PLEASE, help me build a No-Till mix

[elcoloan]

My bad, you say per cubic foot. I'm spaced out. Sounds like your ph readings are accurate, good tools and methods.

Either way, seems like a ton of lime to me. I am not to knowledgeable on the other stuff (or anything), but if you can add more soil mix without any lime, I think it would help a lot. Imo ideally 1/4 current - nearly 0 lime. I've seen a lot of people suggesting to use so much lime, I just don't think it's good.

Could be the rock dust, I never add much since expensive and I assume it's only for micros, so not much is needed and never tested it's effect on ph. I also use glacier rock dust which may be different. Just did a quick look into your rock dust and it says it need 5.5 ph or lower to be effective.

My current soil mix has lime (it's premix plus what I mixed in, so I have no idea how much lime and I added a cup-half cup to 40 gallons), but I think I wont be using it anymore (sprinkle only for micros nutes), just because to much affect on ph and I don't know how long it last but I believe maybe just 1 grow, give or take. I want as stable as possible ph, just off soil mix base ingredients (anything ~10% or more of mix). Any additives after that, just for ~feeding soil, hopefully very little effect on ph.

The lime is the only thing that stands out to me but I am not even 'novice' gardener. Imo, lime is best used for micros, so not much needs to be used.

I use gypsum too, same as lime, just sprinkle, 1cup -1/2 per 40 gallons. Again, just because I think it adds some micros.

I guess you may already be thinking this but if not, make sure ph is perfect before planting anything.

Note: I have only brought 1 plant to harvest using what I say above, but all seems well and more plants getting close to harvest with it. All cannabis grows before were hydro.

Lastly, what you could do in with the plants in high ph soil MAYBE, is to use something to lower the ph of the water you water the plants with. It could help, maybe not. From my experience soil is very diffulcult to change the ph of with this method, so it's a last resort, if it even is a resort.

Thanks for all the input! Now that i re-read all my notes feeling what you said resonated something, I did find i had a note mentioning I had gone twice the amount of lime I was meant to additional to overdoing the rock phosphate... all makes much better sense now .
next mix I prepare cannot go wrong, but first I want to finish those 15 gallons of this first trial mix as it is before I leave my current home in around 2 months. After all, the mix has already actually proven to work well on friends' photo plants with just plain water during 1-1.5 month vegs and a few EWC teas / leachate during flower... it is still something I need to test and see for my self in my own tents, though. So, we will soon see if it works for me as well or how bad the extra rock phosphate and lime do for me with the new mum and the soon-to-be-reversed clone that are now in 100% mix of it. I expect to learn tons more from this mix and future runs... I'm the kind of person who learns better from mistakes and the few ones I've made so far with this mix have taught me a lot.

Anyhow, the next mix I prepare should be the one for the no-till tests and -hopeffully- will have a much better initial pH. And that mix... I expect to be preparing it on February next year once I have completely moved out from this current place, so still got time to see how bad things go with bit a higher than recommended pH.

Oh, and the revegging plant behind the new-mum and the backup clone is a Raspberry Diesel from HSO recently grown by a friend in his minicab using coco and lettuce hydro nutes... turned out to be quite an outstanding pheno in all areas and he was going to kill it!!! I couldn't bear the thought and seeing he had left some tiny budsite alive, I asked him to let me reveg it.

 

[elcoloan]

Update

Watered both newmum and soon-to-be-reversed clone with 500 ml each of RO water + BTi + a little bit of EWC lechate (brought water up to 0.25 EC and pH at 6.5) yesterday. The soon-to-be-reversed clone seems to have already adapted to the 3 gal pot so I will begin the CS spraying of it today.

Pics from today... sorry for the bad quality shots.

soon-to-be-reversed clone:

newmum:

 

[WildBill]

Gotta question. If you're running an organic grow, why do you feel the need to pH the water?

 

[Peacefulgarden]

Gotta question. If you're running an organic grow, why do you feel the need to pH the water?

Pretty sure their soil is pretty high pH. If I were them I'd try pH'ing down till 6.0 was median of feed and runoff. Going no lower than 5.0pH till I see how they respond. All the purple stems is because pH lockout, my best guess and opinion.

Already the tops are looking very nice on the plant in back

 

[WildBill]

Pretty sure their soil is pretty high pH. If I were them I'd try pH'ing down till 6.0 was median of feed and runoff. Going no lower than 5.0pH till I see how they respond. All the purple stems is because pH lockout, my best guess and opinion.

Already the tops are looking very nice on the plant in back

I wouldn't worry a bit about the water's pH at all...........unless it stupidly high or low, then I wouldn't friggin use it.
With 'normal water' in this grow, just put a little high quality soluble humic acid in the water every watering and never look back. The humic acid will moderate the pH at the root area where the nute are uptaken. It will get rid of the purple stems.

edit.............Raw has a good product that's not too expensive and will get the job done quite well.

 

[Peacefulgarden]

I wouldn't worry a bit about the water's pH at all...........unless it stupidly high or low, then I wouldn't friggin use it.
With 'normal water' in this grow, just put a little high quality soluble humic acid in the water every watering and never look back. The humic acid will moderate the pH at the root area where the nute are uptaken. It will get rid of the purple stems.

edit.............Raw has a good product that's not too expensive and will get the job done quite well.

their pH is high enough to be a problem imo. Did you look at the plants?

