Another Noob looking for some feedback

[max_headroom]

Thanks Defluxtor Your right I was adding the sulphur to bring the PH down not as a some kind of element adding. It is granulated Sulphur and looks like little yellow balls I am not an expert by any means and went out to try and get some Dolomite lime as per Louise suggestion but the guy told me at the hardware/garden centre the dolomite would raise the PH not lower it. So was very confused after that and was going to ask Louise further about it.

 

Yes I drink tea and will add some to the plants...what about making up a specific brew for that purpose. Do I need a certain amount or concentration. any recommendations on how much White Vinegar you would  add...definitely got some of that

 

I will get some PH down but have a lack of funds at the moment so may have to wait another week...sounds like the tea/Vinegar is a good start.

 

The one with the worst PH seems to be struggling to flower...which is what alerted me along with the leaf die off and purple stems that there was an issue. The one doing the best is in the lowest PH soil but even that is a bit high (I think) at 7.5

 

Cheers

Max (He)

[defluxtor]

No worries Max. Firstly I want to make it clear I was not suggesting in any way Louise was wrong but possibly got the facts a##e about so in saying that please don't take offense Louise you obviously have a shed load of experience.. Quite probably the problem stems from the pH of your water so even if you don't grow hydro a pH meter can be good value. Regarding the tea you can't overdo the rate but generally if your want to make up a specific mix I would make up a brew with say half a cup of tea let it cool down and add that to 9-10 litres of water. If you have any molasses add a teaspoon dissolved in hot water too to give the plant some easy to uptake simple sugars. In the future you may want to think about adding some peatmoss to your soil mix to help counteract the high pH of your water (if that is the culprit) maybe 20-30% depending on the rest of the mix. Regarding using White Vinegar as a pH down here's an idea of my experience -15 litres of tap water pH 7.81 I'll add 20-30 ml vinegar to lower it to 5.65 (this is for COCO culture which requires lower pH than soil). I would think that this is not as stable as phosphoric acid so probably not that good in large hydro reservoirs but I hand water and only make up what I use so not an issue. However vinegar is heaps more safe than phosphoric acid and a couple of bucks for 2 litres of generic brand stuff. Cheers Pat. 

[max_headroom]

Hi Defluxtor

 

I would not dismiss anybody's advice from here...I am too knew to this (Picture a sponge ), to try and say someone is right or wrong also things get muddled, misread, miss-interpreted etc etc and sometimes shit happens just because we have to write it down rather than talk face to face.

 

Good thing I waited before doing the vinegar/tea because my guess was about 1/2 cup Vinegar to say about 5 ltrs tap water and half a dozen teabags in 18 litres water...maybe a bit of overkill...its the old "less is more" thing isn't it?

 

I just did a quick bit of research and have discovered the reservoir my tap water comes from has an average PH of 7.4 which if this is what I am getting out the tap could explain part of my issue...every time I water I could be compounding the issue.  

 

Thanks for your help any input is greatly appreciated

Edited February 12, 2014 by max_headroom

[max_headroom]

Its raining...good soaking rain...that's got to do them good...surely :-)

[defluxtor]

Its raining...good soaking rain...that's got to do them good...surely :-)

Rain should be very beneficial, one it will be slightly acidic so help the pH issues but two it will add nitrogen and oxygen to the plant. Regarding the vinegar it can vary a fair bit how much you use and whether you have added nutes to the water first before attempting a change. I found organic "type" nutrients tend to buffer the water making adjustments slower therefore needing more vinegar. Last night I gave my indoor setup in coco a mainly organic based feed of Powerfeed (30 ml)  plus some CANNA COCO A & B left over from my previous feed 2 days earlier (5 litres). I added 10 litres to the existing 5 L of A & B mix (which also had Seasol in it) plus 5-7 gms of a Green/Growth fert (22:4:8) to make up 15 litres . The pH was 8.01 and took 80 ml of White Vinegar to get it down to 5.81. This is the most I have ever used. One mix of 15 litres H2O with 2 teaspoons of Molasses had a pH of 7.81 and only took 20 ml to lower it to 5.65 so maybe the 20 -30 ml is about right if you are just adding to water without nutrients. Hope that helps explain that the dose can vary quite a bit. Enjoy the rain mate I've forgotten what that is !!!!! Cheers Pat.

Edited February 13, 2014 by defluxtor

[mirrors]

let it grow

[max_headroom]

Thanks Defluxtor...that gives me a great idea of the ratio's I need.

 

Mirrors...I'm with you after this down pour...Just gonna leave well alone and keep an eye on it for awhile

[louise]

I'm a bit confused on this recommendation Louise.

 

I think you had reason to be confused Pat

 

My post had been considerably longer... I cut it back for clarity and managed to leave out the bit that would have made sense of the recommendation.

 

What I left out was a suggestion to use a commercial potting mix rather than native soil and then ammend that with dolomite. Particularly considering the one plant Max has in the ground is sitting at pH 7, this suggests to me that the problem is more to do with using the native soil in containers rather than inherently high pH in the local soil.

 

With most 'acid lovers', it's not so much the soil acidity that they absolutely require, usually it's that the particular trace elements required are more freely available in lower pH soils, or the particular species requires a soil with higher fungal activity (also more likely in lower pH soils).

 

Just as an aside... rhododendron species can be quite successfully grown in alkaline soils... so long as you can provide enough magnesium (without adding calcium) and work a goodly amount of organic matter to the soil, they don't mind at all.

 

Blueberries are another species that common wisdom suggests you must have acid soil... again it's not so much the acidity but the fact that calcium is less available at lower pH levels, controlling the calcium and keeping the organic matter on the high side means you can grow bb's successfully on neutral soils.

 

Thanks for querying my post... I hope this has cleared up what I actually meant to say in the first place.

[max_headroom]

Update

 

After all the great advice and the record rain all the plants seem to have recovered. The plant with the really high Ph seems to have settled after the rain and using ,Seasol, tea and vinegar. Not all mixed together but individually along with No fertilisers for a couple of weeks and they are looking way better. Thanks

[max_headroom]

UPDATE UPDATE HERE'S THE LATEST PICS

 

Thanks to all the help I received and the information available on this site my sick looking plants are coming along nicely

 

The first three picks are from my wheelbarrow grow which has only been flowering a week but has gone nuts.

 

The second three (X1-1) are of the plant that first flowered and is now about 8-9 weeks depending on when you count flowering from

 

The last 5 pics (X1-3) are of my experimental plant, basically tried different techniques LST, super cropping etc different fertiliser

 

Thanks to the posters in this thread who helped and also the wealth of information on this site alone I think I will have myself a nice time after harvest.