A hypothesis for saving my seedlings

Hey guys,

I have some seedlings that are close to 2 weeks old that are showing some signs that I believe to be related to pH and/or hard water.
I have a pH meter coming today which will allow me to check the pH of the water from now on, but....

Rather than transplanting, has anyone ever tried dissolving a small amount of dolomite lime into RO water and feeding the seedlings with that? Lime is mixed with soil to naturally regulate the pH at around 7. So since it's too early to feed them, and they'd be awfully fragile to transplant, do you think adding lime to the (soon to be pH tested) water will help regulate the soil contents and in turn help the plant recover quicker?

Or do you think I should just start regulating the pH and forget about the lime for now?

ds,
I've heard of people doing it...it doesn't really dissolve well but forms a sort of slurry. But more importantly why would you use Dolomite? If you've been using hard water and not testing...you may have a ph thing going on that's too high and the dolomite won't bring it down to the range you need. Just switch to RO water and wait till your ph meter arrives so that you aren't operating blind...
JD

Calibrated my pH meter and tested some various water sources.

I found:
Tap water ~ 7.45
RO water ~ 5.9
distilled arrowhead ~ 5.6
arrowhead spring water ~ 7.5


So, I combined somewhere around 1 part arrowhead spring and 3 or 4 parts RO water until I got a pH of 6.9

I watered both plants, measured the pH after watering one, it was about 6.5 or so, then after watering the second plant and combining the run off from both plants, the pH measured around 6.3.

What should I do? Add some dolomite lime to the next water? just water regularly with 7.0 RO/arrowhead spring? Thanks for the info JD

I think ur meter is off, ro water should have a neutral ph of 7

I germinate all my seeds in a light soil mix and never ph the water,I use ro water and 50-60 ppm of cal mag......

what type of soil are you using?? How big are the containers they are in?

I start all my seedling in 2 inch by 2 inch 3 inches tall....fill with light soil mix......then transplant in 2-3 weeks into happy frog or my own soil mix depending on availability into party cups or 1 gallon pots.......I do this every time and rarely have problems......sometimes some seedlings are just genetically inferior.


and fyi lime takes a while to break down...

I also just measured the pH of a dolomite lime + RO solution that has been sitting for about 12 hours and found the pH to be ~ 7.2. 95% of the pellets have broken down, very little sedement remains at the bottom.The viscosity remains visually similar to that of water, but the color is a semi-dirty bongwater brown. Anyone have any input on the possible benefits or consequences of this solution and if it would be applicable in a situation like this? Here's a picture update so you can see my current status as of first pH'd and non-tap water....

@brick https://www.thcfarmer.com/community/threads/what-does-your-ro-water-ph-at.48785/

look at the first responders.... avg of about 5.9 which is what i got.... so doesn't seem that crazy.

RO water is NOT guaranteed to be 7.0, it varies.

ds,
The Dolomite won't hurt anything. The water you tried...spring plus ro sounds about perfect. The whole runoff test thing is bogus for ph. No accurate conclusions can be drawn. You do not need to micro-manage your ph in soil...as others have said. So relax, let them get a good wet/dry cycle and maintain a decent seedling humidity level. I suspect your problems are somewhere else other then soil and ph.
JD

Considering I have been using a random combination of some extremely hard tap water with a pH of 7.5 and RO water with pH of 5.9, I find it extremely hard to believe that my problems are NOT due to the water... Temperature is fine, soil has been reported to work for several other growers, and I have not added any nutrients.... I just don't think there could really be any other problems this early on...

ds,
Sorry man, I missed the pictures you posted yesterday. That's classic leaf tip necrosis from nutrient burn. Not sure what caused it, possibly soil is too hot for seedlings and I've even seen seedlings burnt from too much ph down. What soil is it?
JD

JohnDee said:

ds,
Sorry man, I missed the pictures you posted yesterday. That's classic leaf tip necrosis from nutrient burn. Not sure what caused it, possibly soil is too hot for seedlings and I've even seen seedlings burnt from too much ph down. What soil is it?
JD

Click to expand...

how many times do you think you would water a plant that size from the time it first sprouts.... like total?.......

daesonn said:

Considering I have been using a random combination of some extremely hard tap water with a pH of 7.5 and RO water with pH of 5.9, I find it extremely hard to believe that my problems are NOT due to the water... Temperature is fine, soil has been reported to work for several other growers, and I have not added any nutrients.... I just don't think there could really be any other problems this early on...