“then I wouldn't friggin use it.”

I’m not sure what “it” is. If you mean a bottle of ph down or similar, it would have to be an organic one and I don’t know about that other than what I would use because I already have. vitamin c, citric acid, lemon juice, epsom salt, a combination of them and etc., to bring the pH down for the watering, for very cheap or free if you already have it.

I’m pretty sure they are starting to look a lot better though already, which is fantastic.

 

[WildBill]

their pH is high enough to be a problem imo.

“then I wouldn't friggin use it.”

I’m not sure what “it” is. If you mean a bottle of ph down or similar, it would have to be an organic one and I don’t know about other than what I would use because I already have. vitamin c, citric acid, lemon juice, epsom salt, a combination of them and etc., to bring the pH down for the watering, for very cheap or free if you already have it.

My point is that if you're using 'normal' water, you don't need to pH the water down in order to attempt to lower the pH of your media. You're not going to change the pH of the media that much as you may think with those items you mentioned and there is no need to do it. Like using salt nutes, you are trying to give the plant what you think it needs. The humic acid will moderate the media at the point of nute uptake to the level the plant needs, either up or down without any input from the grower trying to figure out what the plant needs.
It's a very common thought process with people with salt nute background growing plants or just plain new people to organics.
Ever since I started helping my GrandMa organically grow her veggies, I have NEVER pHed my water when applying water to my garden. I've only pH'd water for information of what the pH was and to find out if something has changed with it to eliminate it as a possible problem with a plant. It works the same if growing in the ground or in containers.
Adding 'natural' acids to the water in an attempt in changing the pH of the media is just fighting the natural process that occurs at the microscopic level.

I'm not in this thread (or any place on this forum) to argue with anyone about anything. I'm here to help where I can and learn. There's TONS of things I don't know about growing canna specifically, but I do know growing organically quite well on a pretty large scale.

It might be helpful if you look into how humic acid works. Sorry, I don't some good links, but there's quite a bit about it out there.

 

[Peacefulgarden]

My point is that if you're using 'normal' water, you don't need to pH the water down in order to attempt to lower the pH of your media. You're not going to change the pH of the media that much as you may think with those items you mentioned and there is no need to do it. Like using salt nutes, you are trying to give the plant what you think it needs. The humic acid will moderate the media at the point of nute uptake to the level the plant needs, either up or down without any input from the grower trying to figure out what the plant needs.
It's a very common thought process with people with salt nute background growing plants or just plain new people to organics.
Ever since I started helping my GrandMa organically grow her veggies, I have NEVER pHed my water when applying water to my garden. I've only pH'd water for information of what the pH was and to find out if something has changed with it to eliminate it as a possible problem with a plant. It works the same if growing in the ground or in containers.
Adding 'natural' acids to the water in an attempt in changing the pH of the media is just fighting the natural process that occurs at the microscopic level.

I'm not in this thread (or any place on this forum) to argue with anyone about anything. I'm here to help where I can and learn. There's TONS of things I don't know about growing canna specifically, but I do know growing organically quite well on a pretty large scale.

It might be helpful if you look into how humic acid works. Sorry, I don't some good links, but there's quite a bit about it out there.

yes I know of humic and it being used in high pH soils. Pretty sure it’s easy to make, you have convinced me into looking into making my own. Thank you!

I have humic mixed into my soil and still pH issues and my pH is not very high 6.4-6.6. Adding a very small amount of vitamin c to the water to bring down pH (to 5.7pH), appears to be doing the trick. My water from tap is 7.0

I don’t know the definition of argue and not interested in it.

thank you again

Edit: just looked at the raw humic and I wouldn’t use that for an organic garden. Just my opinion but wouldn’t matter anyways, the price alone scares me away lol. Odds are you can’t buy any that are decent.

Here is the one I used Amazon product Still not great and way to expensive but at least organic. Wouldn’t recommend or buy again. Just make my own if I really wanted it.

 

[elcoloan]

Gotta question. If you're running an organic grow, why do you feel the need to pH the water?

i don't pH it, I just like taking note of what pH it has before using it... my water can go really crazy. I did add the bit of EWC lechate since it was 0 ppm water and thought it would be better if it had some minerals.

 

[WildBill]

yes I know of humic and it being used in high pH soils. Pretty sure it’s easy to make, you have convinced me into looking into making my own. Thank you!

I have humic mixed into my soil and still pH issues and my pH is not very high 6.4-6.6. Adding a very small amount of vitamin c to the water to bring down pH (to 5.7pH), appears to be doing the trick. My water from tap is 7.0

I don’t know the definition of argue and not interested in it.

thank you again

Edit: just looked at the raw humic and I wouldn’t use that for an organic garden. Just my opinion but wouldn’t matter anyways, the price alone scares me away lol. Odds are you can’t buy any that are decent.

Here is the one I used Amazon product Still not great and way to expensive but at least organic. Wouldn’t recommend or buy again. Just make my own if I really wanted it.

Oh no. The RAW was cheaper option, but surely not optimal. What I have is MUCH higher quality in powder form derived naturally, but still processed and fully soluble and will not precipitate out of solution. It's pretty hard to find, but it does seem to be quite cost-effective.
One product that I used early on and used in my lawn is a micronized Biochar/humic acid made by The Andersons company. It's called HumiChar. It works wonders in my silly low humus sandy soil I have at my new home.
Amazon product