Newbie What deficiency is this?

7CardBud

7CardBud

Well-Known Member
Hector327 said:
Update and help needed possibly again. My 3 plants have now started week 5 flower it’s day 30 today. The one plant that had a lockout is doing great now. After I transplanted all 3 into strawberry fields soil and they were all fine for this whole month almost. Just my water was given and recharge every 2 weeks with the watering. But now the other 2 plants are yellowing at the upper leaves slowly one a lot more than the other. I got a pic of them and a pic of my grow log for the ph and ppm. I haven’t done anything about it yet because I don’t wanna make it worse.
Click to expand...
...and this is why I moved away from soil a few years ago, the stupid crap that happens.

Your pH is in the basement. My only guesses are overwatering and you flushed out all the buffers from the mix or the mix was not made well to begin with. I would add 3 grams of potassium bicarbonate per liter of water then water the plant (Don't ph the water, dump it in as is). Then plain water again, then plain water a third time and test runoff. Repeat this cycle until media is buffered again in the range of 6.3-6.7pH.

Just a few tips for soil.

You don't need to water with excessive runoff in soil. Your just leaching minerals from the soil.
Water until you just notice a small bit of runoff, unless you're collecting a test sample then add a bit more.

EC measurements are meaningless in soil, the bioweb is always breaking down material and enriching the soil.
Runoff EC only tells you how much material you leached from the soil.
 
Charles U Farley

Charles U Farley

Well-Known Member
Runoff EC only tells you how much material you leached from the soil.
Click to expand...
I've always been and will always be in soil and have never measured pH or anything chemically related to cannabis. I'll never understand why anyone in soil would drown their roots and saturate their soil on purpose, just to measure pH and chemicals. It just doesn't make sense. I observe my plants, not a fucking machine.

With you hydro guys, it makes perfect sense.

I'm an RRT, so I know more about the negative log of the hydrogen ion concentration and its effects on the human body (not plants) than probably anyone who participates here (unless they're a nephrolgist, dialysis R.N., etc.). Will never understand how drowning your plant will end up being beneficial for it in the end, just so you can make some kind of measurement.

OP, your plants look great! It doesn't surprise me in the least that your problems went away once you stopped using all those additives. Relax, don't stress so much, and your plants will end up doing much better.
 
Last edited:
Hector327

Hector327

Active Member
7CardBud said:
...and this is why I moved away from soil a few years ago, the stupid crap that happens.

Your pH is in the basement. My only guesses are overwatering and you flushed out all the buffers from the mix or the mix was not made well to begin with. I would add 3 grams of potassium bicarbonate per liter of water then water the plant (Don't ph the water, dump it in as is). Then plain water again, then plain water a third time and test runoff. Repeat this cycle until media is buffered again in the range of 6.3-6.7pH.

Just a few tips for soil.

You don't need to water with excessive runoff in soil. Your just leaching minerals from the soil.
Water until you just notice a small bit of runoff, unless you're collecting a test sample then add a bit more.

EC measurements are meaningless in soil, the bioweb is always breaking down material and enriching the soil.
Runoff EC only tells you how much material you leached from the soil.
Click to expand...
Yea I kind of been figuring out about not having so much runoff. I was under the impression that runoff was good for staying on top of the soil ph and ppm. I still want to stick to soil in addition eventually get into living soil. I have a lot to learn though to be able to manage that lol
 
Hector327

Hector327

Active Member
Charles U Farley said:
I've always been and will always be in soil and have never measured pH or anything chemically related to cannabis. I'll never understand why anyone in soil would drown their roots and saturate their soil on purpose, just to measure pH and chemicals. It just doesn't make sense. I observe my plants, not a fucking machine.

With you hydro guys, it makes perfect sense.

I'm an RRT, so I know more about the negative log of the hydrogen ion concentration and its effects on the human body (not plants) than probably anyone who participates here (unless they're a nephrolgist, dialysis R.N., etc.). Will never understand how drowning your plant will end up being beneficial for it in the end, just so you can make some kind of measurement.

OP, your plants look great! It doesn't surprise me in the least that your problems went away once you stopped using all those additives. Relax, don't stress so much, and your plants will end up doing much better.
Click to expand...
So even if my tap water ph comes out naturally at 7.8 ph it wouldn’t affect the plants nutrient uptake in soil? I know a YouTuber called Okie Grown that grows in the same soil I do and he as well doesn’t check ph either but idk I would probably test it on 1 plant only on next run then I’m sketched out by that idea as a newbie.
 
