Happy frog soil ph

[DDawgg]

Hi i am have a problem with a nutrient lockout. It show all the signs of defencines for having a low ph. I have tried all kinds of different things to fix this issues before. I decided to try to do a run off test. These babies have been planted in Happy Frog soil mixed with hydroton and has a 3 inch layer of hydroton on layering the bottom of the pot for drainage. They haven't seen any nutes except what is in the soil to start with. I decided to do a run off test of the soil to find out it's ph I started with a ph of 7.0 in the water and ran it through the soil and came out at about 6.0 5.8 from what i read that means it is lower in the soil maybe like 5.2 or so to make 7.0 turn into 6.0. So i checked the soil run off of some new soil that never had anything run through it before and it came out the same way.


So what i am wondering is that if maybe the happy frog soil is starting out at 5.3 or so and locking out my N P K since those can't be absorbed at that low of a ph. I am now just thinking of switching to a soiless mix and seeing how that works out.

I really appreciate anyones help here it seems like the only thing left to try.

DDawgg Reviewed by DDawgg on 10-16-2009. Happy frog soil ph Hi i am have a problem with a nutrient lockout. It show all the signs of defencines for having a low ph. I have tried all kinds of different things to fix this issues before. I decided to try to do a run off test. These babies have been planted in Happy Frog soil mixed with hydroton and has a 3 inch layer of hydroton on layering the bottom of the pot for drainage. They haven't seen any nutes except what is in the soil to start with. I decided to do a run off test of the soil to find out it's ph Rating: 5

[ryguy241]

Nut lockout should not happen right away, expecially when your not adding any ferts... how old are your plants? I would first try to adjust the pH with a lime buffer... if its not working try adding more clay and sand.

[DDawgg]

they are spent about a month in the veg state. then they went into blooming for about a week. I just picked up some dolomite lime and was going to add it to the soil at about a cup for every square foot. A book by jorge says that it is hard to over do it and to use that measurement. I am also going to switch soil to either fox farm ocean forest or sunshine pro mix #4. I have been battling this problem for about a year now and havn't seemed to fix it yet. The only thing i havn't tried is different soil or adding dolomite lime to neutral out the ph.

[ryguy241]

A perfect soil is about 5-10% organic 40-45% Mineral and 25% air and 25% water space.

[smpaz420]

Hey ddawgg i had the same problem with Fox farms Ocean forrest recently. The soil was way to low on ph and my plants were burning up with only 1/4 to 1/2 strength nutes. Just the soil straight out of the bag was coming out lower than 6 in a runoff test with 6.5 ph water. I went to home depot and got some natural lime, its little brown pellets that dissolve fast in water. And after watering them with about 1 to 2 tablespoons in a gallon of water they started to come back up in a few days. What i do now is just put a couple tablespoons in half a five gallon buckets worth of dirt (FFOF) also with the pearlite in there and add water and mix it up. The siol has been right on since then and i have not had any other lockout issues and everything is growing great!

[DDawgg]

That is crazy i picked up the same exact bag of dolomite lime. looks like good stuff. Is it true that the cleaner the water the better it will dissolve?

[blueberrytrees]

I use happy frog and ocean forest mixed,with a cup of dolomite per cu.ft..With no ph issues.average soil ph is around 7.0.season after season!