low soil PH..

[FadedMalone]

I checked my soil run off and checked with the ph drops and the color reads around 4 to 4.5. Should I raise the ph of the water I'm watering with to correct it? I normally lower the ph in my nute mix. The water I use is tap water and the waters ph is around 7.5 to 8., I lower it to around 6 to 6.5, mind you I use the ph drops to check the ph of the water. I'm using the go box from general hydroponics. I started to notice the start of nute lock out.

 

[late]

What are you using for soil, and what and how much of the Go Box
are you using when you water?

 

[FadedMalone]

I'm using whitney farms organic soil. I use 1tsp of bio grow,1/2tsp of bio marine to a gallon of water.

 

[namvet25]

If your using the Go Box nutes you shouldn't have lock out.I used Go Box for several grows and never ph'd my intake water or runoff waterand I never had a problem.You can ph your water but it's not necessary,just make sure you use the cal/mag according tothere feed scheduale.Post some pics if you can.

 

[FadedMalone]

I have left out the cal/mag once. I may need to use the whole line of nutes instead of just a few. I noticed the main stem and the leaf stems on two plants turning red,red lines up and down the main stem. The plants with the problem is 1 nlxbb and auto#1.I have a nice biodiesel mass 3 weeks old today and is looking awesome. Both the nlxbb and the auto#1 are around the 35 days old. I had a problem with these plants from the beginning using crap dirt but changed to whitney farms. I'll post some pics in around an hour or so.

 

[namvet25]

You should be using all the nutes and follow the feeding chart.

 

[Muddy]

When you say you are pHing your water, is that before or after you add the nutrients? Run off that low, combined with red stems screams pH lockout. The red stems are caused by a lack of phosphorus. Looking at this chart you can see that at that low pH not only phosphorus but almost everything is unavailable to the plant. Does your soil contain any lime?

 

[FadedMalone]

Thanks for the help namvet25. When it comes to feeding my girls should it be feed,feed and then water or feed,water feed. The 3 week plant I fed once with 1tsp of bio grow and 1/2 tsp of bio marine.If I start using the whole line should I do a 1/4 of what they call for or 1/2 or more. The 33 to 35 day old girls have been fed once with 1tsp of bio grow and 1/2 tsp of bio marine and a tea twice of earth recharge and molasses. I used some dirt I thought would be a good seed starter mix but held to much water and stunted the nlxbb and the auto#1,those two plants are around two weeks behind.I'm thinking I'm under feeding!?

- - - Updated - - -

@ muddy,yeah the ingredients on the bag said there is lime in it. I ph'd before I mixed my nutes.

 

[n00b]

You should ph AFTER adding nutes. My tap comes out 7 and is below 5 after adding nutes. Not sure about the bio line but either way you want the end result water going in somewhere between 6.2 and 6.8 or close to.

 

[Muddy]

@ muddy,yeah the ingredients on the bag said there is lime in it. I ph'd before I mixed my nutes.

That's your problem right there. Nutrients lower the pH. So if you are pHing it down to 6 and then adding the nutes, it could be 5 or lower by the time you feed the plants. Always add your nutrients, then check the pH. As much as I don't like flushing plants, in your case I think it's warranted given the extremely low pH. You want to run 3 times the pots size of water pH adjusted to 6.5 through the pots. So if your pots are 3 gallon, that would be a 9 gallon flush. The first 8 gallons will be plain water pH adjusted and the last gallon add some 1/4 strength nutrients. Adjust that last gallon to 6.5 after adding the nutrients, feed and check the run off. That will be a more accurate reading as to what is going on.