment 2930076

With-in 12 hrs of flushing with 8.5 water the plants started showing symptoms, drooping, claw looking leaves, dark green and almost a 3d look to the leaf surface. There are some leaves that curl and twist as the soil is now toxic to them.
View attachment 2930077View attachment 2930078View attachment 2930079View attachment 2930080View attachment 2930081

Ph problems are best diagnosed with-in 24 hrs of the first symptoms. After 48 hrs the ph continues to lock out nutes and makes it almost impossible to tell what the hell is wrong with your plants.

If the ph remains high for more than 48 hrs it will start yellowing the plants and make them look like death( note if the ph is around 7.5 the yellowing will take much longer and the dark green leaves and drooping will be the main symptoms) When the ph is above 8 it locks out many macro and micro nutes at the same time which causes the yellowing, brown dead spots, rust color spots, purple leaves and stems and many more symptoms. It becomes very hard to tell what is wrong because your plant will show 3 maybe even 4 deficiencies at the same time. It can be confused with cold temps, and over fertilizing when the real problem is ph.
View attachment 2930086View attachment 2930087

To correct a high ph, I will be flushing with 4.0 water. Lemon juice is also very acidic which will lower the ph.
View attachment 2930085

After about 1 gallon of 4.0 water the ph starts to drop (note, these are large dunkin donut cups that hold about 4 cups of soil) If you have a large pot, It will take a lot of water to drop the ph to a 6.5-6.8 range.
View attachment 2930088

After about 2 gallons of flushing with 4.0 water the ph is down to an acceptable range.
View attachment 2930089

I hope a lot of people who have plant troubles read this, and put it to good use. Feel free to ask questions or mention anything I missed. Merry growing!!


Not sure if the pics are working, if not let me know please

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sativa indica pits said:

I must remind everyone, this experiment was done on 100% healthy lush green grow plants when there was nothing wrong with then what so ever. The reason I did this simple experiment was to show case the effects of a high ph. Let me post some more pics to what healthy plants look like, I have plenty,,,, my soil is not fukt up in any way... I dont not have ongoing problems, Once I notice a droopy plant... I fix it. And yes it does take days, as in my post of the same plants 3 days later, still a little fukt up....but now its been 6 days and I will post the pics shortly.

You can clearly see the plants 12 hrs after showing signs of a high ph, This is how my plants work, And I will continue to grow them like this. If I water my plants with wood ash every time I water, most certianly the ph of the soil will raise, same with lemon juice, if I water with it every day, the ph will drop out of sight. A flush will change the ph of the soil. Thought I already proved this, but it takes alot of years of growing alot of plants to really figure out what works and what doesnt.

The only thing I was trying to do here was help the 20-30 people who post on this forum everyday of droopy plant, dark green growth, slow growing,,,, all the tell tale signs of a high ph.

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Alexander Supertramp said:

Thinking that you can majorly alter a soils pH by simply running a certain pHed water through it is foolish.

Click to expand...

Nutty sKunK said:

Learnt the hard way with high pH.

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Pete Jones III said:

Did you understand what lead to the elevated ph so it can be avoided next grow? Like tap water with too much carbonate driving it upwards?

Click to expand...

sativa indica pits said:

In the month I have been on roll it up, I have read countless threads of plant problems, dark green leaves drooping, claw like looking, slower growth and purple stems to name a few. High ph is problem for many growers including my self.

Here are a few plants that are healthy, growing fast hell, and the ph is right around 6.5-6.8 range.
View attachment 2930066View attachment 2930067View attachment 2930068

I selected a few plants that I dont really like to do this experiment on. Here are the pics of the root systems before the experiment.
View attachment 2930071View attachment 2930072View attachment 2930075 They are healthy, white and very fast growing, this is after 4-5 days after my second round of transplanting.

This is the water I flushed through the plants. It was the highest possible ph I could get. Above 8.5 would be my guess.
View attachment 2930076

With-in 12 hrs of flushing with 8.5 water the plants started showing symptoms, drooping, claw looking leaves, dark green and almost a 3d look to the leaf surface. There are some leaves that curl and twist as the soil is now toxic to them.
View attachment 2930077View attachment 2930078View attachment 2930079View attachment 2930080View attachment 2930081

Ph problems are best diagnosed with-in 24 hrs of the first symptoms. After 48 hrs the ph continues to lock out nutes and makes it almost impossible to tell what the hell is wrong with your plants.

If the ph remains high for more than 48 hrs it will start yellowing the plants and make them look like death( note if the ph is around 7.5 the yellowing will take much longer and the dark green leaves and drooping will be the main symptoms) When the ph is above 8 it locks out many macro and micro nutes at the same time which causes the yellowing, brown dead spots, rust color spots, purple leaves and stems and many more symptoms. It becomes very hard to tell what is wrong because your plant will show 3 maybe even 4 deficiencies at the same time. It can be confused with cold temps, and over fertilizing when the real problem is ph.
View attachment 2930086View attachment 2930087

To correct a high ph, I will be flushing with 4.0 water. Lemon juice is also very acidic which will lower the ph.
View attachment 2930085

After about 1 gallon of 4.0 water the ph starts to drop (note, these are large dunkin donut cups that hold about 4 cups of soil) If you have a large pot, It will take a lot of water to drop the ph to a 6.5-6.8 range.
View attachment 2930088

After about 2 gallons of flushing with 4.0 water the ph is down to an acceptable range.
View attachment 2930089

I hope a lot of people who have plant troubles read this, and put it to good use. Feel free to ask questions or mention anything I missed. Merry growing!!


Not sure if the pics are working, if not let me know please

Click to expand...

Nutty sKunK said:

My situation was a little more straight forward. Pot wasn’t getting much run off and the plant was 6 months old. So flushed it 3x volume of the pot. Then gave it balance feed and she bounced right back.

Click to expand...

Pete Jones III said:

What nutes did you use that drove it upwards instead of downwards?

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