Ouch! Hot Soil! What should I do?

I'm trying out a new soil brand. The Roots Organics "Aurora" blend. I tested it with a ph meter today and it read 7.5+ and that was in the original bag. My plants have been vegging in them for about two weeks now and they're all showing signs of micro-nutrient lockout and the fringes of the leaves are curling upwards, looks like a little heat stress too.
I've raised my lights off a little but the soil pH is still relatively high and I think it's causing the issues with the leaves. It looks a little like pictures I've seen of zinc deficiencies and a little mag praying. They've been given straight water until last week, I them with Tamashi Bokashi tea brewed and mixed 1/2 strength with water, Since then their growth has been somewhat steady but each new leaf has a seriously crinkled look and some of the fan leaves are showing fringe curling and other strange leaf curls.

In the pictures you can see the new growth is thin, crinkled, curled, and just doesn't look very good at all.

I'd like to think the heat stress can be managed but I don't think it would help to get the soil pH down either.
I've read somethings about using dolomite lime to "buffer" the pH.

Does anyone know how this works or if it would work for my case?
What should I do to get the soil pH Down?
Is 7.5 too hot of soil?
Am I concerned about nothing?



I'm attaching some pictures, let me know what you think. And if you have any advice, it would be greatly appreciated.

In pictures 6&7 there are some holes in the leaf? Looks like somethings been chewing on it and it looks like it would have to be a big bug like a beetle or a caterpillar but i haven't noticed any poop. Only showing on a few leafs.

...bump...

bump bump... anyone?

flush the soil with with distilled ph'd water

ronaldino said:

I'm trying out a new soil brand. The Roots Organics "Aurora" blend. I tested it with a ph meter today and it read 7.5+ and that was in the original bag. My plants have been vegging in them for about two weeks now and they're all showing signs of micro-nutrient lockout and the fringes of the leaves are curling upwards, looks like a little heat stress too.
I've raised my lights off a little but the soil pH is still relatively high and I think it's causing the issues with the leaves. It looks a little like pictures I've seen of zinc deficiencies and a little mag praying. They've been given straight water until last week, I them with Tamashi Bokashi tea brewed and mixed 1/2 strength with water, Since then their growth has been somewhat steady but each new leaf has a seriously crinkled look and some of the fan leaves are showing fringe curling and other strange leaf curls.

In the pictures you can see the new growth is thin, crinkled, curled, and just doesn't look very good at all.

I'd like to think the heat stress can be managed but I don't think it would help to get the soil pH down either.
I've read somethings about using dolomite lime to "buffer" the pH.

Does anyone know how this works or if it would work for my case?
What should I do to get the soil pH Down?
Is 7.5 too hot of soil?
Am I concerned about nothing?



I'm attaching some pictures, let me know what you think. And if you have any advice, it would be greatly appreciated.

In pictures 6&7 there are some holes in the leaf? Looks like somethings been chewing on it and it looks like it would have to be a big bug like a beetle or a caterpillar but i haven't noticed any poop. Only showing on a few leafs.

Click to expand...

Lime raises PH, aluminum sulfate lowers it. I think the best option is to apply a fertilizer for "acid loving plants", that should be enough to bring it down into the 7 range which it fine for MJ in soil.

yeah, ph is going to screw you if left as is, flushing with distilled may help
to adjust ph though, there are pretty much 2 routes - ph down or vinegar
ph down is a product you can get at walmart, nurseries, other places. add to your water, check ph after a bit, 6-6.5 should be your target
vinegar will do the same thing, though i'd prefer the ph down, some growers seem to think malt vinegar is good way to go

i do use ph down but will ph'd water be enough to bring it down? They're in 7gal pots so when you say "flush" do I need to go, take each plant and pour twice as much water through? Don't I risk root rot doing that in the state they're in?

as long as ur containers have drainage ur fine

darkdestruction420 said:

flush the soil with with distilled ph'd water

Click to expand...

must it be distilled? I use a HydroLogic de-chlorinator, do you think the water from that would be okay?

The guy at my garden store just sold me on a $5 box of dolomite garden lime. I asked "Isn't that designed to bring the soil pH up?" and he said it would bring it up or down, just neutralize it. He said it'll kill off any of the bokashi I watered in though, which I can deal with, just brew more. It's just really hard to tell if it's the soil that's causing this spindly growth or the if it's from the bokashi sucking out the available micros, or if it's a straight micro-deficiency.

Any thoughts?

ronaldino said:

The guy at my garden store just sold me on a $5 box of dolomite garden lime. I asked "Isn't that designed to bring the soil pH up?" and he said it would bring it up or down, just neutralize it. He said it'll kill off any of the bokashi I watered in though, which I can deal with, just brew more. It's just really hard to tell if it's the soil that's causing this spindly growth or the if it's from the bokashi sucking out the available micros, or if it's a straight micro-deficiency.

