Ph lockout magnesium

I’ve been beating my head against the wall trying to figure out why I’m having mag and slight ca deficiency all through out veg.
i found out today that my coast of Maine soil is more alkaline than I’d like I put water in at 6.3 it came out 7.3 so I’m deffinately thinking this is a contributing factor to my mag deficiency and probably cal as well.
“Living soil don’t have to worry about ph”
Someone make me feel better that’s cool but I know living soil or not from my own hands on research your ph range is a bit broader with living soil but not by that much

what are some good ways to bring the soil ph down to the sweetzone 6.3-6.6?
I have already assumed I will be dropping mywater ph.
Purple Afghan Kush by dinamfem 300 watt closet grow 2x4x8 electric sky 300 v2
Plants are 10 weeks old
Vpd 1.2

Citric acid works to lower the pH. I use it occasionally in my living soil since my well water has a lot of calcium that raises the pH over time. I'm curious why those leaves are so shiny though.

PadawanWarrior said:

Citric acid works to lower the pH. I use it occasionally in my living soil since my well water has a lot of calcium that raises the pH over time. I'm curious why those leaves are so shiny though.

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Citric acid works as a ph down for water your saying you’ve mixed it into your soil with success lowering the ph?
picture is post foliar spray

If you mean in general why are they so shined it’s possible they have been over fed at certain points but nothing drastic.
gotta get my soil ph down

Maineconnect said:

Citric acid works as a ph down for water your saying you’ve mixed it into your soil with success lowering the ph?
picture is post foliar spray

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Yes, mixed with water. 1/16 tsp in a gallon of water drops my well water pH from 7.3 to 6.5.

I just went through this with COM.. If your run off is 7.3? You need to water to a flush at 6.0. This will drop your ph to about 6.4 on next watering of 6.2. In the meantime foliar spray with 1 Tsp per gallon Epsoms salt (not scented) everyday in the morning for two days. It will take 4 or 5 days for your plant to bounce back.

Thank you and my apologies. I was referring to the rehabilitation of the plant after using your citric. Although I'd personally suggest phosphoric acid or plain old lemon juice. Peace.

Maineconnect said:

If you mean in general why are they so shined it’s possible they have been over fed at certain points but nothing drastic.
gotta get my soil ph down

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That makes sense if you just gave them a foliar spray. No worries then.

Peace always. Just trying to help a person in need. FFOF and COM both have very limited amendments. But some unknown raising their ph. Lockout on week 8-10 usually.

MICHI-CAN said:

I just went through this with COM.. If your run off is 7.3? You need to water to a flush at 6.0. This will drop your ph to about 6.4 on next watering of 6.2. In the meantime foliar spray with 1 Tsp per gallon Epsoms salt (not scented) everyday in the morning for two days. It will take 4 or 5 days for your plant to bounce back.

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Thanks for your time and thoughts
It’s funny I just put the ladies to bed after foliar of Epsom.
Gues great minds do think alike.
Ya I have been researching and not hard to raise that soil ph with some lime but to bring it down I’ve read saw dust top dress gypsum and elemental sulfur for top dress or whatever but I also read some dense shit claiming them all to not work quick enough for container gardeningD
It appears a flush or dropping my irrigation ph at the least is my only option.
Here’s the next move I’m contemplating,

either flushing out with camg 5.8 to get to 6.4 and down from there
Or

flushing with worm casting molasses tea ph 5.8 paired with a bokashi too dressings

or

skip the top dress mix bokashi worm castings tea and flush at 5.8

those teas arepending my ability to hit those target Phs however molasses tends to be a great ph down for a tea in a pinch.
Pinched I am on this one.

glad to hear I’m not alone and coast of Maine has a little work to do on there growers mix before they start Targeting cannabis businesses.
Lucky for me I have 3 plants.

my boss was one decision away from switching our 50k facility to coast of Maine.
Seeing this boy am I glad he decided to keep the team in coco.

thanks for theinsight if any other ideas on how to bring that phdown BESIDES flushing please let me know as who likes to force water through living soil

PadawanWarrior said:

Yes, mixed with water. 1/16 tsp in a gallon of water drops my well water pH from 7.3 to 6.5.

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No doubt I will use something to bring my irrigation water ph down moving forward
Blessings man

Thanks for your info. But the Stonington blend of fox farms are fine if you flush them hard before amending at week 7 or so. Coco is great for hydro. Went to 65% custom soil to 35% coco and have not had an issue since. Except one that involves a tea . Keep it simple. Nature knows best. Profile pic is week5 day5 today. One fertilizer and molasses every two days. I'm willing to share. The more we grow, the more we share.

Maineconnect said:

No doubt I will use something to bring my irrigation water ph down moving forward
Blessings man

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Your other ideas were good too. EWC tea, and so on. Adding organic matter like compost will naturally lower the pH also. 1tsp/gal of Neptune's Harvest Fish and Seaweed will lower my water pH to around 6.7, or 1tsp/gal Earth Juice Grow brings it to around 6.5. Earth Juice Bloom brings it around 6.5 too.

I'm on my 5th grow in the same soil, and realized I have been amending with too much Ca. My water already has plenty Ca, so it's building up and causing my pH to rise. I have been doing a mix of feedings to slowly lower the soil pH. Citric acid one day, then Neptune's Harvest, Grow or Bloom the next, then plain water. Slowly my soil pH is getting back to where I want it. The citric acid is supposed to help flush out the extra Ca, and I believe it after checking the citric acid runoff. I'm trying to be able to just use water only and top dressing when needed, but am still learning no-till.

