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Whats Wrong With My Plants?


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U talking RO filter or a sediment filter?

 

I just checked my resevoir. Ive only been running at around 1200 ppm so im guessing i need MORE fertilizer?

no you dont..1200ppm is just fine if its not all that crap in the water.... and yes RO is the way to go.. or another alternate source of uncontaminated water..

Edited by Willy
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I know that many "experts" advise against using soft water, but I have used it for years. I used hard water for a couple of grows and had numerous problems. The calcium and lime in the water builds up in the soil and causes nutrient lockout.

 

Things I did to improve my horticultural efforts:

 

Switched to Promix BX

Switched to organic nutrients (both dry and liquid mix)

Started adding micorhyzae to the soil

Started using soft water supplemented with CalMag

 

I can now get plants to a beautiful uniform green with shiny leaves. It takes a while to find out what works and what doesn't, but all aspects of plant care have to be within certain parameters in order for plants to perform. One of the most important is soil pH. They seem to like having the soil flushed once per month also.

 

I have found that plants on the perimeter of a light's footprint perform better than the plants directly under the light. I no longer put plants directly under my lights and I rotate the pots 1/4 turn everyday. I get excellent results.

 

Do you check the soil pH regularly?

Edited by amish4ganja
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  • 2 weeks later...

Ive decided after i crop out that im going to get an RO system.

Im wondering if i should run a water softener b4 the RO? A buddy gave me a water softener that was only used for a couple months so im gonna be installing it anyway, but im not sure if i should bypass it for the RO.

Im also assuming im going to need a booster pump as my water pressure rarely hits 40psi.

 

Thanks again for all the help, yall really helped me figure this thing out.

Since ive dropped the ph in the water(using vinegar at around 2 cups per 50gallons) and added p k booster, the plants deterioration has slowed, i think they will make it to harvest in a couple weeks.

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I know, just ribbing you. :thumbsu:

I bought a quart of ph up/down in 2008, ran several  50 gallon reservoirs(perpetual flowering) changed weekly for a few years. the bottles are still near full. A few drops at a time is all it takes. I at first used food stuff(molasses, vinegar, lemon juice, etc) in the garden too, then later saw it as tripping over dollars to pick up nickels.  Curretly debating the whole soil recycling show. It is more expensive of course to use new soil each time, but the potential issues that come with recycled dirt indoors are voided. Those issues while manageable are completely avoidable, and that's pretty attractive to me. I've got it down to a savings of 60$ monthly but just not sure its worth the hassle/storage space/mess/pests/handling/etc. After all , it comes down to the cost being equal to one small cola on one plant once a month. When I view it like that recycling soil seems foolishly futile.  

 

peace

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How would you go about recycling soil? Im using pro mix and i go through about 5 bales every 8 weeks.

Also and maybe this is for another thread, but can i run an RO system directly into a standard well pressure tank?

I probably need 25 gallons per day, so using the standard 2 gallon tanks that the systems come with wont work.

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Ive decided after i crop out that im going to get an RO system.

Im wondering if i should run a water softener b4 the RO? A buddy gave me a water softener that was only used for a couple months so im gonna be installing it anyway, but im not sure if i should bypass it for the RO.

Im also assuming im going to need a booster pump as my water pressure rarely hits 40psi.

Thanks again for all the help, yall really helped me figure this thing out.

Since ive dropped the ph in the water(using vinegar at around 2 cups per 50gallons) and added p k booster, the plants deterioration has slowed, i think they will make it to harvest in a couple weeks.

 

The softener alone will do the job. Softeners take out calcium and lime and some iron. If you need more than that taken out then use an RO system after the softener, but in my opinion you don't need the RO system.

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How would you go about recycling soil? Im using pro mix and i go through about 5 bales every 8 weeks.

Also and maybe this is for another thread, but can i run an RO system directly into a standard well pressure tank?

I probably need 25 gallons per day, so using the standard 2 gallon tanks that the systems come with wont work.

Prolly everyone does it differently but composting is the key to success.

My favorite is to burn barrel the used soil. It steams the dirt, most likely kills everything, and allows me to start over. it works great in the garden, bad on my back. so....

I'm able to keep my recycle bins relatively warm and they are separate from my grow room. I inoculate

the bins and tumble periodically, monitoring the temps. Pests love decomposing plant material like roots, and killing one could mean reinforcing another. A good lesson in entomology and soil management for sure. I've used a hundred thousand red wigglers to do the same right inside my grow room for a few years. This was awesome for the plants, bad for my back.

