Proper way to flush out salt buildup in soilless

[faintfuzzies]

I am using sushine mix #4 advanced wit advanced nutes . Im about 5-6 weeks from seed. I noticed yellow tips on growing shoots , i was told my ph should belowered from 6.3 to 6.0 so yeasterday afternoon when it was time to water again i lowered my ph to 6.0 and gave the plants the second seedling week of nutes and today im seeing way more sign of nute issues, way more yellow tips on growing shoots and maybe a slight light greening of shoot and some copper spots on one leaf . I am thinking being they are so young but i never flushed maybe i should be flushing to correct this?

what is the proper way to flush out build up of salts and then feed . do i flush today and wait til its time to water again and then give nutes a few days after flush ( this is soil less ) ,and then every other week use plain ph water ? Im not sure what the best way is to do this also how long until i might see a change ?. I am very worried about these plants

 

[il19z8rn4li1]

HELLO FRIEND.

You say your using soil less... and your using "SEEDLING" Rated nutrient levels?

and you say your plants are 5 weeks old from Popping?

WOW is all i gotta say.. give those suckers some nutes man...

Sound like your making the nutes to weak and the plants are not getting enough of some essential nutes... first ones that come off top of my head are Cal/Mag lol


I just read a thread a few days ago about someone having defic issues.. and someoen adviced him to start feeding near full dose of nutes instead of limiting the plant.
(the theory "Less is more", in my experience, works best with ORGANIC growing)

make a nice dose of nutes... adjust pH to 5.7 and allow the pH to swing up to 6.

Stay away from that 6.3 you had before.

Just my thoughts on the issue..

But as for flushing.. here is what you do.. gotta be careful flushing because if you got a medium that needs to dry up in order to be able to water again.. you gotta make sure plants are healthy and the root mass has consumed most of the root field. Thats because your going to have to FLOOD your plants out... till they are dripping like crazy out of the bottom..

Let them drain for a about 10mins on an angle. Then flip them to the opposite side so the water can drain through the other side of the medium if need be. Draining usually takes a good 20mins if you want to make sure you had a nice pull of gases and airs into your medium.

THEN your babies should suck up this water within 3-4 days.. you should notice a drastic decrease in pot water weight after these days, Once they have lost A LOT of their water weight, then give them a nice feeding with nutes, no more then 7 days after a flushing though... but I cant stress enough, that you gotta pay attention to water/moisture content in the medium... its so easy to over water plants. Make sure you got good air movement around the pots.. helps a lot.

If you wait to long without feeding them.. they are not going to do anything.. youll notice NO GROWTH.. but they will be living thats all.. they needs FOOD to GROW... water is only for hydration :-D

GL my friend.
cheers

 

[Homebrewer]

Run some tap water through your pots until you see runoff and be sure to collect a sample of that runoff water. Take a pH and TDS reading of your sample, that should give you a good idea of what your issue is.

 

[atomos]

make sure when you run off you do a final rinse with properly PH'ed water

 

[growshopfrank]

black strap molasses one table spoon per gallon would help

 

[faintfuzzies]

i want to thank evryone for the replies,

This is what i found out today at hydro store.

I brought pictures and samples of my tap water and already made nute solution.

the store guy found out my tap water is ok but my solutions ppm is way too high. I guess for the age of my plants my ppm should be in the low 200s my solutions ppm is 510ppm so thats too high on top of that i started my Ph at 6.3-6.4 , i changed it too 6.0 he said my ph should be around 5.8 so i guess i had 2 issues. so tomorrow when i have the time,( im going to work now) i will flush pots then start my nute solution around 225ppm at ph of 5.8 and every week up the ppm 50-75ppm more .. so between all your advise and the store guy advise I think i might be on track...

btw i invested in a ppm meter. I was told a month ago from another hydro store that if i just follow the advanced nute non ph perfect calculator( online) that i wont need a PPM meter . well that is so far from the truth. It is tuff weeding out all teh bad info from some of these store owners.

Thanks again for your replies , if any of what i said does not sound right please let me know.

Faint

 

[faintfuzzies]

Update ,

I just started to flush with 5.8 ph water . I did a run off after about a min of flushing and my ph is 5.8 . I guess thats good ? I am wondering how many days i should wait til i resume nutes again , at a lower dose ofcourse..... I am thinking maybe a day or so . there has to be some nutes left in meduim even after flush . enough for a day or two? I am wondering if i should have flushed with a very low nute mix or is that counter productive ? well anyway too late i already flushed . i wish i thought of it before i flushed i would have asked you all first ..

Thanks again for all the tips and replies

 

[Kcar]

Drip Clean

 

[faintfuzzies]

Drip clean ? What do you mean by that ?

