Soil nutrient lock out from water ph? a few issues

silvrsurfer77

Well-Known Member
So Im growing in mass whole potting soil by first amendments soil
http://firstamendmentsoil.com/products.html

And Im using a apec RO system that has a calcite mineral replenishing filter at the end.
http://www.amazon.com/APEC-Water-Systems-ROES-PH75-Alkaline/dp/B00NWZ1RCK/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1458578454&sr=8-3-fkmr1&keywords=apec+calcite

my concern... 6th Stage: Calcite Acidic Water Neutralizer 10" - adds calcium carbonate to increase water alkalinity

this stage is great for your body and drinking but it puts the ph of my water up to 10ph. I Believe the calcium carbonate is beneficial to the plants and all but Im not sure what to do with the ph of my water. I played with some different soils and had bad gnats, tried everything and I used a ton of DE which messed up my soil completely and i had tons of lock out. Moving forward I am using this masswhole potting soil which locals rave about. I had super slow growing healthly plants, then I started adjusting my water ph to around 7 or so and things seems ok for a week or two. I had one day where my ph pen spazzed and I gave em water prob around 5.5-6 ph, but corrected and flushed the next day bc I saw some burn. Thankfully it was only a small group of plants. Now my other group which has been healthy n nice for 2 weeks is suddenly showing some ph burn it looks like and one of my flowering looks to have ph issues on lower leaves.

ive never had issues growing in good soil before and im a bit frustrated. So a few questions

should I be adjusting this water?

should I be adding super thrive or anything or does that calcite stone do the job ?

Any other possibilities?
 

silvrsurfer77

Well-Known Member
So the first pic u can see all of them 4 agent orange in the front, nice healthy timewreck in the back, 2 quantum kush on back right. the timewreck seem to be the only one that recovered right away from slightly too acidic water, but the other seem burned and pale yellow....I watered with unadjusted water because my soil run off was 5.5 and now im seeing some green start to come back.
 

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silvrsurfer77

Well-Known Member
And one other question I have a cut of quantum kush thats really good but kinda difficult to deal with and slow vegging. but its super chunky and frosty. It seems to have some kind of defect where it has these weird light spots on the leaves. I think its tobacco mosaic virus? should I just get rid of them?

Also some of the offspring of this plant carry the same leaf discoloration....
 

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thegreensurfer

Well-Known Member
It could be a few things.....the soil was too hot to begin with, your ph pen is off, you flushed too much, or you aren't fertilizing enough. Have you been using only the ro + calcite to feed the plants?
One watering @ 5.5 shouldn't have caused any damage since most soil is buffered adequately, plants can typically handle a rare mishap.
I can suggest what works for me....happy frog soil + dolomite lime, worm castings, azomite, bat guano, and kelp meal. I reuse my soil 3 times adding these amendments every time. No lockouts, deficiencies, or disease.
Don't toss the deformed leaf one just yet...sometimes it's genetic, sometimes it's deficiency. If you have room for it let it grow out. It should go away.
 

silvrsurfer77

Well-Known Member
Thanks for the input, I did end up tossing all my quantums because im 99% sure. I havent fed them yet, the soil may be slightly hot, first time using it. Im going to fun ff ocean forest next time, and ill prob mix and amend my own batch over the summer while i have warm temps to cook it outside. Ive never had any nutrient issues mixing my own soil but i didnt have the option to do that this time, they are so young and small i doubt they need feeding yet, but ive been watering with ro water that has calcium carbonate in the water from the calcite filter on the last stage of the RO system. Ive started to PH it because I discover 10ph and im still having some what looks to be now magnesium deficiency so ill be using some cal mag now.
 
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