pH Driving Me INSANE

So I’ve been trying to test my soil ph and it’s driving me insane. I have a cheap soil probe that doesn’t really work. I stab it into the soil, it flickers like 7.4 or 7.8, then flips back to 7.0.
I even just pulled some soil out, added distilled water, and tried it. Didn’t even read.. just stayed at 7.0
My runoff is reading 6.2 and I’m putting ph 6.2-3 water in..
I have a bluelab pen for liquids, what would you suggest for soil? I almost just chucked the one I have in the trash..
I’ll try to put up a video so you can see what exactly happens.

Weouthere said:

So I’ve been trying to test my soil ph and it’s driving me insane. I have a cheap soil probe that doesn’t really work. I stab it into the soil, it flickers like 7.4 or 7.8, then flips back to 7.0.
I even just pulled some soil out, added distilled water, and tried it. Didn’t even read.. just stayed at 7.0
My runoff is reading 6.2 and I’m putting ph 6.2-3 water in..
I have a bluelab pen for liquids, what would you suggest for soil? I almost just chucked the one I have in the trash..
I’ll try to put up a video so you can see what exactly happens.

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Those cheap pH pens are useless. You can do a slurry test and use your good BlueLab pen to test it. That will give you an idea.

If the pen is green, than it's junk, lol

PadawanWarrior said:

Those cheap pH pens are useless. You can do a slurry test and use your good BlueLab pen to test it. That will give you an idea.

If the pen is green, than it's junk, lol

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I figured as much for the quality of it, being $20..
For a slurry test, would that mean mixing with distilled water, then testing the runoff? That said, I'm looking it up now.
Here's the video of the probe in "action"
https://www.reddit.com/r/microgrowery/comments/h037ci

PadawanWarrior said:

Those cheap pH pens are useless. You can do a slurry test and use your good BlueLab pen to test it. That will give you an idea.

If the pen is green, than it's junk, lol

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Ran the slurry, pH came out to 6.0, 6.1
I'm running FFOF/HF mix with perlite and some ewc.
3rd week of flower and I'm seeing different deficiencies on all 3 plants (I think)
Should I try upping pH to make some nutrient more available?
Pics are 3 separate plants, worst (best showing) leaf on each. Don't want to spam you with pictures.

Weouthere said:

Ran the slurry, pH came out to 6.0, 6.1
I'm running FFOF/HF mix with perlite and some ewc.
3rd week of flower and I'm seeing different deficiencies on all 3 plants (I think)
Should I try upping pH to make some nutrient more available?
Pics are 3 separate plants, worst (best showing) leaf on each. Don't want to spam you with pictures.

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What have you been feeding them? And the slurry test is more accurate if you let it sit for while before you test it.

PadawanWarrior said:

What have you been feeding them? And the slurry test is more accurate if you let it sit for while before you test it.

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how long? i let it sit about.. 15 minutes.
They've been getting Killer Tea (0.2-0.2-0.2) every watering. They got a couple doses of FF Big Bloom as well as RO Extreme Serene.
I thought they were deficient and hit them with Jacks 10-30-20, but that made it worse so I flushed them with plain pH'ed tap water and they seem to have stabilized more.
The brown spotting in the last picture is new, as well as the purple/red on the leaves. Here are more pics of it, the strain is Farmers Fire. I have an ATF (1st pic) and Icicles (2nd) as well. The purple leaves are on Icicles.
Sorry if that was confusing..

Weouthere said:

how long? i let it sit about.. 15 minutes.
They've been getting Killer Tea (0.2-0.2-0.2) every watering. They got a couple doses of FF Big Bloom as well as RO Extreme Serene.
I thought they were deficient and hit them with Jacks 10-30-20, but that made it worse so I flushed them with plain pH'ed tap water and they seem to have stabilized more.
The brown spotting in the last picture is new, as well as the purple/red on the leaves. Here are more pics of it, the strain is Farmers Fire. I have an ATF (1st pic) and Icicles (2nd) as well. The purple leaves are on Icicles.
Sorry if that was confusing..

