Flowering Rootbound Mother

[brainfood33]

PH below 7.0 is acidic, so yes, they love acidic soil.

[stinkyattic]

No they really don't.
They love soil that is VERY SLIGHTLY acidic- pH 6.7- and remember that pH is a logarithmic scale and that means that for every pH point, you have a 10x multiplier for acidity. Acid loving plants include the azaleas, camellias, and rhododendrons, as well as orchids- They thrive at a pH about 10 TIMES more acidic than cannabis.
Never use Miracid, orchid food, or any 'acid loving plant' product on your cannabis plants.

You're going to have to re-pot, adding lime to bring the pH back to neutral. Peat moss is already acidic and it will be dropping off anyway, as soon as the lime is used up.

Read the continuous canopy and embedded why to transplant threads stickied at the top of 'Basic'.

[brainfood33]

Shit. Then I've seriously messed this up then.

It was soil for azaleas that I got from the garden centre since the grow shop was all out.
Damn it!

So, I'll repot again tonight but now that the soil is watered, will the transplant be a lot more difficult?

Instead of lime, can I just flush with a very alkaline water?
I have PH Up in my PH kit, so will that do the job?
Maybe it is lime?

[stinkyattic]

pH up is probably Potassium hydroxide.
Yeah, it will be tough- but worht it.
Flsuhing with very alkaline water is going to shock the plant, because you don't know about the soil already in the root ball. Just gently remove it and lay it on its side and then mix some lime into the soil- look in the 'organic' section for soil recipes and where they say 'peat moss' or 'peat', insert 'azalea dirt' lol. The ratio of lime to peat based soil is what you are looking for, not other additives.

I've done the exact same thing myself. Not with soil, but running orchid food and azalea food, assuming noobishly that 'acid' applied to ANY plant that liked a pH in the acid range... argh! lol

[brainfood33]

Stinky, I really really appreciate your help with this because if you hadn't come along when you did, I would have had to wait MUCH longer for my next smoke after slowly and painfully killing my plant, and that is if I didn't decide to sacrifice myself to the MJ gods before then for being such an idiot!

I actually had some leftover Professional+ Canna Terra compost from the growshop from last time which a) I didn't think I had enough of and b) I read here that it will have too much Nitrogen which will create a phase of stretching which would possibly make her too tall for the room.

So since I may not have time tonight, I just went ahead woke her from her sleep and did a rapid transplant with that soil which only took 15 mins!
I used my hands and shovelled out all of the Azalea soil (from yesterday) from around the root mass and repeated last night's process with the Canna stuff.

Does this mean I don't need the lime or an Alkaline flush anymore since the roots never had time to meet the Azalea soil? I hope so because then I'll have to do it again!

Going back to your first post, should I now flush her to clear the problems she was facing from being rootbound, even though I just fed her with full strength nutes last night?

Thanks again!

[stinkyattic]

Now you don't have to worry about the lime.
As for the stuff from before, your fresh roots will be going into new soil. You should have flushed BEFORE repotting, because until the roots get into the new soil, they cant take moisture out, and the soil may become soggy and waterlogged- you will need to wait a little while if you are going to flush now, for the roots to make inroads into the new medium. Just give a nice light watering with plain tap water at this point to settle the root ball, and then return to a regular schedule of a quality bloom food.

Keep your temps down while your plant recovers from its rootboundness and transplant- don't go above 85, and preferably stay around 78.

[brainfood33]

You should have flushed BEFORE repotting, because until the roots get into the new soil, they cant take moisture out, and the soil may become soggy and waterlogged-

Hahaha, OMG I am just destined to fail here amn't I?

The temp in my flower room is low 80s with the lights on so hopefully she'll recover and not need a flush.
So a light nute-free watering it is and I'll just hope that it works out.

Thanks again!

[DTRave420]

Hahaha, OMG I am just destined to fail here amn't I?

The temp in my flower room is low 80s with the lights on so hopefully she'll recover and not need a flush.
So a light nute-free watering it is and I'll just hope that it works out.

Thanks again!

EZ there brainfood33!!!

First of all,give yourself a pat on the back for transplanting a five footer in a two gallon pot...I've done lots of 2 gallon to five gallon transplants,but never with anything that tall...

I'm not the botanist that Stinky is,(nothing but admiration for her),i've never owned a PH meter and wouldn't know how to read it if I did...

You make it through this grow,you'll make it through anything!!!

I think you're destined to succeed...:420thought:

[brainfood33]

Well thanks for the encouragement DT, I reluctently patted my back and I feel better now.

I'm just a bit annoyed at myself that I ignored the problems for so long and naively expected it all to work out fine without making any changes.
I thought that being rootbound and not stretching in the flowering stage was a good thing because she was too big as it was!
I'm also annoyed that I didn't read enough of the great info available on this site before doing a soil grow thinking that if I can grow in hydro then I know it all. I was wrong!

I wonder how many stupid newbies like me Stinky has managed to help get their smoke when they were heading for certain disaster?

I'll update this thread with new pics of my hopefully fully recovered and thriving girl whenever that may be.