A good out-of-the-bag medium

It hasn't been long since i purchased my ppm meter, now i find myself testing anything and everything from grapefruit juice to toilet water. I have a few white widow clone that will be ready to pot in a day or two so today i saturated the medium with 008ppm water and will let them sit til Sunday. The runoff comes out at 2450ppm. WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON? I'm using Ocean Froest potting soil. Isn't that stuff supposed to be ready to go right out of the bag. My pH going in is 7.0 but coming out it's 6.2 and dropping. I'm guessing it's the reason for all my past problems. Flushing the medium isn't supposed to be the first thing you do, or is it? What's a good out-of-the-bag mix?

Please tell me you don't test the ppm's after "fertilizing" the toilet water??? Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaaaa...... Sorry, just couldn't help myself............;)

I think your over analyzing the ppm and ph.... As long as you can keep your soil in the proper nutrient range, and as long as your plants are growing fine, then you should be fine.... The ppm's of runoff are crazy high because of the very fine soil particles that are also present, it's not just reading nutes....

CGI::::::

I test the grapefrruit before and after. I'm a pp ppm testing fool, I HAVE TO KNOW!!

That's the problem, they aren't growing fine. I keep getting hard purple stems and rust spots and fan leaves doing a corkscrew dance. I get a high 5 pH but fert at 6.5 -6.8 and keep it between 700-800ppm every two weeks. Maybe i give too much, about 1qt every feed in a 1-1/2gal pot. I start with 008ppm water, add cal-mag to 250ppm, add fert to total 700-800 ppm.

You mentioned flushing your soil before potting your plant(s)... Why would you do this???

How do you monitor your soil ph? Do you have a soil ph meter? What nutes are you using? How much do you mix into the quart to reach 7-800ppm? Do you only give 008ppm water only between feeding? Whats your light setup like? How far are your lights from plant tops? Got any pics???

CGI::::::

I didn't flush the soil, i simply saturate it and let it sit for a day or two to get it ready for planting. I usually check the pH of the runoff. When i mix my ferts at 6.8 the runoff usually come out between 5.8-6.1 with a ppm around 1500 so i flush and flush and flush and flush and flush. Usually takes about 5 gal or better to get the pH to 6.3 or better. Usually a drop of aquarium water conditioner per gal. It's supposed to break the chemical bond but the shit never works so i flush and flush and flush. I use tap water to flush and the 008 for my ferts. I'm running a 5yr old 400w HPS in a 4 x 5.5 x 7 room with light at least 18" and a tower type oscillating fan. I stopped taking pict. It's incriminating evidence and shouldn't be on my cell phone, lol.

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She'll be 70 days old on Thur but had her first flush a week ago. Could that be the problem? Is it possible that all of this is pH related?

How big is the pot. Fill out the troubleshooting form.

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Originally Posted by seldomBLUE

She'll be 70 days old on Thur but had her first flush a week ago. Could that be the problem? Is it possible that all of this is pH related?

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Oh Wow!!! You definitely should go into the plant problem section and fill out the troubleshooting form. You can either start a new thread and post there or post it here but you are definitely doing something wrong..... The good news is that we can help....

My plants are 56 days old....see pic..... With time and experience, you too can achieve similar results....

CGI::::::

I'm a real asshole when it comes to figuring things out by myself. I can probablly get the info and grow like a pro but i won't be able to say i figured it out myself. I'm gonna bet that most of my issues are pH and lack of flushing related. pH seems to be my biggest issue everytime i grow.

I did a test today, adding hydrated lime to a 6" pot of soil. I added 1/4tsp of lime to a pots worth of soil and 1/2tsp to another pot of soil. I keep one pot lime-free to use as a control. I poured 4cps water at 6.7pH water through each pot, then poured the runoff from each back through its' medium about six times. The control pot tested at 6.1pH. The pot with 1/4 tsp lime tested 6.3pH. The pot with 1/2 tsp lime tested at 6.5pH. I think i'm gonna try 1/2tsp of lime in the medium when i plant the new clones. My flowering room is ventilated with outside air and temps but none of the sun light. It's just the 400 HPS and two double banks of T-8 floros. Days are up to 89deg, nights are near the same. Also gonna try reroute my exhaust ducting, thinking it may have too many angles and isn't working as efficiently as it's supposed to. I'll let you know what happens.

Before you start throwing lime into your soil, answer this question - Do you have a soil ph meter???

Testing ingoing ph and runoff ph is just the half of the ph testing. Soil ph is THE most important ph to know.....

CGI::::::

I have meter for testing the soil but i wouldn't bet a piece of year-old-chewing gum that it's accurate. That's why the experiment. Usually by the time i've re-run the runoff through a few times the pH will be at 6.1 or lower. By the time i've watered, ferted and watered again the runoff will come out about 5.9pH, and that's going in at 6.5 - 6.7 every time. I'm gonna try it just for shits-and-grins. Heck, i may even be on to something that'll work for me. The first sign of a problem is the hard purple stems and the runoff comes out low. As many years as i've been screwing up and still using the same soil i think it's worth a try.

R u telling me that plant is in a six inch pot

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Originally Posted by Treez81

R u telling me that plant is in a six inch pot

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Well now where (I have been following this thread ~) did you get THAT idea ? !

Not saying it ain't true, I am saying I don't remember reading that ;)

Probably stoned. Lol.