Happy Frog soil issues

[BobWeed]

Anyone out there use Happy Frog soil and have to add anything to it to bring the PH level normal? I think I'm having soil problems and I'm wondering if Happy Frog could be part of the issue. Thanks.

[Weedhound]

I start seedlings in HF and no problems whatsoever.....my normal well water runs at about 6.5 ph so I don't even check runoff. Never had a ph issue (or any issue really) with Happy Frog. It's low on nutes so won't last a plant longer than a few weeks.

[BobWeed]

I just visited my local store and talked to the expert there and she said Happy Frog is acidic and it's best to mix in lime with it before putting any plants into it.

My tap water is around 8.5 ph. My ph issues in my plants are all over the map.

[Weedhound]

Then the issue is your water.....not the soil. I don't know your hydro guy but mine is excellent and both he and Stinky recommend Happy Frog for seedlings. Find yourself a better source of info imo. The only thing I've EVER put added to any of my soils is perlite and have never had any ph issues at all.

Consider RO or distilled water. We have well water where we live and it doesn't matter WHAT you use OR how often.....the ph will NOT remain stable. Every ph issue we had (and we had TONS.....including with our tropical fish) immediately stopped upon switching to RO water.

[Weedhound]

Just to make clear.....soil plants we use our well water. Hydro...RO or distilled only....ALWAYS.

But since your water IS so alkaline I think switching to RO or distilled will be your best answer. I use our well water for soil plants because it's already ph correct. If it wasn't.....say it was 8.5 like yours.....I'd lose it completely and go with RO or distilled.

Keep in mind that both those types of water have NO buffering ability. That's one reason they can be easily adjusted to your needs but it also means that until you stabilize your ph number it will jump around as well.

[BobWeed]

Weedhound, what is really confusing me is that the soil runoff is 4.6-4.8. The ph of the typical solution I am putting in is around 6.0-6.1

The pics of the leaves are on my other post marked "Help needed fast" in this same thread.

I am definitely switching back to distilled water, and thanks for the suggestion. I used it before but then just started using my tap water I guess our of laziness and such.

Do you know why this problem would just now start to get bad? I mean, I noticed a few issues leading up to this point but it's gotten bad in just the past week or so and I'm in week 4 of flowering.

[Weedhound]

As your plants age normally some roots die off.......this will lower the ph in your older soil. Things like Rhizotonic and Cannazym will assist with ph balance in this natural process but I have a feeling that's what's happening to your grow. It's not uncommon to transplant to fresh soil on a fairly regularly basis which will help keep your ph in balance and your soil well buffered.

Can you transplants to fresh soil and leave out the lime they told you to put in? I use two soils only....Happy Frog and Oceans Forest and I add nothing but perlite to either one and love what they do for my plants.

If your runoff is that low and you can't transplant, then you need to flush the acidic crap out. Check out Stinky's thread on flushing your soil/how and why. Once you have flushed them and get a runoff within the normal range, switch to distilled or RO, check and ph EVERYTHING that goes into your pots and just limp them along to finish.

Lastly....in soil EVERYTHING....both in and out should be ph'd between 6.2-6.8 so you're already adding water too low in ph. There's some of the issue right there.

[BobWeed]

I m starting to wonder if part of this problem is the bubblegums, themselves. My blue russians aren't having quite the same issues, meaning, they aren't quite as bad as the bubblegums are and both have been getting the exact same feeding schedule. So, I realized that I used the rest of a bag of happy frog that was about 6 months old on just the bubblegums and new soil with the others. Maybe an organism got into that old soil (which was closed but has been sitting in my basement) and that's the issue here. It took it a couple of months to really spread in the moisture from the feedings until it's gotten strong enough to hurt the roots. Does this theory make any sense?

Thanks.

[BobWeed]

Weedhound, when is the absolute latest you can transplant? I'm week 4 of flowering right now. I looked for these answers in the search option but no luck (or maybe I'm just not looking enough).
thanks for the feedback, you've been a lot of help.

[BobWeed]

this is what I get for not buying a digital ph meter. I borrowed my friend's combo meter yesterday and this is how I've gotten the results. I am most definitely getting me a decent one soon.

[Weedhound]

Well in soil a meter isn't quite as critical.....if you can get by with strips or drops you could do that. But in your case I believe the issue is your very alkaline water. But yes, nothing beats a good quality ph meter that is calibrated often.

Bob, I honestly use the soils I mentioned BECAUSE I don't have to worry about ph issues. ANY plant's ph will lower in older soil after time so you either need to flush or transplant.

As long as you are careful, I personally have transplanted plants 6 weeks into flower (because that's when the ph issues became most apparent) and let the soils do most of the work buffering ph. It's easier to transplant than flush....but not always possible to do. Imo, the age of the plant doesn't matter for transplant as long as you are careful.

[BobWeed]

That all makes total sense. As for the transplanting at this stage, I read some info on it but the only part I'm missing is how do you seperate the roots from the old soil and not break off large amount of roots? or is just putting the existing plant (soil and all) into a larger pot filled with new soil sufficient?

[Weedhound]

If you have room to go larger....then do the second one. As far along as your girls are the less you mess with the roots the better. If some old soil falls off great but don't yank anything. Be gentle with the roots and old soil and give them a day or two to realize they've got more room and you should see a positive result.......especiallly if you switch to RO water and make sure everything goes into your pot at the correct ph.

[WildFire.ca]

Top dress the soil with lime 10.37ml/L of soil. Adding lime will take about 2 weeks too start working (you don't have that long) Also next time you water add lime too the water, the lime with the water added too it will start working too fix the pH immediately, this will bring you Ph back in too check with out the stress of having too re-pot.