 

Some can get away with just yanking rootball from the harvested bucket, chop/chop/dig...and re plant a new one. I do this when lazy sometimes and it works. I prefer starting new.

 

I don't know about pressure tanks. I do think RO is over kill and an activated carbon/swab would do what you need it to do for a fraction of the cost/less maintenance...imo

Edited by grassmatch
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^ "tripping over dollars to pick up nickels"  

 

acetic acid instead of something the plant can use ?

 

maybe after mixing with molasses, coca cola, sugar, lime juice, battery acid....prolly ok though :P

Speaking of tripping over nickels. Vinegar, as purchased off the grocery store shelf for about $2 per gallon is C2H4O2, at about a 6% Is a cheap way to down ph in a grow. The essential elements are carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen....basic elements of plant life. Diluted grocery store vinegar has been a way to enhance indoor plants of many sorts for many years. I'm still not sure what you are ayeeeyeeeyeee-ing about with regard to vinegar.

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oh well, do as you wish. If a 9dollar bottle of the correct ph adjustment, lasting a decade here, is too much money to spend on your medical marijuana garden........ If that's the "fat" trimmed for savings....I can only imagine the other places to "save" cash.

using vinegar to adjust ph in the medical garden is telling, doesn't last long, and requires much more addition than a couple drops of commercial ph adjustment. reminds me of yesteryear, when grow stores and the internet was not available yet. miracle grow, vinegar, pepsi, molasses, Epsom salt, baking soda, computer fans, shop lights......ayeayeaye

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I get what you are saying, but when you go all "ayeeeyeeeyeee" about using vinegar then say that the grow-store pH down product is the "right" thing, it kinda makes people maybe feel like they are making a mistake by using vinegar and makes you come across as severely judgmental.  It's a little bit funny to me that some growers are all about "organic" growing, but then they use the inorganic off-the-shelf pH down product (usually nitric acid). 

 

If you buy a $9 bottle of pH down and it lasts you for years, I get that.  When I used city water, I rarely, if ever needed any pH down products.  With well water, I have to try harder to manager pH.

 

While  we are talking about tripping over dollars to save nickles, one should also think about why they'd want a quart of pH down sitting on the shelf for years and years, when they can use an organic vinegar product instead. If all you need is a few drops of inorganic, hydro-store-bought pH down to adjust pH, then you won't need a lot a vinegar to do the same.   At my house, I have a constant war on clutter.  I don't want to store a bottle of pH down for years and years when I can use vinegar instead, understanding that vinegar serves a dual purpose...adjusting pH in my garden and also being available for making salad dressing and marinades for meat. 

 

There is also an argument to be made that pH down products can cause skin burns, and heaven forbid if you splash that crap into your eyes.  A highly-concentrated acid product can also wreak havoc on a grow if you over-adjust by accident.  A less aggressive product, like vinegar, is more forgiving if the grower over-applies it. 

 

We are really talking about minute costs when evaluated with regard to the overall costs of the grow.  Vinegar works.  Hydro store pH down works, battery acid purchased from Autozone works. 

 

Growers should use the pH adjustment product that works for them in their own circumstance. 

 

I just wish you weren't so judgmental about it.

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Water is inorganic.

 

;-)

 

 Organic = carbon molecule

 

 But basically, one must decide between acetic, phosphoric, nitric or sulphuric acid. Several other named acids simply become on of those when added to water etc etc.

 

So,  philosophically, can one actually grow anything 100% organic because water is inorganic?

 

:-p

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meh, its all dino tinkle anyway. how you like drinking dino tinkle, malamute?

 

apple cider vinegar is useful as a plant fertilyzer too, although it is not great for that imo.

 

also, highlander, you forgot, vinegar is also triple purpose as a household cleaner! perfect for scrubbing windows, toilets, sinks, floors... and non-toxic (well as non-toxic as vinegar fumes ever are lol).

 

so buy (or make your own) vinegar, drink it, eat it, cook with it, clean with it, and ph down with it... or buy window cleaner, bleach, ph down and keep all of those nasty deadly chemicals in your house for years and years.

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Well, vinegar doesn't really kill many evil bacteria and microbes.  Some.

 

Hydrogen Peroxide is better.

 

;-)

 

 Also, due to using more vinegar than ph down, the vinegar actually can kill/sterilize beneficial microbes in the soil.  ( The 'some' I referred to).

 

The other acids are needed in such small amounts it tends to not disrupt a healthy soil environment.

 

There are pluses and minuses to every single acid you may use.

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