Can my pH up be hurting things? 6th wk flower

Nicklas26Bendtner

Nicklas26Bendtner

Active Member
I am in my 6th week flowering some nice jack herer's. Ive done some serious research and have concluded that both are suffering from a potassium (K) deficiency. I am using ORGANIC nutes (earth juice).

My question is: Could the calcium in my pH up be hurting the uptake of the organic potassium? I know too much Ca can cause a K lockout.

I also just noticed that the molasses i have been adding also has a formidable amount of Ca, maybe i should cut back?


Jack Herer is finicky!!:-?


Any thoughts would be great!!:joint::hump:
 
Nicklas26Bendtner

Nicklas26Bendtner

Active Member
Oops I made a mistake in my question!

pH up has Sodium (Na), not calcium! I was wondering if the SALTS from the pH up could be hurting my uptake of my organic nutes. sorry for the mix-up.
 
Nicklas26Bendtner

Nicklas26Bendtner

Active Member
I use distilled water from wally world. Its around 5.5-6.0

The earth juice tends to lower it a pretty good amount, hence my use of pHup until now.
 
phoenix58

phoenix58

Well-Known Member
Hi,

When you say "suffering" how do you mean? Is it just the normal yellowing at the 6 weeks stage or something more serious? Never known PH adjustment to damage plants personally. Could you describe the symptoms or better still a pic maybe?
 
Nicklas26Bendtner

Nicklas26Bendtner

Active Member
i will get a pic up this afternoon. it really looks like a K def to me. Browning coming in from the edges, tips are curling upwards, weaker branches. It looks a bit like heat stress as well but my temp is in the 70s so i find it unlikely. Any tips for K def? Ive heard wood ashes, but that sounds pretty sketch. perhaps blood meal?
 
CustomHydro

CustomHydro

Well-Known Member
First of all u better check ur PH meter. Distilled water is not acid base as u claim. Truely distilled water is neutral (PH of 7).
If u used Sodium based PH up u need to flush when the pots dry out or change ur resevoir as that would cause K lockout. Foilar feed K until ur pots dry out if u are in a medium.
 
CustomHydro

CustomHydro

Well-Known Member
Also, some PH up is Calcium carbonate. That is a source for calcium for the plants. Using too much of Ca based PH up will also lock out K. U should always use PH adjuster from the company that supplied ur nutes when possible. Some companies expect u to use certain amounts of PH adjuster which may contain K or P or Ca, so they have less of those in their nute solution so u dont overfeed. When u start to mix and match nutes and use all kinds of supplements, thats when u start to see difeciencies.
 
H

highpsi

Well-Known Member
It sounds like you're using Sodium Hydroxide, also known as lye. Unfortunately, while it is effective at raising your pH, it will also raise the amount of sodium salts in your nute solution, possibly causing lockout. You should be using Potassium Hydroxide instead, as potassium can be used by the plant.
 
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