Is there a name for this soil condition?

Long story short. Grew a gorgeous, potent lady by seed in a closet under CFL's that I harvested after a year of growth. Yes, a year. Lots of LST'ing, FoxFarm trio nutes and about 6 CFL's of varying light colors. Herb was great and abundant. Cloned 4 which are doing well but still babies. Soil mixture was the .5/.5/.5 I had read suggested once before. When harvest was over, I trimmed her up and revegged her. I did not flush as I apparently incorrectly read that when using organics, there was no need to flush.

Four months into the new growth my lady starts to develop some yellowish leaves. I noticed water seemed to now be running right through her and lots of salt was accumulating in and on top of the soil. I could sprinkle water evenly across the soil but absolutely NOTHING would go into the soil and instead would usually run down off to the sides of the pot and down to the bottom and out. I decided to try and take her outside to flush her. After breaking off 2 limbs like a fool, I managed to get her into a new pot. My rootball was still pretty big but I filled in the rest of the pot with new .5.5.5.

Despite the issue, I feel she is looking better but my question is, what is the name of this soil condition? So salty it will not absorb any water?

Thank you in advance all for the assistance.

What is 5. 5. 5. ? Have you used the same soil for a year? Have you tested it for N P K and PH? until you do you're just guessing. If you take a spray bottle and wet the soil first will the water absorb into the soil with out running off? Wet attracts water, dry rejects water........

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Originally Posted by lipps

What is 5. 5. 5. ? Have you used the same soil for a year? Have you tested it for N P K and PH? until you do you're just guessing. If you take a spray bottle and wet the soil first will the water absorb into the soil with out running off? Wet attracts water, dry rejects water........

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Thank you for the reply. .5.5.5 on my smartphone at the time should have been the NPK ratio for my bag of "soil." As for the PH testing, no I have not tested it formally and I understand the assessment of just guessing if the value isn't known.

As for the spraybottle + water question: if I spray water on top, the initial spray with absorb. A few more sprays and the water is seemingly running through the soil. Despite this, the water runs straight out of the holes on the bottom. I mean straight, as in "found the quickest route down that did not include the natural process of water being absorned by the soil, making it's way slowly down to the bottom ."

As a test last week, I followed the normal watering procedure and proceeded to water it. As I lightly sprinkled it's normal serving all around the plant. After watching the water drain out like it had been the past few waterings, I took to removing bits of the soil from the top which water had just been sitting on top of and when I did, these clumps of soil were completely dry except for the bit on top where the water had been. This is not a normal condition for soil.

Think your thinking, root ball dried out, know you have to soak it up real well. Put pot in deep saucer and just water then let drain off.

Get some Yucca extract it makes it so the soil can absorb water, molasses works too but not as good. . Is there space between the pot wall and the soil? If the soil is mostly peat moss once it gets dry it is hard to get wet again.

Yes, the term is called "compacted" and it is not a good thing. You need to take a stick or something similar and loosen the soil up especially the top layer. You also need to flush thoroughly to get all the salts down to a normal level. The problem you have, can be avoided in the future if you re-potted regularly and is not so much of a problem if your only growing for a few months. You are looking at 16 months of un-used fertilizer in a small space if I did my math correctly! If your gonna grow for that long a flushing every three months or so will also keep this from happening.