Any thoughts?

Click to expand...

i use hydrate lime to raise PH, but it supposedly won't raise it to more than 7.0

I'll be really surprised if the dolomite lime brings it down from 7.5...

All fertilizers are acid, but probably not enough to bring it down, without burning the plants

Dolomite is great stuff, but it's best used as part of the soil mix. It acts quite slowly. Top dressing may help a bit, but it won't be dramatic.
Not familiar with the soil, probably not meant for mj? Some soils can be hard to fix
On the ph, good time to check the outflow ph, if you haven't already. If you see the outflow ph going down after adjusting the water going in with ph down/vinegar, then you should be improving the situation.

Did you have a problem before giving them this "Tamashi Bokashi tea"?

And is this you asking the same question on grasscity? Link
"Please Help! Question about lowering soil pH
I posted this on another site like this and haven't had any responses so I'm hoping someone here can help me out.

I'm trying out a new soil brand. The Roots Organics "Aurora" blend. I tested it with a ph meter today and it read 7.5+ and that was in the original bag. My plants have been vegging in them for about two weeks now and they're all showing signs of micro-nutrient lockout and the fringes of the leaves are curling upwards, looks like a little heat stress too.
I've raised my lights off a little but the soil pH is still relatively high and I think it's causing the issues with the leaves. It looks a little like pictures I've seen of zinc deficiencies and a little mag praying. They've been given straight water until last week, I them with Tamashi Bokashi tea brewed and mixed 1/2 strength with water, Since then their growth has been somewhat steady but each new leaf has a seriously crinkled look and some of the fan leaves are showing fringe curling and other strange leaf curls.

In the pictures you can see the new growth is thin, crinkled, curled, and just doesn't look very good at all.

I'd like to think the heat stress can be managed but I don't think it would help to get the soil pH down either.
I've read somethings about using dolomite lime to "buffer" the pH.

I recently fertilized with a blend of different organic products and that brought the ph down some but still pretty high. The plants look pretty full on macros but it's the micros they're showing deficient.
What should I do to bring the pH down? Someone mentioned to me that fertilizing will bring down the pH but I don't want to OVER fert & burn them."

Or do you only spam this board?

growone, yes i've been measuring my runoff and it's a little high. has gone down some since my last feed but still high the soil is put out by "roots organics" and definitely marketed to mj growers. It's loaded with all sorts of amendments and friends have had great things to say about it. I didn't notice the problems until the Bokashi was added in 1 week after transplant. Probably a mistake to do it so soon after transplant.

And Green Cross:
Yea that's my post on grass city. I also posted another one here titled "Flush, Feed, or Lime" Does that make me a spammer right next to the person who posted the thread "Obama is a racist who hates white people" or "The Truth behind 9-11"
Gimme a frickin break. It'd been two days and no responses so I posted it on another site and bumped it a couple here. BFD, i'm trying to fix a problem. And don't give me shit about not doing my research before coming here because I do research this stuff every day and I was clever enough to figure out what exactly is wrong. Cause and remedy are a different story and when it comes to solving a problem there are many possible ways to go about it. All i'm looking for here are opinions from experienced growers, like yourself, which I greatly appreciate.

Why'd you even have to ask if that was me? Same name, same post, same pictures? Obviously it was me. You just trying to be a dick?

Okay so I checked many of them again today with the soil probe and they seem to be averaging around 7.0. It's hard to get an accurate read w/ the probe but they're definitely down since I last watered. I think i'm going to stick to my regular feed/water schedule. No flushing and no Lime either. I'll feed them in a few days and do a good micro foliar feed and hopefully it will be down to a tolerable uptake range in a week or so.

You may be right in your original suggestion but that's no excuse for being rude.

ronaldino said:

The guy at my garden store just sold me on a $5 box of dolomite garden lime. I asked "Isn't that designed to bring the soil pH up?" and he said it would bring it up or down, just neutralize it. He said it'll kill off any of the bokashi I watered in though, which I can deal with, just brew more. It's just really hard to tell if it's the soil that's causing this spindly growth or the if it's from the bokashi sucking out the available micros, or if it's a straight micro-deficiency.

Any thoughts?

Click to expand...

Yeah that is correct, neutral ph is 7 so that's exactly what you want. Try 2 tbs and check the ph, apply in moderation as needed. I have never had any bad experiences with dolomite lime

WonderWhatsNext said:

Yeah that is correct, neutral ph is 7 so that's exactly what you want. Try 2 tbs and check the ph, apply in moderation as needed. I have never had any bad experiences with dolomite lime

Click to expand...

wow i'm high i read the first page and replied to an old post... didn't see there was a second page. Sorry and good luck