Super soil & water quality

Indoor Growing Organics
#1

Getting back into growing, but right now am just starting seedlings for my veggie garden. Working on dialing in a super soil mix I can use for tomatoes that I can potentially translate into use for cannabis with little tweaking later.

2 questions- how careful do I need to be with super soil when using to start seedlings? I ask bc my tomatoes are hurting bad but cant tell if the soil mix is too hot, or if its a water issue.

2nd question is: how much more leeway w a super soil mix do you get w the ph and tds of your water when growing in rich soil like that. My ph pen is reading 5.5 and tds is at 550+. I’m thinking my tomato seedlings are having more of an issue w the water than the soil based on those numbers.

Lettuce and pumpkins are doing fine. Tomoatoes are stunted and stems turning purple. Anything that I potted up that was already well established is doing great w the same mix the tomatoes were hurting with. First batch of tomatoes got really stretchy, fell over, turned purple but never put on a 2nd set of true leaves. And I know the stretching was not due to low light conditions.

Soil mix consisted of peat moss, worm castings, perlite, and a couple of organic granular garden soil fertilizers I picked up at a big box store.

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#2

Did you use anything to buffer the acidity from the peat moss? Could be it’s too hot for youngin’s.

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#3

No I didnt buffer the peat moss. So something like lime mixed in w the soil? I noticed a lot of the soil mixes also use coconut, what effect if any does that play? (Coco wasnt really a thing when I stopped growing 15+ yrs ago).

You also say it may be too hot for youngins- you mean the nutrient levels are too high/hot or the ph is too low bc of the peat moss & acidic water? (Or both?)

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#4

The acidity could be causing problems. I use both hydrated lime and dolomitic lime when I make up a batch. The hydrated lime will cool the mix down a bit right at the start and the dolomite helps over the longer term as a slow release buffer.

I’ve got a partially built batch sitting in the garage right now. I got rained out yesterday just as I finished screening the soil.

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#5

Ok, thanks. Will definitely get some lime for my next batch.

What do y’all think about the tds #s in my water? We have crazy hard water and thats after it’s been thru the softener.

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#6

When you say you are testing the ph, what are you doing to test it? ph 5.5 is pretty low for soil. I usually aim for 6.5 - 6.8.

I test my ph with a soil grow by checking the run-off after watering. If you don’t use ph neutral water to begin with your test result will be wrong.

#7

You aren’t using water that has been through water softener. Are you?

#8

Straight tap water is 5.5. Didnt test the run off but I will.

Pretty sure all my water goes straight thru the softener as soon as it comes in the house. Have no idea how those things work, first house w one! Ha.

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#9

Generally it’s advised not to use water that has been through a softener. The salt load is toxic to plants.

Your tap water is ph 5.5 and you actually drink it? Water for drinking is recommended to be in the range of ph 6.5 to 8.5. Water softeners normally tend to increase the ph of water.

Watering with water that is ph 5.5 and that peat moss with no buffer… I dunno. Sounds to me as though you’re going to have problems.

Go get yourself a jug of distilled water. Test the ph to be sure it is neutral. It’ll give you an idea of what your pen is doing too in the event you haven’t checked it’s calibration. Water the soil you have made up and check the ph of the run-off. That will give you an idea of where you are at. If needed you should be able to adjust your water to suit.

Normally a water softener is installed on the hot water side only. That said, my mother lives in an apartment building that only supplies soft water to the apartments. If they want straight city water they have to go to the basement to get it.

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#10

First time I’ve heard of that. The softeners I’ve seen in the US have been on the supply side prior to the tap for the water heater. Bot hot / cold are softened.

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I agree with Schmokey, that seems a bit acidic for a home tap. Could you verify that your PH pen is calibrated. And, what type of pen?

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#11

I had same issues with my tomato starts this year i was think the purpling along with a different light system being employed was the issue . As I use EWC in my mixes I knew it couldn’t be phosphorus def what I found out that turned them around was putting putting bottom heat on them ! If they are planted outside already could be soil temp . Also one a side note tomatoes don’t like outside low temps of 50-55 degrees. Hope this helps your cause!

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#12

Perhaps I should have clarified that. If your water isn’t excessively hard and drinkable from the tap it’s often only hooked up on the hot. Why drink salt if you can avoid it?

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#13

If your sure it wasn’t a light issues iv read that stretch can also be due to calcium. When I transplanted I also came to the conclusion that my mix was very dense with probably to much EWC , lighten the mix with rice hulls or something similar as bottom heat turned them around 180 imo

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#14

I’m sort of wondering if the “super soil” @newb2.0 has put together isn’t the culprit in the purple issue.

The “granular garden soil fertilizer” mentioned has me wondering. A lack of phosphorous can turn plants purple. If the fertilizer hasn’t seen enough water to dissolve it and make the nutrients available…

As for stretching, if tomatoes are left in a humidity dome for too long after breaking the surface they can get spindly.

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#15

Your EWC has a high phosphorus component to them . They contain high amounts of N, P and K as well as calcium . Calcium is added last as it excreted from the worm .

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#16

Not to be argumentative, but even castings will take time to break down and become available for plants in a soil-less mix, no?

I’m in the process of putting a batch of soil together that contains potting soil as part of it’s base and intend to let it “stew” for at least a couple weeks before I use it. Putting together a soil mix that contains no potting soil is a different animal entirely.

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#17

Correct the calcium enveloping the the cast acts as a time-release little nugget of gold , they say EWC is nature’s perfect fertilizer/soil amendment.

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#18

Hey all thanks for the feedback. Gonna do some more testing & report back.

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#19

Here’s a guidance for feeding, hope it helps … :sunglasses:

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#20

So if my starting ppm for tap water is 200, after I add nutes I’d want to be at 300-450 during seedling/early sprouts? Just trying to make sense of the excludes ppm of your water comment

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