PH in 6.5, ph runoff, 4.38, what does this mean?

[robertmarley]

My seedlings have all been soooo stagnant and are not growing with a damn at all.

Im using a brand new bag of happy frog with my satori beans, and all of them grow maybe an inch or two then seem to want to die off. I've lost 4-5 out of my bag of 10 already.

so finally i got curious and decided to check the run off, and what do you know... 4.38.. water going in is around 6.5-6.6

No ferts/additives at all... what gives? why is the ph runoff so low? and how do i fix this with the next watering?

 

[AlwaysLearning]

Hey sorry to hear you're having problems. What kind of water are you using? Tap, distilled, or RO?

 

[Guest 18340]

....

 

[BLUNToPOTomuss]

Your soil sounds real low on PH..... maybe 3.5 or so...... when you add 6.5 it bumps it up a tad to 4.4. You want your runoff to be 6.5-6.8. Experiment with raising the PH of your water to say 7.4. Then check run off. Ive heard of people using FFOF having to use 8.0 water starting out to get runoff of 6.8, eventually getting to 6.8 with 6.8 water after a week or 2.

Your RUNOFF is the water the plant is using to feed, NOT the water being poured on the plant.


Dont feed seedlings for a couple of weeks, or untill they have a decent root set, and then start out with only 1/4-1/2 strength

 

[robertmarley]

using ro.. but i think im going to start by ph upping to around 8 like you said and see what happens.

 

[robertmarley]

jesus.. using ph 8.5 and still coming out super acidic.. what a mess

 

[mitsu1]

Is there Lime in Happy Frog? Add some to the soil,the ph will come up...mitsu

 

[master shake]

Damn sorry man, sounds like it didn't get any lime or oyster shells, I'm using happy frog right now mainly because ocean forest has been to hot for me. I mix in 1 tbs/gal dolomite or limestone, even though it's supposed to be pH balanced.. Sounds like a bag bag of dirt to me, my pH runoff was never that low when I used to check, even after feeding with EJ bloom and that shit makes the water-in in the low 5's.

How are you watering? When you plant the seeds is the soil completely saturated? If so that could be part of the problem but who knows.

 

[Grand Funk]

Sounds like you got a bag that has a lot of sticks/wood chips in it. That shit is acidic as hell. That's why I only trust promix. Consistent product for years. Seems Fox Farms has quality control issues at times.

 

[robertmarley]

yeah ive had a bunch of quality problems with fox farm dirts.. ocean forest has ALWAYS been way to hot for any thing i've put into it.. thats why i switched to happy frog like mentioned above.

i just let the tap run through each of them for a while until finally the ph came out in the mid 6's and i left it at that. hopefully all the water wont stay in there forever and drown them out..

im done with ff products, switching to promix.. fuck its cheaper anyway

 

[BLUNToPOTomuss]

Cant remember where, either on the bag or website I read that their soils are made from "local" products. Local wood, peat moss, and other stuff.

The only thing I can gather from that is NOT ALL FF is created equal!!!!

 

[Dreamscape]

yeah ive had a bunch of quality problems with fox farm dirts.. ocean forest has ALWAYS been way to hot for any thing i've put into it.. thats why i switched to happy frog like mentioned above.

i just let the tap run through each of them for a while until finally the ph came out in the mid 6's and i left it at that. hopefully all the water wont stay in there forever and drown them out..

im done with ff products, switching to promix.. fuck its cheaper anyway

hey guys ... i'm having similar issues here.

I was wondering if after that flush when it finally hit the mid 6's if it stayed that way ??

 

[etinarcadiaego]

My situation was identical, and my pH drops about 1/4 point per watering, so .25 every 4 days.

 

[Dreamscape]

So after flushing your pH stabilized ??

And now , after stabilizing , it only drops .25 every 4 days as opposed to going from your water of 6.5 to your run off of 4.5 ??

 

[etinarcadiaego]

Correct. After flushing it stabilized for bit, and only drops a nominal amount, not sure what causes that, but I've heard that as plants consume nutrients in soil, the soil becomes more acidic . . . not sure.

I flushed with about 5 times the water for my medium, so 5 gallons of water per gallon of soil . . . . I know this is a lot, but it's what it took . . .

I've read posts where others say to do it gradually, unfortunately I read them after I had flushed . . .

 

[Dreamscape]

did they go through a big shock due to all that water flushing fast?

 

[etinarcadiaego]

Good ?. My older two plants didn't seem to mind at all, and took off right after the flush. Of my younger plants 1 is fine and is back to growing well again, the other, which is still growing, is also exhibiting some negative effects of the flush like yellowing and spotting, fairly consistent with over-watering and pH fluctuation issues. My older plants are 7 weeks, my younger are 3-4.

 

[Dreamscape]

Thank you etinarcadiaego and best of luck for you and your plants

I like your sig too ... its so true ... change has to come

 

[robertmarley]

all mine recovered and took off quickly after.. im so over fox farm dirt, ive alwayyysss had this problem and never knew it..

 

[Dreamscape]

and it figures i've got a solid 5+ bags of Ocean Forest and Light Warrior Left