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You might be overdoing it with all the extra stuff and causing lockouts. Basically I think you might be killing them with kindness. Also what's your water like?

For now, if it was me, I would give them plain water for awhile. I normally just give my plants our 7.2-7.5 pH well water without anything else. I've been mostly top dressing lately.

And as far as the slurry test. I've only done it a couple times, but if I remember correctly you're supposed to let it sit for like 24 hours and shake it up often. But I got tired of guessing what my pH was so I finally got a BlueLab Soil Pen.

PadawanWarrior said:

You might be overdoing it with all the extra stuff and causing lockouts. Basically I think you might be killing them with kindness. Also what's your water like?

For now, if it was me, I would give them plain water for awhile. I normally just give my plants our 7.2-7.5 pH well water without anything else. I've been mostly top dressing lately.

And as far as the slurry test. I've only done it a couple times, but if I remember correctly you're supposed to let it sit for like 24 hours and shake it up often. But I got tired of guessing what my pH was so I finally got a BlueLab Soil Pen.
View attachment 4590860

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Sounds good, I was worried I was doing this. They'e getting water and tea for now then!
I have good water here; outside of Portland. No chlorine added and ppm is around 250 (never tested from my tap though). If I remember from the reports I read there's no fluoride either...
It comes out the tap at 7.4 usually. Should I pH it down to 7 at least?

On the Bluelab.. does perlite effect readings? I really want one, the pH meter is dope.

Weouthere said:

Sounds good, I was worried I was doing this. They'e getting water and tea for now then!
I have good water here; outside of Portland. No chlorine added and ppm is around 250 (never tested from my tap though). If I remember from the reports I read there's no fluoride either...
It comes out the tap at 7.4 usually. Should I pH it down to 7 at least?

On the Bluelab.. does perlite effect readings? I really want one, the pH meter is dope.

Click to expand...

I don't ever adjust my water's pH. Except when I wanted to flush out some extra Ca, and then I used some citric acid in the water for a bit. The soil microbes can buffer the pH for the most part in organics. I give my plants straight 7.5 water all the time. Or if I add some liquid organic nutes like Neptune's Harvest, or whatever, the pH will be lower, but the soil will buffer it. I try not to get too crazy though, and try to say between feeding at 5.5-7.5 pH just so my worms don't get too stressed.

PadawanWarrior said:

I don't ever adjust my water's pH. Except when I wanted to flush out some extra Ca, and then I used some citric acid in the water for a bit. The soil microbes can buffer the pH for the most part in organics. I give my plants straight 7.5 water all the time. Or if I add some liquid organic nutes like Neptune's Harvest, or whatever, the pH will be lower, but the soil will buffer it. I try not to get too crazy though, and try to say between feeding at 5.5-7.5 pH just so my worms don't get too stressed.

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Sounds good man. Thanks for your help, I really appreciate it!

Dont add anything, dont test ph or try to change it. Bagged soil is a finished product it just needs water, eventually fertilizer but probably not till the end with repots.

Weouthere said:

So I’ve been trying to test my soil ph and it’s driving me insane. I have a cheap soil probe that doesn’t really work. I stab it into the soil, it flickers like 7.4 or 7.8, then flips back to 7.0.
I even just pulled some soil out, added distilled water, and tried it. Didn’t even read.. just stayed at 7.0
My runoff is reading 6.2 and I’m putting ph 6.2-3 water in..
I have a bluelab pen for liquids, what would you suggest for soil? I almost just chucked the one I have in the trash..
I’ll try to put up a video so you can see what exactly happens.

Click to expand...

No need to PH test in store purchased Potting mix, and no need to Ph test water if using Potting mix, you will do more harm than good.
When in Hydroponics you do need to PH test. The Reason being Hydroponics has no significant buffers , soil and potting mix does.

RangiSTaxi said:

No need to PH test in store purchased Potting mix, and no need to Ph test water if using Potting mix, you will do more harm than good.
When in Hydroponics you do need to PH test. The Reason being Hydroponics has no significant buffers , soil and potting mix does.

