Learned My Lesson About Ph Adjustment In Organic Soil

  • Thread starter Mr. Molecule
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RR1

RR1

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And that lesson was: Do it every time, bucko.

I've got a history of professional indoor cultivation, but outdoor work still holds a few mysteries for me. I did my biggest outdoor grow ever this year and went with organics. However, when it came to the decision of whether to balance feed solutions and water to 6.3, I relied on that old adage I've heard so often: "Hey, relax... when you're growing in organic soil, don't worry about adjusting the pH—the soil will self-regulate."

Only problem was, this time it didn't. My tap water here is 8.2.-8.4 in the summer, and I was watering with it and using it as the water in all my feedings. Everything went well until about two weeks into flowering, when I started getting yellowing leaves and leaf drop. I believe it was due to K getting locked out by high soil pH.

I quickly realized what was happening (and I'm thankful for that) and immediately started setting all my water and solutions to 6.3. The yellowing and leaf drop stopped, and things are going to be okay, but I'm sure I lost potential yield.

This was a bit confusing because I have done a limited bit of outdoor growing in containers in the past and didn't worry about balancing pH, and this didn't happen those times. Thus lulling me into a state of false security about it this time.

Anyway, this near-disaster convinced me that controlling the pH of all input is needed even in an organic system (for me, anyway... I appreciate that a lot of people don't do it and don't have problems. But I had problems).
You learned a very important, expensive lesson. If the pH is wrong, it doesn't matter how good, or how many nutrients are there, shit just don't grow. Same with a lawn. You can put on triple 12 till the cows come home if the pH is wrong.
RR1
 
diskokobaja

diskokobaja

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Hi all, this is a response from my organic tea manufacturer after I had some minor issues with my early flower and noticed the PH in my feed was reaching as low as 5ph (down from 7-7.5 before adding their organic tea)

"This pH range is very normal, BioCANNA nutrients do contain lots of fruit acids, depending on water source sometimes it will get even lower.

In organics, pH is almost irrelevant, as the nutrients are not provided in ionic form (directly plant available). By definition organic growing relies on micro organism to breakdown/convert the fertilizer into plant available nutrients (mineralization). Whether the pH of the solution is 4.0 or that it is 8.0

As well, also by definition the growing medium sets the working pH, not the nutrients. The pH buffer of soils is always much stronger than that of the nutrients being applied. Assuming your soil is of good quality, its pH is set to be between 5.2 and 6.5 no matter what pH your water is, within minutes after watering, the liquid held will be that of the growing medium.

Many growers bend their minds around achieving some pH perfection, but it pretty much is a placebo effect for anyone growing outside of a pure hydroponic system in a very inert growing medium.

The main thing to look at is that BioCANNA nutrients are designed to work with our BioTerraPro growing medium which contains some level of fertilization but also a very good supply of liming material. Which does set the pH where it needs to be as well as supply calcium and magnesium. Foxfarm has a very good reputation, but unfortunately I have no data on the content.

Pistil burn is more often caused by excess wind, dry air and radiant heat (sometimes by accidental severe under watering, like reaching wilting point). Very unlikely that this would be from too much/too little nutrients or bad pH."

Take from that what you will, but they seem a decent company. Awesome product.
this was answer that i WAS searching..
I'm growing in soil that has 6.0 ph, been giving them from start non ph'ed water (mine is 8.6)
i didn't have any problems until last 3 times i lowered ph..
i was giving them strait water with only root stimulants..
So can uit be that my plants adopted to higher ph they diidnt show any def thru whole veg time ( i grow autos), and now that I changed ph they are confused?
 
RippedTorn

RippedTorn

482
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If potheads stopped trying to sound smart they might learn something. Ask a fellow grower what ph means. They'll get all excited and rattle off something about hydrogen. But what does it mean. It means nothing on its own,it's a canary. A blinking light. What new growers need to know is the amount of acid to calcium.

Instead of talking all retarded, I think growers would best understand acidification of carbonates. Ph'ing distilled water is the type of dogma these forums breed. Vane ritual. Ph ph ph. What about the alkalinity.. Just like the guys worried about relative humidity and ignoring what it's relative to. You have to know what things mean, your precious acronyms. Grow forums have been turned into a typical American math class. Everybody copies each other and never learns what any of those numbers and letters even mean in the real word.
 
J

Johnypotseed497864

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Someone told me will using general organics ph to 6.8 the hole way I closet grow I use the old school leds 2 viparspetra450w I know u can hang them 30 to 35 inchs above the plant and they still blow up with bud and thrive a pray towards the light its weird at 18 to 24 inchs they coward away why ????
 
J

Johnypotseed497864

13
3
Is it true that autos require less intense light then photperiods ?half nutes full nutes ? And any one ever did them on 14 and 10 light schedule???
 
GanjaJack

GanjaJack

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93
Funny little story...

I lived in Texas for a very short time when I was a little kid, planted a seed in the hardest clay packed soil you could imagine.. I ended up with a seedling of cucumber.... that died...

Moral of the story?

It was completely organic...

Anyway, was watching a show on Netflix about Humboldt county "disappearances"..... They showed a guy that was growing guerilla using drip emitters , he'd put his little pile of nutrients on the ground about 6-8 inches from the plant, and let the water drip right on top of the nutrient pile. You can then run your PH adjusted water..... or, use a PH adjuster at the plant site itself.
Might be something to look into ?
 
H

hawkman

2,209
263
Glad you figured it out...that being said I've grown organically indoors for two decades without ph'ing. My schedule is feed/water/tea etc maybe that helps my situation. I think weekly beneficial microbes teas are the key.
to be honest have never checked PH , never had any issues - maybe keeping PH correct yields might increase > have monster yields anyway - I feel it's because I started to use a "innocluant" plant size has really increased, yields also !!!!
 
MerryJane22

MerryJane22

89
33
RippedTorn nailed it........PH and alkalinity are TWO SEPARATE THINGS !

For those "not PHing their water and never having issues"........your water is probably not riddled with calcium like mine is. At the end of my first two grows my cloth pots were literally WHITE with calcium build-up. I just could not figure this out, I had been PHing and bringing it down to 6.2-6.5 the entire time!

This winter I sat down and read everything I could about well water, growing, PH and mineral content and lo and behold-- I realized that my 8.0 PH water was absolutely fine to water with, BUT only if it was run through an RO filter (to remove some of the minerals). I hadn't done this. I mistakenly believed that by achieving 6.5 PH my soil would be fine. NOT SO. Because the calcium etc remained in the soil ---slowly building up week by week.

My grows were great---- until I hit flower. Like the others, my plants started to hit a wall about 4 weeks in. Really having a rough time (pot bottoms had big white ring around them by then too). The roots were loaded with calcium and whatever minerals my well water contains (just like my coffee pots and faucet base).

This year I have an 'RO buddy' (a cheap filter you attach to water source) and plan to filter most of my water. I'll mix it half and half with my well water (I don't want to strip it entirely of cal/mag after all). I won't bother to PH as I'm still growing organically and in hindsight believe I never had to do that the last two years because it was the mineral build-up that choked my gals. The TDS out of the tap is 200. If you research, some say this is really hard water & others not......but my grows tell me the truth. It needs filtering period. Over weeks it adds up.
I limped to the finish the last two years......this year I hope to arrive in better shape ! if I can keep that pesky powder mildew at bay anyway. Maybe with stronger plants (not choked out by excess minerals) I can?
 

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