7CardBud

7CardBud

Well-Known Member
This is where a lot of growers are misinformed. The buffering capacity of the media is what has the biggest impact on pH. If you dumped a gallon of pH 10 water into a bucket with half peat and half sand, then dumped a gallon of pH 10 water into a bucket of half peat and half crush clamshell the bucket with clamshell would have a lower pH.

You can do look up bicarbonate buffer system. Most commercial mixes are buffered with pulverized dolamite since it adds Ca and Mg along with bicarbonate.
 
Hector327

Hector327

Active Member
7CardBud said:
This is where a lot of growers are misinformed. The buffering capacity of the media is what has the biggest impact on pH. If you dumped a gallon of pH 10 water into a bucket with half peat and half sand, then dumped a gallon of pH 10 water into a bucket of half peat and half crush clamshell the bucket with clamshell would have a lower pH.

You can do look up bicarbonate buffer system. Most commercial mixes are buffered with pulverized dolamite since it adds Ca and Mg along with bicarbonate.
Click to expand...
What medium you grow in?
 
7CardBud

7CardBud

Well-Known Member
I grow in a soilless peat mix with perlite, vermiculite and dolamite.
Also, I got the info backwards earlier. I meant to say the peat and clamshell would have the higher pH.
 
Hector327

Hector327

Active Member
7CardBud said:
I grow in a soilless peat mix with perlite, vermiculite and dolamite.
Also, I got the info backwards earlier. I meant to say the peat and clamshell would have the higher pH.
Click to expand...
Ok so just so I don’t get confused more. So in order for it to be considered a soil media. It has to be either sand, silt, or loam in it? everything else is just part of the mix?
 
ClaytonNewbilFontaine

ClaytonNewbilFontaine

Well-Known Member
7CardBud said:
...and this is why I moved away from soil a few years ago, the stupid crap that happens.

Your pH is in the basement. My only guesses are overwatering and you flushed out all the buffers from the mix or the mix was not made well to begin with. I would add 3 grams of potassium bicarbonate per liter of water then water the plant (Don't ph the water, dump it in as is). Then plain water again, then plain water a third time and test runoff. Repeat this cycle until media is buffered again in the range of 6.3-6.7pH.

Just a few tips for soil.

You don't need to water with excessive runoff in soil. Your just leaching minerals from the soil.
Water until you just notice a small bit of runoff, unless you're collecting a test sample then add a bit more.

EC measurements are meaningless in soil, the bioweb is always breaking down material and enriching the soil.
Runoff EC only tells you how much material you leached from the soil.
Click to expand...
At the start of my second grow I bought a cheap tds meter and started measuring ppm going in and out but it wasn't making any sense to me so I stopped. I was getting advice that checking run off ppm would tell me what's going on with the plant. But it never acted the way it was supposed to, I just stopped checking and it hadn't seemed to matter.
Hector327 said:
I promised to get my well tap water tested and I did. Just wanted to show you guys to see your input on what you notice from it.

Edit:
Click to expand...
Where did you end up finding this test? Do you have a link?
 
Hector327

Hector327

Active Member
ClaytonNewbilFontaine said:
At the start of my second grow I bought a cheap tds meter and started measuring ppm going in and out but it wasn't making any sense to me so I stopped. I was getting advice that checking run off ppm would tell me what's going on with the plant. But it never acted the way it was supposed to, I just stopped checking and it hadn't seemed to matter.

Where did you end up finding this test? Do you have a link?
Click to expand...
It’s called Varify water test it’s on Amazon it comes with 100 strips and 2 bacteria tests for like $28
 
ClaytonNewbilFontaine

ClaytonNewbilFontaine

Well-Known Member
Hector327 said:
It’s called Varify water test it’s on Amazon it comes with 100 strips and 2 bacteria tests for like $28
Click to expand...
Thank you. I get water from a local spring and would love to know what's in it. It's safe to drink I just want to know how much of what is in it. When you ask the old timers who have been getting there water there since they were kids, if they've ever done a water test they give you a dirty look and tell you "I've been drinking this water my whole life, it's safe son". Well thank you sir, but that's not what I'm asking.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top