PH is at 4 i need to bring it up asap...

Cpappa27

Cpappa27

Well-Known Member
The pants are in pete moss and perlite. They are in 5 gallon buckets. I tested the runoff and it was at 4 ph. The plants are deficient cause the leaves are starting to look bleached and droopy. Almost look dry. Can I use baking soda to fix this. I am going to get a bunch of distilled water now. What should I bring my ph up to with the baking soda to bring the ph up to 6 in the soiless mix.. I want to flush them with the higher ph water and hopefully that helps. Any help is appreciated guys.
 
CashCrops

CashCrops

Well-Known Member
Pete moss is very acidity, yes I would go around 6-7 ph, should help round it off nicely. Do you have any leftover mix of perl-pete that you can test with?
 
Cpappa27

Cpappa27

Well-Known Member
spek9 said:
Yes, baking soda. That is what I use.

-spek
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do you know how much I should use to bring it up from 4. the ph of the runoff is 4 but the soil tests at 5 which I cant understand. Im freaking out cause im watching my ladies all die. I used the wrong medium. I used Sphagnum pete moss cause I didn't know when I read to use pete and perilite that I was supposed to use coco pete. Sphagnum pete is very acidic which I know now but its too late and I fdont know what to do. I have a few beautiful white widow ladies growing but they are not getting the nutes they need cauase the soil is so acidic. I bought 20 gallons of distilled water and some baking soda so I can try and adjust the ph. I just don't know how high I should bring the ph up in the water before I use it to flush the soil and bring it up from 4 to 6ph. Thank you again
 
Cpappa27

Cpappa27

Well-Known Member
I don't have any left no :(. Im hurting man I spent over a thousand dollars on this setup and I messed u[p with the most important thing, the grow medium. Nube all the way.
 
1itsme

1itsme

Well-Known Member
Cpappa27 said:
The pants are in pete moss and perlite. They are in 5 gallon buckets. I tested the runoff and it was at 4 ph. The plants are deficient cause the leaves are starting to look bleached and droopy. Almost look dry. Can I use baking soda to fix this. I am going to get a bunch of distilled water now. What should I bring my ph up to with the baking soda to bring the ph up to 6 in the soiless mix.. I want to flush them with the higher ph water and hopefully that helps. Any help is appreciated guys.
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you should add dolomite lime to your mix. peat is fine but it needs lime too.
 
Cpappa27

Cpappa27

Well-Known Member
its too late now theyre already transplanted into theyre homes of 5 gallons of sphagnum pete and perlite. This sux. Such a noob mistake
 
W

Wetdog

Well-Known Member
1itsme said:
you can still top dress with dolomite, its not the end of the world.
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Get the dolo lime and top dress with it. 2tbl/gallon of mix (10tbl for a 5 gallon container). It's like $4.50 for a 40 lb bag at HD. NOT hydrated lime. One application is all you need.

Not baking soda either, not good, no matter who says it.

Wet
 
Nullis

Nullis

Moderator
I concur, you can still apply garden or dolomitic lime. Peat moss harbors a shit load of reserve acidity (H+) and it is resistant to "washing out" with just water due to the cation exchange capacity of the material. But you can wash in lime, get micronized dolomitic limestone if you can but regular garden lime or oytershell flour will do (dolomitic has Mg as well as Ca). The lime will neutralize the acid (H+) in the peat forming water, CO2 and releasing plant available calcium and magnesium cations which will fill exchange sites.

Sodium bicarbonate is unsuitable for these purposes, way too much sodium and one would need quite a bit of baking soda to do the job.
 
Cpappa27

Cpappa27

Well-Known Member
Nullis said:
I concur, you can still apply garden or dolomitic lime. Peat moss harbors a shit load of reserve acidity (H+) and it is resistant to "washing out" with just water due to the cation exchange capacity of the material. But you can wash in lime, get micronized dolomitic limestone if you can but regular garden lime or oytershell flour will do (dolomitic has Mg as well as Ca). The lime will neutralize the acid (H+) in the peat forming water, CO2 and releasing plant available calcium and magnesium cations which will fill exchange sites.

Sodium bicarbonate is unsuitable for these purposes, way too much sodium and one would need quite a bit of baking soda to do the job.
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thank you all for your help. I'm going to buy some lime today
 
A

anzohaze

Well-Known Member
Cpappa27 said:
thank you all for your help. I'm going to buy some lime today
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what I would do is yes buy dolomite lime. take your plants out side and run a water hose thru them and flush the hell out of them. Someone can say well theres chlorine in the water well guess what its way better then buying distilled w no nutrients avaliable. Take them outside and flush. My girls are in half gallon pots at moment and theres 18 of them I used 60 gallons of water flushing them bitches no added nutes nothin my ph went from 4.9 to 6.1 and my ppm was 150. And before my last flush I added dolomite. Then I did give them a lil earth juice ppm about 450 and 2 days later there as happy as a fly on cow shit
 
Jack Harer

Jack Harer

Well-Known Member
You have to buffer or "fix" the pH of your soil, forget the run-off. That liquid is just that...run-off and wasn't in contact with the soil long enough to effect the pH. The pH of whatever you put in will be brought to the pH of your medium, but it takes a bit longer than the time it takes for the liquid to run through. It's the retained water that gets changed.
Therefore you need to use something that will resist a pH swing. Dolomite lime is the ticket. Baking soda will raise the pH, but it will quickly rebound back. Top dress the dolomite lime and scratch it in if you can. Oh and ...baby steps.
 
Cpappa27

Cpappa27

Well-Known Member
I put the lime in. I couldn't find dolomite anywhere around here so I bought some agricultural lime. I read the facts on the back and they were really close to the dolomitic in percentage aspect. The plants are looking healthy already. I bought a soil pH meter and I should have it tommorow. It might just be the nute lockout cause of the pH but some of my plants look like they have symptoms of Tobacco Mosaic Virus. Idk how common or uncommon it is to get that but I really hope it's not that.
 
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