How is this even possible?

So last night I gave up temporarily and went to bed. This afternoon I ran some RO water through at 7 and am getting out 6.0!!??? This is unreal. Any guesses at this one? Tested with both a digital meter and color drop tester to verify. Thanks.

I had a similar problem but with 50% coco, 40% perlite, and 10% worm castings. I watered all my plants the same, next day I see the LSD looks fried bad. So I started flushing her, the first 2 gallons came out as 7.0. I ran 12 more gallons of water ph'd at 5.5 to get it down to 6.3. Then I ran out of water. I don't like to flush a higher or lower ph through to adjust the ph, personal preference. It kind of sounds like with the really high and low ph'd water you were giving them caused the ph fluctuation. Try flushing water at or very close to what you want your ph to be, no matter how many gallons it takes. If you over water a little it'll be ok as long as the ph is in check.

Snow Crash said:

I question the accuracy of the pH testing at this point.

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I did too...so I verified with the drops. So I tried a few things. If I mix the lime with water and test the pH, it is real high. This goes against what I read about lime, but who am I to say. I am not sure if the initial reaction does something, but it surely does settle I guess. So when I was doing this last night it was with the moms. I had some clones that are in some small pots, so I ran through as you initially advised. It worked out quite well. I am interested to see when I water again in the 6.5 to 7 range if it maintains its new lower pH.

Snow Cash, can you verify if the lime I used, being Hort. Hydrated Lime will suffice, or do I need to bail on it and find some dolomite? Thanks!

kingofqueen said:

This is about the 10th post I've read this morning that is caused from no lime in the soil . Cannabis uses lots of cal/mag . Dolomite lime works as a buffer to keep low ph levels up . Mix it in your soil from the get go. Cannabis loves it for three reasons calcium,magnesium and PH buffering qualities .Your use of RO water makes this worse . Top dress with dolomite lime and get you a cal/mag sup like MAg-Pro . It's not rocket science .

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What does "Top-Dress" mean?
If You already have an established plant, is there a way to add dolimite lime without disturbing the soil too much?

medicalgrowman said:

What does "Top-Dress" mean?
If You already have an established plant, is there a way to add dolimite lime without disturbing the soil too much?

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He means sprinkle it on the top and water. It will seep into the soil. You can try to mix it in with the top half inch or inch of the soil by just agitating the top of the soil a little. It does help a little, but if you are going to really give them a good watering, it does not matter too much.

Snow Cash, you did not answer the question above about the difference between the limes...if you know. I read a lot about it, but you had a pretty strong opinion when I originally said I used hydrated lime. I have read in several places that it is faster acting than dolomite. I have also read that it will wash out and that every two weeks you will need to add more. Where with dolomite, it takes longer to act but stays in the soil longer. Again, with this Age of Misinformation we are in, I was wondering if you had anything to add.

Thanks!!

I also wanted to add an update for anyone who may stumble across this. I was able to get my run-off stable on my smaller veg plants (who knows if they will stay that way), but the moms were still out of whack pretty bad. I am not sure why. I am going to coco. I am going to transplant all my veg plants to coco tomorrow and let those flowering ride it out. It offers a much more stable environment. Soil has just been one challenge after another. I did learn a lot, but mostly I learned use another medium if available...and certainly stay away from Fox Farm Ocean Forest on the East Coast as it might as well be battery acid.

medicalgrowman said:

What does "Top-Dress" mean?
If You already have an established plant, is there a way to add dolimite lime without disturbing the soil too much?

Click to expand...

LOL, topdress is to just sprinkle it on top of the soil ,when you water it washes it into the soil .

No. I think I was pretty clear about my feelings on the Hydrated lime.

I said you were mislead. I said you should have gotten what I told you to. I said I don't know how it will react to the pH but it contains no magnesium.

I said something along the lines of no.no.no.

That's about as crystal as I can be about it.

If magnesium is all you need a gram of epson salt per gallon will add magnesium and help calcium intake to the plant.

There's all kinds of stuff to add to the media. Azomite. Greensand. Dolomite. Gypsum. Epsom.

The idea is to get what you need in there from the get go.

Let me put it this way. In about 7 years worth of growing outdoors and indoors, organic and hydroponic, 3 years of solid research as well as being on various forums... I haven't ever heard of anyone using or including hydrated lime in their mixture.

There is a reason for this...

get a soil Ph Tester ... they work pretty well

Soil tester arent accurate, They get messed up by organic matter, rocks. The expensive ones are.

Being on the east coast, is your water alkiline? high ph?

Im growing in coco and soil. I like the coco better. Google Riococo Green Starters. Love the stuff.