Help, Please :)

[steveoi812]

Well I went to the hydro store today and I picked up some ph up, ph down and I got some test papers. I tested my regular plain tap waters ph. It is 6.4. The run off from my plants tested at 6.6. I tested the distilled water I have been using for everything and it is 6.0. I guess this is a little low for our needs, yea? Anyways I transplanted my babies into 3 gallon pots tonight. I didnt mess around with the ff OF this time around I opted for some promix professional instead. I'm thinking that this whole problem probably is from low ph of distilled water and over ferting, causing lockout. Like I said things are starting to green up little by little.

 

[sproutco]

Distilled water should have a ph of 7. Your ph sounds on the high side. Could be the cause of all the yellowing. In promix, you want ph 5.6-6.2. Adjust you fert water ph after mixing to 5.8 to 6

 

[steveoi812]

Thanks bro

 

[sproutco]

With the ph being high this might have been something like iron deficiency. It is high on the plant to be magnesium. You said lower leaves were ok. Good thing is the cal mag plus contains micros too.

It appears that distilled water can have a lower ph than 7. My mistake. Sounds like your doing the testing right. I bet all your problems go away using the lower ph and the addtion of cal mag plus occassionally.

It is my understanding that distilled water is pH 7.0 only in theory.
Even freshly distilled water picks up CO2 from the atmosphere and
becomes acidic, or so I am told. In various labs with various stills I
have never seen distilled water that is pH 7.

Geoff

Geoff McAuliffe, Ph.D.
Neuroscience and Cell Biology
Robert Wood Johnson Medical School


I am pretty stoned right now.

Good luck!

 

[inflorescence]

Steveo, your distilled water doesn't really have a pH because it has no buffer, meaning it will take on the pH of it's surroundings. If it's surroundings are air then the co2 in the air will dissolve in the water, form a weak acid called carbonic acid and take on the pH of that acid since it has no buffer of it's own to counteract that acid. If you water distilled water into your soil, it will take on the pH of your soil for the same reason, hence your pH measurement goes from 6 for the water to 6.6 in the soil. Basically you just tested the pH of your rhizosphere without even realizing it.

 

[steveoi812]

Steveo, your distilled water doesn't really have a pH because it has no buffer, meaning it will take on the pH of it's surroundings. If it's surroundings are air then the co2 in the air will dissolve in the water, form a weak acid called carbonic acid and take on the pH of that acid since it has no buffer of it's own to counteract that acid. If you water distilled water into your soil, it will take on the pH of your soil for the same reason, hence your pH measurement goes from 6 for the water to 6.6 in the soil. Basically you just tested the pH of your rhizosphere without even realizing it.

HAHAHA pretty cool. I read something about that on the net last night too. Its pretty wild that something can be so pure that it will do something like that. I can only imagine what it does while inside that human body. Ya know it? Thanks man



Sproutco. I love your avatar man. Makes me smile everytime I look at it. Doy you think that in this situtation I would be better off using a different water source instead of distilled? I wonder if it is actually leaching nutes from my soil into the water?

 

[inflorescence]

I wonder if it is actually leaching nutes from my soil into the water?

For kind of the same reason distilled water doesn't have a pH is kinda the same reason why it is such a good solvent. It is definately leaching nutes from your medium, it's just that usually people don't water so much that it floods out the drainage holes or if it does it collects in a saucer and is reabsorbed into the medium. However not all the nutes it has leached will be reabsorbed, hence the crusty discoloration of the saucer after a while.

 

[steveoi812]

Well you guys things are pretty much back to normal. Some of my big fan leaves are still yellow and you can tell that I have burned em up. All of the other foilage is turning nice and green. These babies are getting pretty big now and I need to throw them into flowering. They are pushing 24 inches tall. I know that they still need a little time to recoup but I know they are going to make it through this. I was wondering if I 12 and 12 these girlies now will there be any adverse effects from not letting them get totally back to normal or will they ever get back to normal considering what has happened to them? Should I risk it?