used cheap ..............

i have never used cheap materials in the past and never had any major problems even on my first few attempts at growing. i recently had a few seedlings that out grew the plastic cups started in so i went to put them in bigger 1 gallon pots when i realized i was out of my roots organic soil which always worked great for me. so being in mid week and tight on money with bills car payment insurance and a terrible addiction to scratch off tickets and quick draw, i had to go to home depot and buy some cheap bags of organic soil they sell 5-6 bucks a bag(very small bags i must add). anyway fast fowarding up to today its been a few weeks since i have replanted them in the x-brand of soil from home depot and the plants seem to be under grown very tiny and most of them have very light colored green almost a light lime color on most of the lower to mid leaves. almost 75% of them also have a browning almost like a dead leave u rake up in the fall time at the leaves tips. i will add pics soon, but i figure it must be the soil and ????? Is it worth repotting them and lightly shaking some of that el-cheapo dirt off the rootball and replanting with a better premium soil from local hydro store aswell as trimming off the decay on the lower half of plants or are they as good as done. i know its hard to say with out pics but my camera is home and i would like to get a idea of what u guys think the culprit is incase i have 2 stop buy the local hydro shop before they close thanks.
 
im guessing the soil i used was just too rich with food and nutrients . i also must add that i was feeding them my normal strength nutients as well. i know with some brands of soil such as foxfarms u dont really need to feed during vrg. because the soils so pre loaded with rich nutrients.
 
did you test the ph of your soil? and you may not be giving enuff nutes or possibly to much. u really wont know until we the ph of everything.
 
I'd check pH. Most cheapo "organic" soil is peat rich or has a lot of wood chips that throw the pH off....
 
how much is a decent cheapo model i currently have a so called 3 in 1 soil ph, lumens or light checker, soil moisture checker but its not accurate persay. u cant tell if the line is on 7 or 6.5 or even 7.5 its so small and thhe numbers on dial are closetogether.
 
You could check the runoff water after you water your plant and get the pH of it with some litmus paper for a dollar or two or check out amazon and find a decent Hannah pH meter for about 30-40bucks
 
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