Ph runoff far too low

Sick Plants & Problems
#1

Hey all. Started noticing some nitrogen deficiency on some plants. And the plants are very small.

This batch I’ve been using fox farms soil, and so far only water that is set to ph 6.5. No additional nutes at all yet.
So I checked the runoff, and it was like 4.8!!!

Had to give plants a major flush to bring it back up near 6.0 again.

I’m using GH’s ph down. Does this stuff build up in soil, same as salts from nutrients?

I had this happen once before too, but thought it was from my nutes.
Now I’m adjusting my water to 7.0 to try and keep the root zone at a reasonable level.

What am I doing wrong here?

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#2

I don’t know fox farm soil but my first guess is that the soil pH is very low.

I’ve seen it happen with peat based mixes.

I use Promix and it happens to me sometimes. My water from the tap is 7.0 so I run a few gallons through.

If it’s peat based give it a wicked flush and check the runoff again.

Best of luck

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#3

Sounds like there’s not enough dolomite lime in the mix. Peat is acidic in nature and needs lime to offset the acidity. It’s cheap and available at Home Depot. A tbsp or two is probably enough to help.

#4

Things like this is why I tell people to ditch foxfarms, it used to be ok 10 years ago but its declined rapidly in the last few. Don’t be afraid to water with a higher ph, or flush with a high ph to rebalance your soil. I had high ph runoff last grow and ended up flushing twice with 4.0 water to rebalance it. In your case I’d flush with double your volume of soil at ph 8.0, check the ph near the end of whats draining out, then if needed continue until your back in the 6.x range. After that, innoculate with myccorhyzia, they are what keeps your soil ph in check.

Next grow try out coast of Maine Stonington blend or roots greenfields soil.

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#5

Oh, you know… I’ve got a small bag of the Coast Of Maine fertilizer stuff, sitting unused. I remember thinking it was very awesome looking when I got it… but never opened it.

Will do some googling and see who has their products locally.

Thanks for the recommendation!

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#6

I’ve used their lobster compost for a few years and love it. I have seedlings in some stongington now and have a no tillish tub started with it thats going gangbusters. I’m going to compare it to my normal mix this run since I already have a tub of it going that I just ran cherry wine cbd in and should be perfect for a side by side. Just from my initial experience with it, I feel that its going to do great. It was recommended to me in the middle of my last grow, so I decided to get it ready for next grow.

#7

Do you mind saying more about your experience with the COM lobster? Are you mixing it with another medium, and are you supplementing anything during flowering, or anytime in veg?

I’ve been wrestling with mixing either this or FF Happy Frog with Promix HP, but haven’t used FF soil in years and keep reading that it’s not the same product it was 10-15 years ago.

#8

Yeah, I mix the lobster in as an amendment, then I also use it in my mushroom substrate. It really gives great growth and its helping me break my reliance on bottled nutes.

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#9

Good people, I have a similar problem, I have a small plant in a small pot a liter ±, I use coconut without more, I started noticing deficiencies then I took samples of the coconut and I did readings of ec and ph, the ec was at 0.8 and the ph at 5.0, Ok nothing bad, she is only hungry and the ph low, I prepare a solution of nutrients ec 1.2 and ph 5.8, (nutrient solution canna cal mag 0.4, canna ab to 1.2) I do a root wash with 3 liters of nutrient solution (1liter pot) I read the ph and it remains the same, ph 5.0🤔, I raise the ph of the nutrient solution to 6.0, I add a little mineral magic (silicate) in the pot and wash the roots again +3 more liters, I read the ph and it only went up to 5.2, now I don’t know what else to do, if keep washing until it goes up, but I see I’m going to need a lot of water for this small pot or maybe the coconut was in poor condition and it is better to clean roots transplanting again?.. She doesn’t have to much time in this pot, maybe 1 week… Thanks a lot.

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#10

Sounds like the coco wasnt properly clean. Some coco brands are like this and you have to rinse and rinse and rinse. But the best thing about coco is that it wont kill your plant.

So flush until you start to see the PH runoff the same PH as you input. And you cutie will be ok :+1:t2:

Pz :v:t2:

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#11

Thank you for the help brother. For many years I have used the same brand of coconut without any problem, the bag says ph 6.0 ec 0.1, clean and disinfected, well yesterday I took a little of the bag and made the measurements, ph 4.0 ec 1.9 :scream: . Time to switch to another brand and take more preventive measures. Today quality controls are non-existent… I throw a little more water and she still does not want to go up, I will let her rest so that the solution and the substrate is attached and tomorrow I will make more measurements. :+1:

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#12

I switched brands after a similar experience. Couldn’t risk messing up my soil mix so I used Cloud Coir. Highly highly recommend that stuff if you have it available.

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