Need help with nutrient lockout

[faceto27]

Hope somebody can clear this up for me. I am almost 100% that I have nutrient lockout and that it is being caused by a ph problem.

Sorry I don't have any pics to show, but from what I've seen and read, I am sure it is a nutrient lockout. I have 8 plants. 3 of them have burnt tips and edges and turning yellow. 2 of them show an Iron deficiency, and the other 3 look very healthy. The medium I am using is Promix. I water with regular tap water, the ph on the tap water is 7.2 to 7.3. This is where I am confused. When I do a ph on the runoff of the plants, the ph is anywhere from 6.3 to 6.9. I have read that Promix is a soiless medium. And other places say to treat it as 'soil'. If it is a soiless medium, then am I correct in assuming that I should be keeping the ph between 5.5 and 6.0?? Or is that the current ph level, correct?? I'm thinking that my problem is that the ph is too high, and therefore that is causing my potassium and Iron problems due to it being locked out. According the readings, potassium will get locked out on "soiless" mediums when the ph is over 6.0.

So what I am asking is, first, is Promix deemed at "soiless soil"??

And if so, then am I correct in assuming that my problems are due to my ph being too high??

If I am assuming correctly, then I should flush thoroughly the affected plants, correct?? And then after flushing, I should use some ph down in my water to bring it down to between 5.5 and 6.0. Correct??

Please, I've done lots of reading and I hope that I have figured this out. Please help.

Thank you

faceto27 Reviewed by faceto27 on 01-19-2008. Need help with nutrient lockout Hope somebody can clear this up for me. I am almost 100% that I have nutrient lockout and that it is being caused by a ph problem. Sorry I don't have any pics to show, but from what I've seen and read, I am sure it is a nutrient lockout. I have 8 plants. 3 of them have burnt tips and edges and turning yellow. 2 of them show an Iron deficiency, and the other 3 look very healthy. The medium I am using is Promix. I water with regular tap water, the ph on the tap water is 7.2 to 7.3. This Rating: 5

[Weedhound]

How about a photo? Soil runoff should be between 6.2-6.8 so I'm not understanding your thought about things being in the fives....that's for hydro. I'm not sure if using water with a ph of over 7 will cause you problems or not considering your runoff is in the normal range.

Fert buildup in the medium can cause lockouts as well. Photos would help ALOT.

[faceto27]

sorry, I may have misposted the info. I read, in the manual on how to diagnois problems, that hydro and soiless mix the ph should be about 5.8. After I put the nutes in the water, the ph that I am pouring is about 6.8, and the runoff goes up to about 7.1.

Some people are saying that Promix is a soiless mix, thus you treat it so that the ph is 5.8 with the nutes, others say that it is a soil and the ph should be around 6.5.

What is Promix?? Soiless mix or Soil??

[Weedhound]

Well I'm no soil pro but in googling Pro Mix it's called a peat based medium.....peat is certainly not an inert medium so I think you'd have to call it soil and treat it the same way.

7.1 is too high.....i'd wonder about overfert/fert buildup as being as issue as well as those conditions can raise your ph too. Aim for 6.2-6.8. Again....photos could make a huge difference.

[faceto27]

Hmmmmmm.....okay, all the places that sell Promix, all say that it is a soiless medium. I don't know, this is all new to me. What is considered a soiless medium?

They also said the ph level for Promix should be kept in the range of 5.7 to 6.2.

Does all this sound right?? I don't want to flush my babies, and then water them with a ph level of 5.7 as they recommend if that is not the right thing to do. Couldn't exactly tell them what I was growing.....LOL.

Oh where oh where is Stinkattic.......I hear she is the expert when it comes to soils etc.

Hopefully she will read this soon!!

[gainesvillegreen]

What is considered a soiless medium?

Hydroclay, rockwool, foam, sponge, coconut coir, perlite, air, hmmmm.......

Like Weedhound, I don't know anything about pro mix first-hand, but google is a man's best friend. It is indeed soil-less, composed of peat moss, vermiculite, and perlite. Peat moss is indeed on the acidic side as far as mediums go, and will continue to turn more so.

I found a website describing Pro Mix BX (but I don't know what type you have). It sounds a little ridiculous to me, considering they equate their "pH stabilizing agents" (which sounds like balogna) maintaining a constant pH to not needing an EC meter. How does pH have anything to do with how strong your nutrient solution is?

I would recommend another media, something truly inert if that's what you want. If not, try out a soil mix.

The website said this:

"The solution is Pro-Mix BX (or Pro-Mix HP).

Promix is a planting medium (often called soil-less-mix), which on the surface looks and feels just like any garden variety potting soil but is made up of only 3 basic elements; peat moss, vermiculate and perlite. This type of mix is sometimes referred to as the triple-mix.

Promix also contains agents to stabilize the PH levels (measure of acidity) at 5.5 to 5.7 thus eliminating the problem of adjusting PH levels of the water which is crucial to indoor growing.

In other words, so long as you use Promix you do not have to understand anything about PH .. or EC or PPM. In fact all you need to know is that when the plants go dry, you need to add some food to the bucket of cold tap water and feed your plants. Fairly easy I think"

[faceto27]

So do you think, that my nute lockout was caused by this? By just using plain tap water, and the ph of the water is 7.2, together with Pro-Mix untreated, the runoff comes in over 7.0. Thus am I concluding properly, that is the reason of my nute lockout??

And now is the time that I should do the dreaded flush to try and save them, right?

[Weedhound]

Hydroclay, rockwool, foam, sponge, coconut coir, perlite, air, hmmmm.......

Like Weedhound, I don't know anything about pro mix first-hand, but google is a man's best friend. It is indeed soil-less, composed of peat moss, vermiculite, and perlite. Peat moss is indeed on the acidic side as far as mediums go, and will continue to turn more so.

I found a website describing Pro Mix BX (but I don't know what type you have). It sounds a little ridiculous to me, considering they equate their "pH stabilizing agents" (which sounds like balogna) maintaining a constant pH to not needing an EC meter. How does pH have anything to do with how strong your nutrient solution is?

I would recommend another media, something truly inert if that's what you want. If not, try out a soil mix.

The website said this:

"The solution is Pro-Mix BX (or Pro-Mix HP).

Promix is a planting medium (often called soil-less-mix), which on the surface looks and feels just like any garden variety potting soil but is made up of only 3 basic elements; peat moss, vermiculate and perlite. This type of mix is sometimes referred to as the triple-mix.

Promix also contains agents to stabilize the PH levels (measure of acidity) at 5.5 to 5.7 thus eliminating the problem of adjusting PH levels of the water which is crucial to indoor growing.

In other words, so long as you use Promix you do not have to understand anything about PH .. or EC or PPM. In fact all you need to know is that when the plants go dry, you need to add some food to the bucket of cold tap water and feed your plants. Fairly easy I think"

Well I can't say I understood all this.....but I'm still impressed gainesville.

Stinky....where are you and could you please explain what gainesville just said?

[Rusty Trichome]

HortFACT - Soilless Media in Horticulture
Promix is not a hydroponic medium, and I wouldn't be aiming for the more acidic numbers that were being thrown out here.
Treat it as if it were a soil mix.
Nothing to fear with a flush, it's just another step in growing. Salts and nutrients build-up, which will lower your ph over time. Be careful of keeping the soil too wet for too long. (don't water just before a flush, nor just after. Can cause root rot.)
I add my nutes into the final 1/2 gallon of flush water, then let it be for a few days till next watering.
HTH...

[Weedhound]

I always equated inert with a hydroponic medium but I'm just guessing.....coco is another one besides Pro Mix that confuses me. Gol DURN these new fangled.......