Thrips to black spots to leaf tips curling up.
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OldMedUser
Well-Known Member
Your tops and buds look fine so I'm pretty sure you don't have low anything. And there's not that much damage to the lower fan leaves so I wouldn't be doing anything drastic at this point.
Slurry tests are ball-park at best and soil from the top couple inches isn't showing the true pH of the root zone where it counts.
The proper way to get a closer to true pH reading is to soak the pot to saturation with water but don't check that runoff. Remove that runoff and let the pot sit for at least an hour. Overnight is best so that any chemical reactions have stabilized. Then add more water to force some runoff into a preferably clean tray and test that. I use pH Perfect nutes and RO water so never worry about pH.
I was testing my tap and ro water but both seem to hover around 7-7.5 ph. I don't have any ph down or anything like that. But herc harvest bone meal, part of my nutrient line, lowers ph so I usually use that when doing flushes and when doing feeds, the ph usually is around 5.5 and I use a little ph up to get it back. Maybe I should look into some ph down or the like.
OldMedUser
Well-Known Member
I don't really think you pH is much to worry about. Your water must be pretty soft to have a nice low pH like that. What is the ppm? It doesn't go through a water softener first does it? That'll kill plants.
Our house water comes out of a dugout on my property and is pH 8+ and 400ppm so we buy RO water for drinking and my plants. The minerals in hard water like that build up in the soil and lead to uncontrollable high pH and toxic salts buildup that shows up half way thru flowering and starts burning up the leaves making them all thick, and brittle. They go yellow/brown all across the leaf unlike nute burn that starts at the tips and edges.
Our house water comes out of a dugout on my property and is pH 8+ and 400ppm so we buy RO water for drinking and my plants. The minerals in hard water like that build up in the soil and lead to uncontrollable high pH and toxic salts buildup that shows up half way thru flowering and starts burning up the leaves making them all thick, and brittle. They go yellow/brown all across the leaf unlike nute burn that starts at the tips and edges.
I tested my water again today and it was showing 7.9-8ph. The water has been around 340ppm. I was using RO water this whole time but recently switched to tap water after all the issues began just in case.I don't really think you pH is much to worry about. Your water must be pretty soft to have a nice low pH like that. What is the ppm? It doesn't go through a water softener first does it? That'll kill plants.
Our house water comes out of a dugout on my property and is pH 8+ and 400ppm so we buy RO water for drinking and my plants. The minerals in hard water like that build up in the soil and lead to uncontrollable high pH and toxic salts buildup that shows up half way thru flowering and starts burning up the leaves making them all thick, and brittle. They go yellow/brown all across the leaf unlike nute burn that starts at the tips and edges.
FYI the 5.5 I mentioned was after I mixed all my nutes together and before using ph up. But when I want to do just a flush and use water, the only thing I have that lowers Ph is herc harvest bone meal. Bc otherwise my water is normally 7.5-8.0
Wonder if it would be good to use 50/50 mix of RO and tap. That usually brings my ppms to about 140
On the plus side, even tho my leaf issue is spreading, the buds seem to be growing still.
OldMedUser
Well-Known Member
Just water it in at 5.5. That'll help bring it down a point or two in the root zone. The pH in there isn't going to change much from one watering. Guys who have serious high pH from hard water could water it in at 4 and barely change the pH in the pot. You'd need to flush a full pot worth of water thru to change it to getting closer to 7.
Put 1ml of pH down in a gallon of RO water and it'll probably be down to 5. Do that to pH8, 400ppm tap water and it will barely move down at all. RO has no ions in it to neutralize the acid but hard tap water has lots so the acid gets used up fast. pH is a lot more complicated than most people think.
Put 1ml of pH down in a gallon of RO water and it'll probably be down to 5. Do that to pH8, 400ppm tap water and it will barely move down at all. RO has no ions in it to neutralize the acid but hard tap water has lots so the acid gets used up fast. pH is a lot more complicated than most people think.
White
OldMedUser
Well-Known Member
Should be good enough.