Runoff ph is 8.2

[Trippster62]

Dammm thats some tree trunk brother wow nice work cant wait to see the budz on that

[Trippster62]

@Ancient.Soul.Grown
@Mr Nice
Thanks
Since I've run both varieties before I can tell you that the Vanilla Tart makes bigger but less dense buds. Serious Happiness makes smaller but super dense buds. Since this will be the first time running them side by side I'm expecting some interesting comparison photos.

[Trippster62]

I never PH in organic soil unless I have a problem by the way.

Sorry, I re read your post!

Also you maybe need to buffer to soil.

I had never checked runoff at all before this run. I have also never lost a plant that was 8 weeks into veg and ready to be moved to flower.
I flushed the 3 remaining plants. I lost another one 10 days later. Since I only run 4 plants at a time losing 2 means I've lost 50% of this grow.

My son, who works in a legal facility here in the states that runs hydro, suggested I start testing runoff. I found out a lot of good hydro information doesn't have a direct correlation with soil.

Yeah I use a probe to test soil PH. A good healthy microbiome can help level things out on its own.

So, I used my new probe.
Vanilla Tart came up 5.8
Serious Happiness was 6.0

Now everything makes even less sense.

Mind blown.
Whatever my little mycoherd (mycorrhizae) is doing in this soil is beyond me. As long as the girls keep looking healthy I'm going to quit worrying about it. I think the losses earlier made me paranoid.

[Trippster62]

Lime can buffer your soil. Or small amounts of the bicarbonate will help watering in as you can really mix the lime in now?

Unless you water it in.

@GHO may also be able to help you.

Lime would raise pH and add more calcium? Couple of things you can try is adding peat/elemental sulphur to lower pH. Possibly adding humic acid will help to buffer your soil.
if you're in a hard water area you really need a filter.

What's your soil recipe? Are you certain it's the water?

I did put an order for an inline hose filter. After looking long enough I found one that filters to 1u. That should help with the excess calcium in the water. I'll take ppm before and after and see if it's all that. Surprisingly, it was in the same price range as the 5u filters.

[Guest]

You will find the calcium has had a buffering effect. Any nutrients you use will have an effect of greater swings in ph so adjust if you use any, I have a lot of calcium as well, at different stages of my nute program I'll mix filtered and non filtered water to retain some of the buffering effect. Calcium is also a building block for cell walls so you may need to experiment a bit to get it where you want. Also check out SLF 100 it's an enzyme product that helps remove excess salts and calcium.
https://organicearth.eu/when-you-know-a ... or-slf100/

[dal]

If you're in the States you should be able to get some quality amendments...?

Yeah I should be able to. But really only around this time of year.
I think I've decided to start over. I'm just going to throw out my 100 gallons of soil I've been using. Start with all new soil next time. Maybe it's time to start looking into some recipes for a super soil. Maybe even start feeding worms again.
I used to grow veggies all organic. I remembered how much work I had to put into the compost heap. The wife used to take care of the worms. That is, until time to separate the worms from the castings. Then it was an us project. I didn't want to put in the work when I started growing cannabis. I figured, just put them in some dirt and feed the heck out of them. I think I've pushed that idea as far as I can.

There are some soil recipes here if you hunt them down.

@dal may have something...?

Coots recipe is also a good one.

Or look up Leighton Buzzard?

@DIY.Rik Sorry Rik no help here I'm a lazy slacker and pretty much have relied on what I have been doing with the branded stuff that I've learned to use for my environment. In soil I have learned that a higher ph is much better than low, I've learnt that once it goes under 6.2 in soil is when defs start. I stick to going in ph of anything bewtween 6.2-6.8 and when it's high on run off is usually that they're feeding. Hope this helps but I'm no expert on such things just have learnt to work with what I use.

[Guest]

Yeah I should be able to. But really only around this time of year.
I think I've decided to start over. I'm just going to throw out my 100 gallons of soil I've been using. Start with all new soil next time. Maybe it's time to start looking into some recipes for a super soil. Maybe even start feeding worms again.
I used to grow veggies all organic. I remembered how much work I had to put into the compost heap. The wife used to take care of the worms. That is, until time to separate the worms from the castings. Then it was an us project. I didn't want to put in the work when I started growing cannabis. I figured, just put them in some dirt and feed the heck out of them. I think I've pushed that idea as far as I can.

There are some soil recipes here if you hunt them down.

@dal may have something...?

Coots recipe is also a good one.

Or look up Leighton Buzzard?

@DIY.Rik Sorry Rik no help here I'm a lazy slacker and pretty much have relied on what I have been doing with the branded stuff that I've learned to use for my environment. In soil I have learned that a higher ph is much better than low, I've learnt that once it goes under 6.2 in soil is when defs start. I stick to going in ph of anything bewtween 6.2-6.8 and when it's high on run off is usually that they're feeding. Hope this helps but I'm no expert on such things just have learnt to work with what I use.

Yeah in soil that soils right. I didn't like seeing below 6.5 as caution.

I also used this at 1st until I was confident. In fact I still refer to it now when I need to:

[Guest]

Oh, those 2 are of the same girl. She looks healthy above the soil, it's just the rise in the ph of the water as it runs through that has me concerned.

I`m not a dirt grower but i just go by what plant is saying and all rest isn`t worth a worry if plant is looking good jobs a good en. I mean why would you think about messing about with your medium when your plants are looking tip top as they are and in fine fettle & lush green, I'd be more worried about adding this and that to my medium trying to correct a problem that isn`t really a problem causing a real big problem .

Run off readings aren`t exactly accurate but are great for getting to bottom of a problem if you have a problem to solve. You dont have a problem from what im looking at here.

p.s

I see you`ve checked your soil ph properly with a ph probe thingi-bob now and its looking sound enough, good stuff m8.