No, although some would argue that its not necessary to PH your water at all. The pot size is what allows you to not PH water, if you have a 10 gal pot or more it naturally buffers the PH, small pots don’t have that capability.
You don’t PH treas, but you would PH your water, and for organic soils you should be PH ing to 6.2 but uaually 6.-6.5 is ok as it allows a swing that covers the nutrients the plants need to uptake. The bacteria are making your plants food, the plant signals the bacteria, its called chitlin signalling I believe, by releasing carbohydrates and enzymes that promote the right bacteria it needs for the nutrients it wants at that time.
All you have to do is make sure that food is in the soil for the bacteria to break down, and provide the right PH for them to thrive in, the teas just add more bacteria to the pot. So you have this constant movement of PH bacteria and food in the right balance, being broken down in the soil for the plant to access.
Sounds easy when I say it like that, but it’s not getting the right amount and balance of nutrients is what I find hard.
Plants will get a deficiency, in one thing, so you add more, but most of the time you are guessing how much, and how fast the bacteria are working, so it’s easy to screw up and throw the whole system out of whack, adding too much of one thing.
With bottled nutrients you know exactly what is going in, what your ph/EC is, all they have to do is guess how much the plant can handle before it burns. Organic is kinda like driving blindfolded and someone telling you left or right on the steering wheel lol.
When you buy these JAW soils you trust that everything in the bag is as advertised but there will always be descrepences, and to know properly, you have to have it tested at some cost, to know exactly what you have at the start, in order to know how much to replace when it depletes. To understand the tiny details of a plants expression of when it needs or doesn’t need something takes a lot of time and experience, to act just before it becomes a problem.
When it’s going well it’s a breeze to grow good weed, but when it’s out of whack it’s a pain on the ass, and frustrates the hell out of me, because there is so much more to learn, to keep it consistent. It’s also why I love it as it’s the challenge I enjoy the most. I would still grow even if I didn’t use it anymore.
I have a suggestion that may help you here.
I collect my egg shells (chicken) and once I have a good quantity I toast them for 20 min. At 375F (typically just slide them in when cooking something else). After, I buzz them in in a scavaged Magic Bullet (yard sale). Usual caveats about PPE for handling powders etc. I would suggest a top dressing; I typically mix about a cup of Promix, 1/2 cup of worm castings and a tablespoon or so of the powdered eggshell. That’s enough to do a 5 Gal pot.
Toasting the eggshells speeds up the uptake (hint: uncooked is a nice slow release soil amendment).
And best of all – it’s free!
Appreciate the advice, I did read something about using eggshells before as well.
As for now Im about 2 weeks out from harvest (this was an autoflower). Buds are stacking up nice and looking pretty dense. Unfortunately I never figured out what was wrong 100% but I believe that it was low PH that was causing a nutrient lockout. Since my troubles I have been super diligent about my PH and things are looking (and smelling) really great!!!
getting the right amount and balance of nutrients is what I find hard.