I just found a statistical analysis of over 100 grows, and different fertilizers weren't different enough to make much difference.
General Hydroponics showed a slight benefit, however. (But of course, this study was hardly comprehensive. Still, I'm gonna try GH next.)
It sounds like you stunted your plants. The same thing happened to me, and the soil just would not dry out. Do what you can to get it to dry, and see if the plants turn around. Keep them in veg until they get healthy again. I made the mistake of putting some of my stunted plants into flowering, and they never recovered. However, the ones I kept in veg until healthy are doing well. They're still not great, though, so unless they REALLY turn around, I wouldn't use one as a mother.
To dry my soil, I cut a bunch of holes in the side of the pot. Even then, it didn't dry!
As for foliar feeding, I don't have enough experience with it to advise you. I'm thinking not, though. My theory, and it's only a theory is that if the plant is stunted, it's not going to be growing much, so it won't need much nutes. Just let it heal, and you know what they say about over-fertilizing. That and over-watering are the top two most deadly mistakes. Under-feed and under-water are way less bad. Cervantes book doesn't have much good to say about foliar feeding. I tried it a couple times on my stunted plants, probably for the same reason you're thinking about it, and I didn't see too much of an effect. I think it might be more for quickly fixing a nute deficiency, not an aid to sick plants, but again, I really don't know much about it.
I'm not sure if flushing right after it dries is a good idea. If they're still stunted, that will just over-water them again. I don't remember... are your plants in soil? If so, maybe not worry about the pH. Let the soil dry and then lightly water with slightly low pH. Don't fertilize until they start growing again. It could very well be that the pH wasn't the problem at all, cuz 7.5 isn't THAT high. Soil is a buffer, so unless it began with a high pH, it might be okay. What you might try is measuring the pH of the soil now. I suspect it was just the over-feeding (or maybe over-watering). If so, just sit back and wait. Tossing the plants and starting over is something to consider too, cuz if yours are like mine, you could be waiting a very long time. I could've grown 2 crops in the time I spent nursing mine along, but it was my first grow, I didn't know better, was attached to them LOL, and considered it an experiment I could learn from... and now you are benefiting from my fiasco. :) I started these guys in July and 2 still aren't harvested. One I finally threw away a few weeks ago. And the rest gave me half an ounce or less harvest.
Think I screwed up again, Got a good meter and found my tap water is 7.5 PH. I flushed with tap water and now that some time has passed I can see that the girls are still not looking good, small leaves and light green color.
Can I foliar feed them with some Fox Farms Big Grow (6-4-4 with trace minerals)?
Because growth has slowed way down the soil is taking a lot of time to dry out. When it finally dries I'll flush with
Clearex and PH adjust it down to 6. Learned enough to really be dangerous…..
Assuming that fixes the problem, will these plants fully recover? If so could they be used as mothers?
The unaffected plants have 7” long 2” wide fingers and are 16” tall (just moved them to 12 on 12 off). The sick girls are 2-3” shorter and the biggest leaves are half the size.
:worried
