soil Acidic soil remedies/solutions and recovery

[D3monic]

I've grown monster plants with those lights so I highly doubt it's a lack of light. I could see maybe too much red spectrum this early on that's why I added a T5HO fixture to that shelf for more blues a week or two ago.
 
I can't post pics here of the plants i've grown with those LEDs but they certainly had massive yields. 
 
Here is some peppers under those LED early winter before aphidapocolyps 
 

 

[queequeg152]

I fert regularly so that's why I assumed low PH not to mention I use my Hydro Nutes that I have on hand. They are probably Nute locked. I will add a little lime to the water every time I fertilize to buffer the PH back up. The lime I had on hand seemed to dissolve in the water fairly well with just a small amount of sludge left in the bottom. 

 
what are you feeding and at what concentrations? lots of people on here like to feed at like 1/4 rates... its simply untrue that chillies will not tolerate a high fertilizer charge. i water mine at 2 ec ( out of lazyness) right from the get go.
 
if you are in a soil less mix you should be providing at least 100+ mg/l nitrate and around  200mg/l potassium, and around 100+ calcium to avoid deficiencies.
 
i follow this profile.
http://www.howardresh.com/hydroponic-culture-peppers2.html
 
note that the sulfate is so high because its a 'step child' nutrient(my unofficial term)... meaning you can do what ever you want with it in an effort to get a good value for magnesium or potassium... what ever.
plants for what ever reason tolerate huge amounts of sulfate, far and away in excess of what they actually need.
 
i think the minimum sulfate for toms is like 60mg/l.

For discussion purposes, and long term acidity reduction (because it takes longer) a good organic method of raising pH is using a ground meal made out of oyster shells in your soil.  balancing pH like this can take longer but remains stable longer in lower pH soils as long as you're not haphazardly adding hot compost to it.

oyster shells are quite common, and not exclusive to organic agriculture.
 
their shells from what i recall are mostly calcium carbonate with some organic material.
 
stuf is cheap too.

 

[D3monic]

Hmm, I have using 0.5 oz or one half pump from each of sensi grow part A and Part B and a pump of Cal mag every other feeding into a 1 gal jug. Not sure what concentration that is but was trying not to over do it. I'm used to hydro where I can just go by TDS. 

 

[queequeg152]

fancy.
 
without getting into the math, id suggest lookin up a calculator for the advanced nutrients stuff. there has to be one for the cannabis folks.
 
you CAN actually go by the tds. you are running a soilless mix correct?  you would feed at similar rates... maby a bit lower.
 
whats the most important is concentration of the runoff. 
 
contrary to what most folks think, growing organically is actually far harder than hydro... in a soiless feed to waste system you just need to monitor whats going into the container, the amount of runoff, and the ec of the runoff.
 
runoff should not exceed 2.5 to 3 ec. and the ph going in can range from low 5's to high 6's in my experience. i stopped even bothering to monitor it.

 

[D3monic]

Quick math that may be off put that at just a little over 4ml per litre of each part A and B. which is around the recommended dosage for canna. I've been feeding every third watering. so basically feed, flush, cal mag, feed and so on. The nutrient does say that it has "PH perfect" that buffers the mix to 5.5 regardless of water source PH. Wonder if adding lime to that will even make a difference then. 
 
I'd love to buy a different nutrient designed for soil but i'm unemployed right now so I have to use what I have on hand. 

 

[Helvete]

I wouldn't necessarily call it harder to grow organically, I think people have gotten into an "instant gratification" mindset this day and age and don't factor in the time it takes to compost things and allow the food webs/microbe colonies to develop in soils.  I get your point though.

 

[Swampy_NZ]

This year I am going to add ground egg shells to my mix.I just collect all the shells in an ice cream container and when its full bake them in the over then grind them up to a fine grit and store them.Takes a lot of eggs but we have chickens and eat alot of eggs so its not a problem  

 

[D3monic]

I'm new to Promix but yea I guess I should think of it more as an inert media than a soil. 

 

[Nuclieye]

 I could see maybe too much red spectrum this early on that's why I added a T5HO fixture to that shelf for more blues a week or two ago.
 
 
 
 

I still think lighting but we'll never know.  Why the sudden change to the T5's and what lamps in it?