Thank you

Faint

 

[Crusader Rabbit]

Interesting story. Just looked up Sunshine mix #4. ;

"Formulated with Canadian Sphagnum peat moss, coarse perlite, starter nutrient charge (with Gypsum) and dolomitic limestone..."

Well there is dolomite so maybe it isn't cal-mag. Peat moss mixes can become more acidic as it they break down so there could be a lock out issue.

Drip Clean is an additive which bonds to the ions in salt build-ups and breaks them apart. It helps prevent salt accumulation in the growing media. If you've been hand watering from above with weak nutes and it's only been five weeks from seed, I don't suspect that accumulated salts are really limiting your growth. Do you let your growing media dry out a little bit between waterings or is it always soaked?

 

[faintfuzzies]

I always wait til the first few inches are dryish and i was also told to wait til the top layer kinda shrinks away from bucket . I also bought a meter to kinda give me an idea what its like 3/4 the way down. i did have my ppm checked and bought a meter . The hydro guy say i should be in the 200s ppm and i was 510 ppm and my ph was set to high he said with soilless( hydro) i should set ph to 5.8I started at 6.3-6.4 then i changed it to 6.0 and then today flushed with 5.8 ph water . Im going to wait a day or two and then resume nutes to the ppm of 250. Im only maybe 5 week or so from seed. i had the date written down and my wife some how threw it away , so im guessing on exact age. this does not help me much but i have to deal with it and hope im right.

So i flushed today , im going to wait a few day sand then resume nutes at 250ppm and set ph to 5.8 and hope the best im on right track. The plants for the most part are healthy but with sign of fert issues. the hydro guy said i have the beggining of fert burn, and my ppm was too high.

Thanks

faint

 

[Crusader Rabbit]

How big of a container are the plants in? Were the seeds planted directly into these containers?

If you've been using twice the level of nutes that you should have, yeah that will cause problems alright. Kcar suggested Drip clean in your flushing solution to help move the salts. Just tapwater should do it though if that's the problem. If you've over fertilized and burned your plants they definitely need flushing.

I'm worried that you've got big containers of sodden media and small plants with poorly developed root systems in a peat based media which can go acidic and cause lock out when saturated. Start hefting your containers to get a feel for whether or not they need watering.

 

[faintfuzzies]

The seeds where started in root riot cubes with plain 6.3 ph water , then when they had tap root popping out and one set of serated leave they went into reb plastic drink cups with holes put in on bottom( from shaws super market. after they got 2 sets of true leaves(5 blade) and roots coming out of bottom of cup i put them in 4.7 gallon square container/planter . I only gave them 1-1.5 liter of nute water per 5 days ,enough water to just come out fo bottom it took -4-5 days to be able to water again . right now i have roots coming out of bottom of 4.7 gall planters . they are about 5-6 inch tall and very full other than the yellow tips and a few issues they are still looking really good. all the leaves are reaching towards the t-5 . they all have tons of shoots and the plants are nice and squat. no streaching.

8 tube T-5 is about 6-8 inch away from tops of plants

my temps are anywhere from 73-75 degree

my humidity is from 50-55%

I humidifier set to 50 %

lights are on 24 hr a day

I have fan blowing on them enough to make them move alittle

I have a exhaust fan running also .

I think i caught the issue before i will have lasting effects.

some told me not to worry about it , that im just paranoid but These are my babies. and I might be a newb and dont have many grows undermy belt, I do however want to do the best i can. I am not expect a bumper crop .Iwil getthe bumper crops someday , I consider this my learning crop and a few more learning crops to come. i just want to learn the right way and do the right things for my babies. I also want to make sure the planst stay very healthy , this is a medical crop. I dont want it to tuen out to be lousy

 

[cyat]

foxfarm sledgehammer is amazing never seens results like that before

if using dripclean, it should b used from the start, still have some on my shelf from over a year ago

 

[Crusader Rabbit]

right now i have roots coming out of bottom of 4.7 gall planters . they are about 5-6 inch tall and very full other than the yellow tips and a few issues they are still looking really good. all the leaves are reaching towards the t-5 . they all have tons of shoots and the plants are nice and squat. no streaching.



I think i caught the issue before i will have lasting effects.

some told me not to worry about it , ...

Sounds like things will be just fine. Sometimes it's best to do what you think needs to be done ... then leave them alone for a week.

Good luck.

 

[omegapiffy112]

schedule/medium

schedule/medium

If youre using a soilless medium, the way I do my nutes is feed, water, water. Feed, water, water, etc. This also should help with buildup. As they get bigger (bloom) switch to feed,water,feed,water, etc. Hope that helps. And always have a flushing agent for emergency, I use sledgehammer. I make my own soilless with peat, perlite, coir, and a little verm.