Outdoor Hot & Dry

[Joe Dirt]

I feel for you stanko. I had early pH issues and my plants were very slow out of the gate, like yours are doing. My tap water pH is about 8.0 and I didn't have anything to measure/correct pH with for the first couple waterings. After you get that sorted out, things should start turning around for you. Hang in there!

 

[stanko]

Yeah my tap water is about 8 and the rain water around here is about 7.5 - 8 very dry dust region..

I used some vinegar to lower it on my last water, and I am waiting for http://www.iberocanna.com/PH-DOWN-1L to arrive, not sure how this PH down works. Is it like the vinegar, which only keeps the ph down for a day or so, or does it have much longer lasting effects for keeping ph down?

My soil is also quite a high PH, around 7.5, I read somewhere, I should lower the ph in the water I use to about 5, and the PH will rise in the soil, and it will give my plants a chance to get the nutrients as the ph climbs.. Is there any truth to this or is it bad idea/practice..

I figure roughly I have been feeding them water 15/17 times more alkaline than they like..

 

[Joe Dirt]

pH down is more stable than vinegar. In my experience, one drop/gallon will drop the ph around .1 . The high pH soil would make me nervous. If I didn't have to, I wouldn't fight that fight my whole grow. But, if you can find some sort of happy number for your water pH to correct this, I'll be rootin' for ya.

 

[stanko]

You have persuaded me, I just ordered some Plagron light mix, which should be here in a few days.

heres a question for all of you ()
As 14 days has gone by will they start to flower, even tho they are so small and don't really have a full grown 2'nd set of leaves and the 3rd set is tiny tiny, almost not even there.. I'm just looking at them trying to think where would they bud from, there is no space atm.

 

[Joe Dirt]

Two week old, stunted male:

View attachment 11758

 

[stanko]

Well yours looks bigger, than mine..( pls, pls, no 'thats what she said' jokes..


As I have just recently arrived at where I am living now, I tried to find a local shop but couldn't, then last night my sister said there was an advert in the local paper and they were selling "weird stuff" i might be into..

Went down today, picked up some canna pro terra soil, and the guy behind the counter gave me a nugget of weed. which was nice..

I asked him about the Cannabis Clubs in Spain, but he said you only get them in the big cities, which is a real shame..

My new 250 hps light kit also arrived today, (I still have to build it..) along with my ph down and Atami alga-c.. So i went and got a 50 litre water butt.

Anoteher quick question. the stunted runts, Is it worth keeping them or better to start over?
If i do keep them and swap the soil should i remove all the old soil or should i leave some ?

Sorry for all the questions.. I'm a complete novice.. or as it says an 'AF Seedling'.

 

[Joe Dirt]

Well.... I kept mine. LOL They're probably not going to be centerfold material but you can recover to where you can get a small amount of good herb. Plus, for me, I learned more fighting this out than I would have if I had just started over.

Just Dirt's .

One of the things it took me a minute to get was that, when you're comparing your results to the results most of the guys get here, you setting a pretty high standard for yourself. That's a good thing in a lot of ways but it can be a little bit demoralizing when you first start. Al least, I felt that way at first. The great thing about this site is that I have never seen anyone be anything but encouraging. You can make mistakes, we all do, and you don't have to worry about condescending remarks or negative criticism.

All the best, bro. Be happy, don't panic. It always works out.

 

[stanko]

Maybe I have miss understood something about PH.
As I got my new soil (ph 5.8) and repotted the runts, and I had my new water butt full of water and set the ph to about 6 ish on the colour scale using the ph down, then stupidly decided to water the first transplant, I checked the soil run off, ow its acid baby.. the run off was an orange colour about 4.5 - 5 ish on the scale.. so I pretty much dropped a load, then quickly got a test pot to try it again. yep it's the same.. Got another test pot, tried it with straight tap water, and it was pretty much spot on yellow/green colour about 5.7 -6.3 I would estimate.

At least I know I don't need to mess about with my water for the canna soil, but it has thrown me as to how/why/what?

 

[Joe Dirt]

Your target pH is 6.3-6.8 for soil. Also, it can be difficult to get an accurate Ph measurement from run-off using the "color card" test. Unless the run-off is perfectly clear, the reading will not be accurate, due to the discoloration in the water.

This is no time to panic. But, it might be a time for taking a deep breath. There are resources (experienced growers, not me) available to you here that provide you with the opportunity to ask first, then act.

If I'm in trouble, I go to the infirmary forum (on main list of forums) and start a thread with my question/problem as the thread title. You'll get lot's of help before you make a move that might take you backwards. Just throwing stuff out there, or trying something that hasn't been thoroughly researched, seldom leads to a good result.

As a noob, I want things to fix right away... that seldom happens. This can lead to the "Try something, even if it's wrong" plan... not really a reliable plan.

You'll be alright, man. It's scary at first and can be stressful but, you will get it all sorted out.

 

[gearbear]

Your fine. They'll bounce back if affected at all at their stage. At worse maybe set them back a little bit but no worries.
Way to Go Joe Dirt! + Rep

On the farm, we always added a bit of lime to up the ph in our soil. maybe you can put a bit on the top and allow it to eventually water in. During your transplant just try to get the soil closer to Joe's recommendations. because when your plants do begin to seek more nutrients, if the ph isn't right you will definitely see signs.

If this is a bad recommendation, I'm sure an upper member will hop on here and correct me pretty quickly.