Neutralizing Salts

Recently I had a small sign of a deficiency so i flushed my soil, it crossed my mind that I don't have the flushing solution that comes with my nutes. That made me wonder if plain water isn't going to get rid of all the salts in my soil. So after transplanting my plants and realizing how short they still were for 3-4 weeks of veg from clone, and how flimsy the stems were. All these questions had to be answered so off I go surfin' the web and this is what I found on eHow.


"Fertilizers, although vital for the health of our plants, leave behind residues that may eventually build up and harm them. Salt is one residue of fertilizer that, especially in potted plant soil, can quickly build up and actually leach the water from our plants. The end result is a plant that is dehydrated or weakened. Horticulturists at Texas A&M University claim that when a plant becomes weakened by excess salt in the soil, it is more prone to root rot. One way to remedy this situation in your potted plants is by flushing the soil with vinegar and water."

http://www.ehow.com/how_5914470_use-build-up-out-soil.html



After reading this it made a lot of sense, I'm thinking my god's gifts are just a little weakened and dehydrated and i always let the soil dry out before watering again so hopefully no root rot.. and about the vinegar, has anyone ever used it or any other solution to neutralize salts in soil? I also might pick up some SuperThrive tomorrow, I heard it helps revive, produce roots, and supply vitamins for the plant. Wanted to get people's input, thanks.

-Rotten

It says to mix 1/2 tsp. of white vinegar to 1 qt. of water, I'm sure this would be pretty acidic would most likely have to neutralize the solution as well. No replies? cmon' guys this isn't your everyday post in the marijuana problems subforum. lol

Anyone use a similar remedy to get rid of salt build up?

No dont use flushing solutions,superthrive ,vitamins or any other bullshit . Just flush every 4th to 5th feed with ph'd water until runoff and make sure the pot is big enough, a small pot gets more salt build up quicker.

Black strap molasses is a good flushing agent and smells good too.

RottenRoots said:

Recently I had a small sign of a deficiency so i flushed my soil, it crossed my mind that I don't have the flushing solution that comes with my nutes. That made me wonder if plain water isn't going to get rid of all the salts in my soil. So after transplanting my plants and realizing how short they still were for 3-4 weeks of veg from clone, and how flimsy the stems were. All these questions had to be answered so off I go surfin' the web and this is what I found on eHow.



"Fertilizers, although vital for the health of our plants, leave behind residues that may eventually build up and harm them. Salt is one residue of fertilizer that, especially in potted plant soil, can quickly build up and actually leach the water from our plants. The end result is a plant that is dehydrated or weakened. Horticulturists at Texas A&M University claim that when a plant becomes weakened by excess salt in the soil, it is more prone to root rot. One way to remedy this situation in your potted plants is by flushing the soil with vinegar and water."

http://www.ehow.com/how_5914470_use-build-up-out-soil.html



After reading this it made a lot of sense, I'm thinking my god's gifts are just a little weakened and dehydrated and i always let the soil dry out before watering again so hopefully no root rot.. and about the vinegar, has anyone ever used it or any other solution to neutralize salts in soil? I also might pick up some SuperThrive tomorrow, I heard it helps revive, produce roots, and supply vitamins for the plant. Wanted to get people's input, thanks.

-Rotten

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What's wrong with straight water for flushing? Isn't salt water soluble?
Flush 2 or 3 times the volume of pot, then let dry well then resume watering schedule.

I am growing wild flowers and other flowers so I can experiment on cheap seeds . If you grow enough flowers in small pots you can be a Mad Scientist and experiment with all kinds of ideas . It seems to be true that the smaller the pot the faster salts build up . I finally fingured out that high ph tap water definelty slows growth and causes more plant death .

I also saw immediate results by adding 1/64 of a teaspoon of Braggs Organic Apple Cider Vinegar to 8 ounces of water works good and the little Wildflower seedlings stood right up and green up and looked shiny . I also was not seeing any difference when I added the Urea Nitrogen in the amount the directions say . I had to add to add like 5 times the recommended directions were . That was the situation before I started lowering my PH down to about 6.5 by adding 1/64 th of a teaspoon to about 8 ounces of water .

Now that my PH is 6.5 I am going to reduce my Nitrogen concentration or even lay off the nitrogen all together until the plants look like they need nitrogen .

I foliar feed with Calcium Nitrate and two Amino acids that are suppose to open calcium channels in the roots .
I also have a liquid fertilizer that has all the nutrients in it and minerals and things like that included . Hopefully I can reduce my concentrations of that product now that my PH has gone down from 8.5 to 6.5 .

My tap water have 300 parts per million and I don't have anything to lower that number , and I don't really know what my parts per million of disolved solids should be . So when my salts build up of the run off water , my parts per million of dissolved solids , goes from 300 ppm to 400 ppm , and that is how I know it is time to flush my coco coir . Someone said every four or five nutrient feeds , flush at that point . That seems to be what I have been doing , and flush until the runoff water is less brown and turns to a very light tinted brown . I add a small amount of Urea Nitrogen to the tap water i am flushing with , so that the plant does not go into shock , since I also have some slow release general fertilyer in the grow medium .

I plan on starting to grow cannabis once I have gotten good at growing flowers and cactus and mint plants and other plants that have inexpensive seed costs . I also have not gotten around to get my Medicinal Cannabis Card , so I might as well use this spare time to try to get better at growing house plants , most of which flower so I can see what kind of flower yield I am getting from , for example , wild flowers , or sunflowers , growing them indoors .

Halman9000

P.S. Adding to high of a concentration of vinegar will kill your plants , I suspect the same is true if I used PH down . So I am assuming pure PH down will kill weeds , or pure lemon juice will kill weeds . Seems like resonable reasoning .