Click to expand...

I wouldn't immediately dismiss any other variable....What type of soil are you using?? Some strains can handle hot soils while others can't.....I am not saying it is your soil but I wouldn't say it isn't either....it could be your water......or what you have been adding to your water....


Seriously I wouldn't worry about ph'ing anything......and if it were me I would transplant into fresh soil,but first I would like to know what type of soil you are using that would help determine if it is or is not your soil.....

Well they are both in FF light warrior. I've heard it CAN burn them, but most of the time it's fine. Both of my seedlings (of two different strains) seemed to start out fine and then one at a time they experienced the same problem.

Now we're getting somewhere.....Light warrior is only for the seedling stage......after the first set or two of true leafs appear you should transplant into happy frog (or any other mix you use)......light warrior is very light...I definitely recommend you transplant as soon as possible.....

I thought these would still be considered seedlings... And what does the change of soil have to do with anything? Just nutrients??? And if so, then don't people say that until the cotyledons curl up or turn yellow or whatever that your plants do not need any additional nutrients?

FFOF is the only other soil I have on hand. But the whole reason I got light warrior was to prevent burning until they were old enough to transfer to 5 gallons with super soil....

Anyone? can someone provide an explanation or confirmation?

Would I be better off translplanting to 1gal pots with 75FFOF/25FFLW? OR a different ratio? That's the only soil I have right now...

I still need help...

daesonn said:

I thought these would still be considered seedlings... And what does the change of soil have to do with anything? Just nutrients??? And if so, then don't people say that until the cotyledons curl up or turn yellow or whatever that your plants do not need any additional nutrients?

FFOF is the only other soil I have on hand. But the whole reason I got light warrior was to prevent burning until they were old enough to transfer to 5 gallons with super soil....

Click to expand...

Yeah once they have true leaves the plants are out of seedling stage and ready to start the vegetative stage.....ocean forest is pretty hot so 75/25 or 50/50 should work......I would start with the 50/50 to be safe.....

I would transplant into 1 gallon,they should be good for another 2-4 weeks, maybe longer.........then transplant into your 5 gallons containers.....and still veg for another 4-8 weeks in those before flipping to 12/12<---------(only if using subs super soil recipe)

Status update:

I mixed some light warrior with what FFOF I had remaining and only had enough soil to transplant one seedling until i get more soil later today. I mixed in a couple teaspoons of dolomite lime and a handful of earthworm castings as well...

When transplanting, unfortunately I didn't feel that I had time left to let the soil dry out. This little guy isn't looking very good. I cut down the sides of the cup with scissors and thought I pulled it out perfectly, but I looked down in the cup to realize that probably a sixth of the soil and some possible root endings remained in the cup. I went ahead and dropped what majority of plant and rootball I had in the new mixture and wet it down really well. Here's what it looks like during naptime now:


The little fucker is barely holding its posture. I misted it after transplanting and it was trying to fall over so badly... I'm afraid I may have killed my first plant in only 2 weeks.

Do you have a piece of bamboo or a toothpick, piece of wood? Use it to support her, she's a girl, remember ..

You already know this, foxfarm mediums (among many others) are amended to time release nutrients at each watering. Too much, too soon can be a shock to the girls foundation, their lovely root(s).

Watering in lime is fine, as mentioned, make sure it's coarsely ground into a fine powder to ensure its disolvation into the water. Lime will raise the pH of your water/food, and is also a healthy source to dissolve any excess salts that may accumulate at some point in the medium. It's a good way to flush any medium, dissolve any builds, and bring the pH back up to where where you might want it to be.

Mixing in lime, as you did, will for sure benefit her new space. Are you set on running with foxfarm as a medium?

I am not aware of Fox Farms putting time release nutrients in their soil mixes. FFOF burns seedlings because of high guano content. Your new mix sounds good.

You should stop misting them as this only promotes damping off. Best to keep seedlings and early vegging plants dry until their stems harden off.