Soil ph 5.5?

B

blackdolphin

Active Member
Using Fox Farm Ocean forest soil...I have a brand new calibrated Hanna PH PPM and TEMP reader...

Water PH is 6.5 all the time

Checked soil PH with a brand new PH reader and it shows up at 5.5.

Im 4 days into vegetation and leaves are light green and i already have a yellow leaf at the bottom.

Some leaves are a mixture of green fading into a light green.

What should i do?

Room Temp:28C
Humidity: 60
1000 watt light: 18 inches away

Have just been watering with no nutes as many say not to feed for 30 days with Ocean forest.
 
Dirtyboy

Dirtyboy

Well-Known Member
Test that soil 1 day after watering. That will be the true reading.
Yellowing? You maybe over watering.
 
Dirtyboy

Dirtyboy

Well-Known Member
Sorry i read that wrong.
What size pot are they in? Smaller the pot the faster the plant eats all the nutes.
 
slipperyP

slipperyP

Well-Known Member
blackdolphin said:
so what do i do with a soil ph of 5.5?
Click to expand...
I would add a couple tbs of gardening lime. Top dress it into the top couple inches of the soil and water...I add 4 table spoons to about 4 gallons of soil.

My soil has alot of peat moss in it so it needs the lime to bring the ph up....
 
thelastpirate

thelastpirate

Well-Known Member
How are you checking the pH? The run-off? or are you taking a sample from the middle of the pot, and mixing it with water? You gotta find out how much your pH moves, and which direction it moves after it runs thru your soil. For instance, I get my water and feed (nutes, silica, cal-mag, whatever) ready and pH'd to 6.5, which puts the pH of my run-off 5.8 or so as it goes thru my dirt. Gotta watch that Silica. It's the ONLY additive/amendment I use that RAISES pH.
Try this. Fill a container with the soil you are using (and every amendment you put in). Then, measure the pH of your water, pour it thru the soil, and measure the run-off (good reason to keep run-off trays clean) Do this a couple of times and you'll notice the pH change by the same value each time. That is how I get mine right. I get my input solution to 6.5 because it WILL be 5.8 coming out. If you have alkaline water, you MIGHT not have to screw with the lime. I fucked a grow all to hell because I added too much lime with already alkaline water.
I am also convinced that knowing the TDS could be crucial in soil, just can't find any baseline studies.

As to the yellowing, unless I'm way off here, it's normal. It's the "autumn" of their lives. As they go into bud production, they will take stored energy from the bottom leaves which will yellow, wither and die. If you do your job right, you'll end up with an explosion of color come harvest time. Stop using nutes the last couple of weeks (I go 3) to allow the plant to use up all nutes and energy stored. They'll get really yellow. I wonder if that's where the old "Colombian Gold" name came from?
Lime green in new growth is generally new growth. Kinda hard to tell in this, some are more green than others, but this look familiar?:



I used to think we had some weird names for strains back in the day. That was before I started growing!! I used to LOVE listening to those supposedly "knowledgeable" people massacre the pronunciation of Michuacan!!
 
B

blackdolphin

Active Member
thelastpirate said:
How are you checking the pH? The run-off? or are you taking a sample from the middle of the pot, and mixing it with water? You gotta find out how much your pH moves, and which direction it moves after it runs thru your soil. For instance, I get my water and feed (nutes, silica, cal-mag, whatever) ready and pH'd to 6.5, which puts the pH of my run-off 5.8 or so as it goes thru my dirt. Gotta watch that Silica. It's the ONLY additive/amendment I use that RAISES pH.
Try this. Fill a container with the soil you are using (and every amendment you put in). Then, measure the pH of your water, pour it thru the soil, and measure the run-off (good reason to keep run-off trays clean) Do this a couple of times and you'll notice the pH change by the same value each time. That is how I get mine right. I get my input solution to 6.5 because it WILL be 5.8 coming out. If you have alkaline water, you MIGHT not have to screw with the lime. I fucked a grow all to hell because I added too much lime with already alkaline water.
I am also convinced that knowing the TDS could be crucial in soil, just can't find any baseline studies.

As to the yellowing, unless I'm way off here, it's normal. It's the "autumn" of their lives. As they go into bud production, they will take stored energy from the bottom leaves which will yellow, wither and die. If you do your job right, you'll end up with an explosion of color come harvest time. Stop using nutes the last couple of weeks (I go 3) to allow the plant to use up all nutes and energy stored. They'll get really yellow. I wonder if that's where the old "Colombian Gold" name came from?
Lime green in new growth is generally new growth. Kinda hard to tell in this, some are more green than others, but this look familiar?:



I used to think we had some weird names for strains back in the day. That was before I started growing!! I used to LOVE listening to those supposedly "knowledgeable" people massacre the pronunciation of Michuacan!!
Click to expand...
im checking ph by the runoff. im using ro water..not sure if this is alkaline.

Would it be ok to flush with a ph of about 7.1? would this bring up the soil ph?
 
B

blackdolphin

Active Member
im checking ph by the runoff. im using ro water..not sure if this is alkaline.

Would it be ok to flush with a ph of about 7.1? would this bring up the soil ph?
 
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