I love to see the autos all grown up like these. Nice to have a setup where you can leave for weeks at a time and the plants still flourish.
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Thank you for saying so and the irrigation worked flawlessly while i was away but FLOURISH is a bit of an exaggeration right now. I havenāt posted pics lately cause they look rough. I am about to go and try my first soil slurry test to see if I can learn something.
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Thanks for the hearts! I admire your work. Iāve been watching for a while.
ā:dizzy:
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Iām interested to see whatās going on with them, always learning. If those amendments didnāt help thatās good for me to know too so I stop thinking a cup or two of humic acid will fix every nutrient problem.
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well i actually did the recommended dosage on the box. i think that worked out to 8 tsp per plant. soil test shows a 7 ph and some crazy ec numbers. i think 7 or 9 ec if i did it correctly.
maybe the ph has crept too high and ferts are building up is the media.
gonna try a flush with plain phd water at 6. ive been giving 6.4 till now.
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Hmm. I donāt know much about EC and such, I do the recommended for fertilizer, but 1-2 cups of the humic stuff per 5g grow bag of soil when theyāre in trouble.
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Ok thanks Iāll up the humic. I lowered the water ph to 6 this time. Maybe thatās whatās making them sad
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Everything looks good, especially for not being thereā¦keep it up and thanks for sharing
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The ārightā pH in soil is still a mystery to me. My water is 7.something, and my soil media is 6.5-8, usually a little over 7 I think, and the plants get happy and unhappy without the pH changing. What I think is correct based on my reading and supported by my experience is that ālivingā soil pH is fine anywhere around pH 7. When they are present, the microbes have more to do with making the nutrients available to the plants than pH does. I also thought about my outside garden beds, with happy plants in a range of pH.
Then I read about what humic substances are and do, and found out creating them is a redeeming feature of grass. Mostly I hate grass 
but apparently its really great for creating good soil.
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Well that just leaves increasing ferts as my only good idea if more humic isnāt a miracle fix.
Maybe thereās someone you can talk to about your hatred of grassā¦ 
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Thanks for sharing, sometimes I think I cause these kinds of issues by not watering enough, so the soil develops areas that are so dry they never soak up the water. Iām sure thatās still true 
but itās actually really helpful to see that in your awesome buckets with perfect water they can still get these issues. Now I donāt have to pressure myself to switch to something with a water reservoir. 
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Iām actually thinking that constant bottom watering with very little top watering may be a part of my issues they stay pretty moist top to bottom with the barley straw mulch.
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I use a product called quillala added to the water when I top water. It is a wetting agent that makes the water a bit sudsy. Itās sposed to help spread the water evenly so everything gets wet. Also I usually use a pump sprayer which is prolly better for that than my watering can
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Iād disagree. I donāt water a damn thing from the top. I irrigate my veggie beds with buried lines.
Whatās in your rez? I went back in the thread to see if you just water or fertigate and didnāt see it. Iād be tempted to take her off the auto feeder and let her dry back a little
I loathe that your run off EC is that high. Iām usually in hydro but Iād say a cuss word for sure if my EC was 8.
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Thanks for the interest Biscuits.its not actually runoff itās from a slurry test that may or may not have been performed correctly. I canāt get runoff from these buckets cause I have no drain Holes. Definitely gonna try a little dry back next. Open to any and all suggestions
Res just gets dechlorinated tap water Iāve been ph ing to 6.4.
Now Iām going to 6.0
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Thereās a valve on the quarter inch line I can use to stop the drip irrigation
Also Iām not so sure I did the ec test right. If my ec was really 8 then the two plants that are doing ok would be looking worse ā¦no? All the same inputs to all 4 plants till now.
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Youāre blowing my mind.
Iāve been keeping an eye on your thread because I am interested in your grobuckets. Ive had good luck with tomatoes in a much less sophisticated bucket.
I cry about soil a lot. Youāre in good hands with Rain 
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you either win or you learn. This time Iām learning.
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Great outlookā¦itās a good way to thinkā¦never a failure, just a learning experience
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Thanks bud. Iām focused on pulling out of this nose dive with a half respectable harvest.
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