 

[nzchili]

Quick math that may be off put that at just a little over 4ml per litre of each part A and B. which is around the recommended dosage for canna. I've been feeding every third watering. so basically feed, flush, cal mag, feed and so on. The nutrient does say that it has "PH perfect" that buffers the mix to 5.5 regardless of water source PH. Wonder if adding lime to that will even make a difference then. 
 
I'd love to buy a different nutrient designed for soil but i'm unemployed right now so I have to use what I have on hand. 

Im willing to donate to the help d3monic get some different nutes fund
I will start by pledging $20nzd..

 

[queequeg152]

I'm new to Promix but yea I guess I should think of it more as an inert media than a soil. 

 
yea promix is called a soilless mix or intert medium as you said.
 
you need to treat it as you would rock wool, or coco.
 
you should measure the runoff of your plants. if its very low you are underfeeding.  
 
every 3 waterings COULD be ok if you were watering to reletivly little runoff.... but if you are getting huge amounts of runoff then you are basically washing out what ever charge is in the soil.

 

[D3monic]

 
yea promix is called a soilless mix or intert medium as you said.
 
you need to treat it as you would rock wool, or coco.
 
you should measure the runoff of your plants. if its very low you are underfeeding.  
 
every 3 waterings COULD be ok if you were watering to reletivly little runoff.... but if you are getting huge amounts of runoff then you are basically washing out what ever charge is in the soil.

 
I water just enough to soak the medium and till  I get a lil drippage out the bottom as I don't want to over water. My hydro was always DWC in 5gal buckets with a master 20gal rez. So I never had to read run off or anything. Just kept a TDS probe in the rez. 
 
If i'm going to go by TDS then I need to switch back to RODI water instead tap. 

I still think lighting but we'll never know.  Why the sudden change to the T5's and what lamps in it?

 
Because part of me was thinking that maybe it was too much red and not enough blue spectrum. Bulbs are phillips 6500k and a guisman (sp) 10k. 

 

[Nuclieye]

 
I water just enough to soak the medium and till  I get a lil drippage out the bottom as I don't want to over water. My hydro was always DWC in 5gal buckets with a master 20gal rez. So I never had to read run off or anything. Just kept a TDS probe in the rez. 
 
If i'm going to go by TDS then I need to switch back to RODI water instead tap. 

Yup, your are spot on man, it's your soil PH for sure and you need to lower that chit quick and fast.  best of luck with the starts.

 

[D3monic]

Can't tell if that's sarcasm or not but i'll need to raise it not lower it. 

 

[queequeg152]

 
I water just enough to soak the medium and till  I get a lil drippage out the bottom as I don't want to over water. My hydro was always DWC in 5gal buckets with a master 20gal rez. So I never had to read run off or anything. Just kept a TDS probe in the rez. 
 
If i'm going to go by TDS then I need to switch back to RODI water instead tap. 

 
 
unless you have terrible tap water like i do you can get by with tap water jsut fine. my tap water conductivity in houston is like 300-400 ppm on my old meter... i forget what that is in ec as i never measured it with my new ec pen.
 
but the whole mixture with the acid addition comes out to like 2.2.
 
if you are not maintaining enough runoff you can actually accumulate too much fertilizer in the soil and get TRUE nutrient burning...  just check the runoff of the soil it will tell you exactly whats happening.

 

[Nuclieye]

Can't tell if that's sarcasm or not but i'll need to raise it not lower it. 

First of all it is sarcasm.  Lets get down to brass tack's here....   Is the soil in all containers the exact same?  Did your PH meter (cough) show the same in each and did you clean the probes after each test?  Did you test your outdoor soil in more than one location after cleaning the probe each time?

 

[D3monic]

Just eat a bag of dicks , really. Go away. Your not helpful in any manor what so ever. Are you an alt of ableeye? either way you make my block list congrats. Jackass. 

 

[Nuclieye]

Just eat a bag of dicks , really. Go away. Your not helpful in any manor what so ever. Are you an alt of ableeye? either way you make my block list congrats. Jackass. 

Was actually trying to help but cool with me.  Best of luck, gonna go to the corner store for a bag of dicks maybe.  Its NOT PH!

 

[D3monic]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05hTBAOnDQE

 

[Helvete]

Well, that escalated quickly.