Roots Organics Soil and nutrient lockout

I've had good results using roots nutrient line with roots soil, cut 50/50 with ss #4. Around wk 3or4 of flowering I'd have to up the feeding dosages because the soil was running out of juice. Mixing 30gal batches with roots nutrient line inspired me to make teas from scratch and save some scratch. Now I prefer roots soil as a starter soil and building base for a fully amended soil mix. Once established my gals go into a hotter mix of 4cuft sunshine #4, to 1.5cuft roots soil; amended with blood meal, fish bone meal, kelp meal, trace minerals, neem seed meal, dolomite lime, de, and plant success granular. Now I can get away with feeding only water, not something you can do with roots organics straight outta the bag. Also I much prefer roots to ff, just saying...

Hey all
Well in the quest for heather plants by mid flower I fed two of the girls last night. This is currently only 6 days into flower and they went from 2 gal to 5 gal pots about 3 weeks ago. I went with15ml RO Grow, 15ml RO Trinity, 15ml RO Extreme Serine, 10ml Calplex, 5ml Earth Juice Micro Blast, and 5ml of molasses (all per gallon). After mixing all that and getting the ph up I found the ppm to be around 1450. I thought the ppms might be too high being this is only day 6 so I ended up diluting the mix 50/50 and was sitting in the 850 range. Any thoughts or comments? This will hopefully prevent the problem that I have routinely had with yellowing, brown spots and burned tips happening by week 3.

Im using roots right now, I thought I'd try it out, and I'm not pleased with the way it drains.

malignant said:

Im using roots right now, I thought I'd try it out, and I'm not pleased with the way it drains.

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What do you mean?

I'm doing SuperSoil which is essentially amended Rootz and found the drainage great.7 gallon pails which are quite tall and narrow

Wolverine97 said:

What do you mean?

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I tried rainbow mix, brewed tea with it, however i over did it on the humic acid and had to flush before any burning could take place, then i was suffering from over watering sympoms for 3 days. im using 12 gal pots and once it was saturated the roots were no longer breathing. I may try it again, but cut 50/50 with coco.. ive always had great luck with happy frog/ocean forrest and half coco.

malignant said:

I tried rainbow mix, brewed tea with it, however i over did it on the humic acid and had to flush before any burning could take place, then i was suffering from over watering sympoms for 3 days. im using 12 gal pots and once it was saturated the roots were no longer breathing. I may try it again, but cut 50/50 with coco.. ive always had great luck with happy frog/ocean forrest and half coco.

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That's basically what Roots is as far as drainage properties are concerned. It's about % coco by volume, personally I love its drainage properties, far superior to anything from Fox Farms.

Wolverine97 said:

That's basically what Roots is as far as drainage properties are concerned. It's about % coco by volume, personally I love its drainage properties, far superior to anything from Fox Farms.

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maybe its the batch i got, because i am not having good drainage with it

Wolverine97 said:

They're not burning, they're starving. Roots nutrient line is notoriously weak, though their soil is great. Feed them girls, mang.

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I agree. I'm using RO everything. At first I sweated the PH levels and worried about the soil being too hot. I talked with a fellow that has alot of experience with RO products and he said NOT to worry about the PH and such it was covered. Reluctantly I went balls to the walls without worry figuring at worse I's sacrifice one plant to find out. I germinated and planted my baby in RO soil under a 125watt CFL, actual 125 not equivalent, about nine inches under the light. It grew fine but the leaves started to yellow after about three weeks. I added a little epsom salts to my watering and she rebounded with a vengence. She's going into her third week of flower and she's emerald green and the buds are coming along great. I use max feed every other feeding and plain Pure Life bottled water evety other watering. There was a minimal problem with knats but it was negligible. I did use fish emulsion once because of an N concern at first but other than that it been all RO. It goes against opinion but try not adjusting your PH and using your RO products and if you see some yellow just add some epsom salts until the problem is resolved on one plant and see for yourself.

malignant said:

maybe its the batch i got, because i am not having good drainage with it

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I believe RO has a couple of different soils out. The Formula 707 does'nt drain like their potting soil, but that is the way it's designed and advertised. You may have gotten the 707 instead.

Same shit happened to me..I went through a "big" loss. I will never use it again. Went to Fox Farm Ocean Forest. Now plants are nice in healthy!!!

I guess I just got lucky.

bomb hills said:

Damn... I have been having the exact same problems using Root Organics soil and nute line. No Gnats thought. Every time about 3 weeks into flower my larger fan leaves start to yellow, brown spots, burned tips and progresses to the rest of the plant. By week 5 most the big leaves are toasted. I have experimented with no nutrients, normal nutrients, light mix of nutrients, it don't matter, happens all the same. I check my PH and its always 6.5-7. During Vegetative the plants are super healthy in 3 gal, then I switch to 5 gal for flowering give them a few weeks and then start into 12/12. Then 2 or 3 weeks into flower things go south.

This time around I am hoping for better results. Going with adding in Epsom salts with every water and using Earth Juice Micro Blast and some RO Grow and Bloom every other. Next time I may try and cut down the soil and add in some Dolomite. Thanks for all the good advice here, I will post back hopefully with good news.

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I used to have this problem. I tried everything and nothing worked. I always ph'd water and nutes by the book. Then I started to bubble my water as I though maybe the chlorine was causing me problems. I noticed that after ph'ing the water/solution it would slowly rise over the next 24 to 36 hours, usually back over 7. Once I started stablizing my ph the problems disappeard.

If you are able to actually adjust the soil medium pH then the microlife is largely inactive. Could be the bottled ferts

cutting soil mixes with coco is a good way to avoid potential lock up, drying, or burn. Ive lost seed packs to first transplants into straight ocean forest that was bad mix, or too hot and fries the plants.

Sucks man, are you feeding nutes off the back? You should not feed anything for the 1st month in fresh soil. I use ocean forest, I tried 1 bag of roots last go round. . I like how it does not compact as much as ffof but I find it harder to keep my plants happy in.

when they fry it usually within 48hrs of transplant.. i feed guano a week after transplant, but immediately i feed compost tea to establish my micro-organisms colonies

Man...... all this just sounds to damn complicated. Im looking up this roots issue for a buddy and im just going to reccomnd he scrap the whole thing. what a pain in the ass. Im telling him to buy an ebb

buttrick said:

Man...... all this just sounds to damn complicated. Im looking up this roots issue for a buddy and im just going to reccomnd he scrap the whole thing. what a pain in the ass. Im telling him to buy an ebb

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That's because you're listening to the wrong people. Soil is simple, but you need some basic knowledge. Like anything else.

Exactly what Wolverine said. Soil is simple. The microlife is your billion soldier army. It can really be a set and forget mode.

This last round for me was the simplest and profoundly best grow I ever did and I've spent 1/3 the time farting around with pumps, ferts and associated expensive crap.