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Cool, I appreciate y’all!! Thanks a ton.
I want to switch to different soil after this grow anyway. FFOF isn’t doing it for me.
any other bagged soils y’all could recommend? I was looking at roots organics or promix. Not sure on exactly which ones but that’s what my local shop has.
I would like to try subcools recipe at some point as well..

Thats no where near ph damage in soil for cannabis, the veins are showing bad moisture stress which explains the brown marks down them as they cavitate and idk what else. You add ferts and it gets worse - diagnosis: you havent got the fert levels right for long periods, plant struggles to absorb water.

I barely add ferts maybe last few weeks and then sparingly when it tells me, repotting is your best fertilizer and Fox Farms gets rave reviews for years now, just need to get better control.

Weouthere said:

Cool, I appreciate y’all!! Thanks a ton.
I want to switch to different soil after this grow anyway. FFOF isn’t doing it for me.
any other bagged soils y’all could recommend? I was looking at roots organics or promix. Not sure on exactly which ones but that’s what my local shop has.
I would like to try subcools recipe at some point as well..

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Recommend you just give plain water from now on till finish,no other nutrients needed, letting the plants dry out sightly before soaking again, then let dry out slightly again, by drying out between watering you will get enough PH swing naturally to obtain all nutrients needed, i.e watering every 7-10 days depending on your pot size. Your plants will recover naturally without doing or adding anything.
oh ... Looking at your photos often You may need a calcium magnesium supplement when using Potting mix, try a half strength dose for 3 waters..
Try this
It has a bit of iron and Nitrogen as well to green those leaves up.

2Hearts said:

Thats no where near ph damage in soil for cannabis, the veins are showing bad moisture stress which explains the brown marks down them as they cavitate and idk what else. You add ferts and it gets worse - diagnosis: you havent got the fert levels right for long periods, plant struggles to absorb water.

I barely add ferts maybe last few weeks and then sparingly when it tells me, repotting is your best fertilizer and Fox Farms gets rave reviews for years now, just need to get better control.

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Well that’s what I’m saying.. i added a bunch of stuff to fix problems. It was the wrong stuff apparently though!
I flushed and it got better, and now there’s new stuff appearing. To me that means pH problems, but that’s why I’m here.
they’re getting just water with tea from here on out.

Weouthere said:

Cool, I appreciate y’all!! Thanks a ton.
I want to switch to different soil after this grow anyway. FFOF isn’t doing it for me.
any other bagged soils y’all could recommend? I was looking at roots organics or promix. Not sure on exactly which ones but that’s what my local shop has.
I would like to try subcools recipe at some point as well..

Click to expand...

I started with FFOF, and it's been turned into no-till since. I think it's a great soil personally.

PadawanWarrior said:

I started with FFOF, and it's been turned into no-till since. I think it's a great soil personally.

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I’d love to use it for subcools recipe. I’m thinking it might be a little hot though.
definitely not saying I hate it, and in all reality I’ll probably use it again on my next grow since it’s something I’m already a little familiar with. That said I’d like to try other mixes and see if they appeal to me more for one reason or another.

Weouthere said:

Sounds good, I was worried I was doing this. They'e getting water and tea for now then!
I have good water here; outside of Portland. No chlorine added and ppm is around 250 (never tested from my tap though). If I remember from the reports I read there's no fluoride either...
It comes out the tap at 7.4 usually. Should I pH it down to 7 at least?

On the Bluelab.. does perlite effect readings? I really want one, the pH meter is dope.

Click to expand...

Interesting that those Bluelab PH pens are made in New Zealand and the factory is just 5-10 km down the road from me yet the brand is known world-wide, pretty amazing for a small NZ company, I use their products and they are pretty good , I also have tropical fish tanks.

Repeat dont keep changing, best way to learn. Chasing ph in soil is a waste of time, forget it and look elsewhere for the problem. Subcool or plant magic or nobody will make a difference, all the same stuff works the samecway.