I think it was @kratos015 that I learned this from, but I am a stoner.

I will beflushing with some sort of tea and bringing that ph down can’t wait toflip these girls just gotta get em happy first I am running out of space lol

Soil runoff pH is not representative of the pH at the roots. Chasing it can make things worse. What version of Coast of Maine are you using? If it's the Stonington Blend you shouldn't be having any deficiencies with plants. The thing with organic living soil is that you can't just flush stuff out and change pH like you can with say coco. You can flush all you want trying to lower your pH but a week later the runoff could be right back to where it is today.

Maineconnect said:

If you mean in general why are they so shined it’s possible they have been over fed at certain points but nothing drastic.
gotta get my soil ph down

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Why are you feeding plants that small in an organic soil? If this is the soil you're using there was no need to feed them anything yet. Instead of flushing why not just water as normal with pH'd water? I think you're too focused on the runoff pH which is not a reliable way to measure pH. Have you done a slurry test? That will give you the actual pH of the soil.

If you're using this soil there was no need for any additional fertilization.

Looks like some mite damage also to these old eyes.

Maineconnect said:

I’ve been beating my head against the wall trying to figure out why I’m having mag and slight ca deficiency all through out veg.
i found out today that my coast of Maine soil is more alkaline than I’d like I put water in at 6.3 it came out 7.3 so I’m deffinately thinking this is a contributing factor to my mag deficiency and probably cal as well.
“Living soil don’t have to worry about ph”
Someone make me feel better that’s cool but I know living soil or not from my own hands on research your ph range is a bit broader with living soil but not by that much

what are some good ways to bring the soil ph down to the sweetzone 6.3-6.6?
I have already assumed I will be dropping mywater ph.
Purple Afghan Kush by dinamfem 300 watt closet grow 2x4x8 electric sky 300 v2
Plants are 10 weeks old
Vpd 1.2

Click to expand...

How big are your pots, and have you had the plants in the same pots the entire 10 weeks?

Besides messing around with pH and flushings, what have you done to the plants or fed to the plants? Like have you been using any nutrients or anything?

Maineconnect said:

glad to hear I’m not alone and coast of Maine has a little work to do on there growers mix before they start Targeting cannabis businesses.
Lucky for me I have 3 plants.

my boss was one decision away from switching our 50k facility to coast of Maine.
Seeing this boy am I glad he decided to keep the team in coco.

thanks for theinsight if any other ideas on how to bring that phdown BESIDES flushing please let me know as who likes to force water through living soil

Click to expand...

You shouldn't be so quick to blame the soil for your issues. They say "Just add water" and you said that they may have been overfed a few times which means you gave them nutrients when the instructions said just water. Maybe you wouldn't have had any problems if you followed their instructions and just added water. I looked at the ingredients in their Stonington Growers Mix. It's a decent mix and you didn't need to feed. You overfed them and are having issues. Don't blame the company that made the soil if you didn't follow their recommendations to grow in it. They knew you didn't need to feed so they informed the customers. It's a SuperSoil and it says "Just Add Water" right on the bag. It's too bad you're having issues but you can't blame the soil. That soil has excellent reviews not just on this site but across the gardening community in the region that it's available. It seems like a decent outfit. The thing they need to be disparaged for is the price of their product. Good grief! That's some expensive stuff. $30 for a bag that fills a ten gallon container?

Just stay with coco. It's easier and much faster to correct issues if they arise. And it's a lot cheaper.

Good luck.

xtsho said:

You shouldn't be so quick to blame the soil for your issues. They say "Just add water" and you said that they may have been overfed a few times which means you gave them nutrients when the instructions said just water. Maybe you wouldn't have had any problems if you followed their instructions and just added water. I looked at the ingredients in their Stonington Growers Mix. It's a decent mix and you didn't need to feed. You overfed them and are having issues. Don't blame the company that made the soil if you didn't follow their recommendations to grow in it. They knew you didn't need to feed so they informed the customers. It's a SuperSoil and it says "Just Add Water" right on the bag. It's too bad you're having issues but you can't blame the soil. That soil has excellent reviews not just on this site but across the gardening community in the region that it's available. It seems like a decent outfit. The thing they need to be disparaged for is the price of their product. Good grief! That's some expensive stuff. $30 for a bag that fills a ten gallon container?

Just stay with coco. It's easier and much faster to correct issues if they arise. And it's a lot cheaper.

Good luck.

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Dude I am simply eliminating variables to find a solution to my problem. The SOIL at or above 7.3 is a contributing factor and I have done nothing abnormal to get it there.

also I spoke with a rep to figure out how much coco coir was in the substrate and the quality to find out a bit moreabout COM cat ion. Potential variable for my mag and ca problems. While speaking with the rep I asked if they limed the soil he said they used to until they got feed back that there soil was running to alkaline.
Good information for me to gather.
I apologize if I came across as blaming the soil but at the end of the day it’s high ph could and probably is a contributing factor.

my feeds are organic inputs with low impact.
tbings like coconut water aloe ewc teas.

this is far from my first rodeo in soil
How bout some aloha vibes or some info pointing me in the right direction.
Which I may be two steps ahead already
Blessings

All off the bottle recycled and amended soil
Skunk dog and others
Maui Hawai’i winter 2018
Keep up
And some dro.
Boom shakalaka