PH dropping alot in organic soil

Hi all

I'm new to this, growing in Biobizz organic soil, and feeding with their organic bottled nutes.

I've noticed that:

1- If i water as Biobizz recomends (20-30% of the pot size) the soil starts to get super compacted over time..

2- Even tho Biobizz says theres no need to ph adjust with organic soil, when i mix the nutes at recommended strength , the PH drops from 7,5 to 5,5. I've been feeding with half nute strength at 6,5 ph.

3- Biobizz says theres no need to water till run-off (no salts in organic nutes). So i never did, but today i flushed with 7,5 ph water and the run off came at 5 ph!

Is measuring the run-off with a cheap calibrated ph-pen accurate enough? If so, why is ph droping so much? I always feed at 6,5 or above.

One last thing... Biobizz says to use nutes in every watering.. so i did. But now im suspecting that doing so i turned my soil acidic over time.. I could be complete wrong. Thoughts on that?

Appreciate opinions...

Thanks.

And btw, yes, 2 of my plants had problems during flower (deficiency or lockout), thats why im trying to figure out this...

Cheap pH pens are uttter nuts (not nutes) I use drops now, cheap and last a while, those cheap pH pens ruin ya grow, did twice with me

Guys more with more info on organic will be along shortly one hopes.

Organic seems the way to go for me.

Whereabouts you from btw.

insomnia65 said:

Cheap pH pens are uttter nuts (not nutes) I use drops now, cheap and last a while, those cheap pH pens ruin ya grow, did twice with me

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Yeah even tho i think my pen is calibrated, i might need to upgrade it for next grow...

insomnia65 said:

Whereabouts you from btw.

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Europe, hence the biobizz choice. Its a major brand here

kodak91 said:

Yeah even tho i think my pen is calibrated, i might need to upgrade it for next grow...



Europe, hence the biobizz choice. Its a major brand here

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Try following manufacturers advice. Stop screwing with it and are you checking runoff pH? If so why? People, that shit is for DTW. Like coco. Otherwise set it and forget it. The last time I checked a pH runoff was never.

hotrodharley said:

Try following manufacturers advice. Stop screwing with it and are you checking runoff pH? If so why? People, that shit is for DTW. Like coco. Otherwise set it and forget it. The last time I checked a pH runoff was never.

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I flushed today only because its getting close to harvest... Like i said above above, i never watered till run-off.

kodak91 said:

I flushed today only because its getting close to harvest... Like i said above above, i never watered till run-off.

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So the question is what do your plants look like at this point?

hotrodharley said:

Try following manufacturers advice. Stop screwing with it and are you checking runoff pH? If so why? People, that shit is for DTW. Like coco. Otherwise set it and forget it. The last time I checked a pH runoff was never.

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I've done the opposite of screwing around. I've followed all the manufacture guidelines and ended up with a super acidic soil... So im trying to figure out what went wrong, so the same doesnt happen to my younger plants.

The 2 oldest plants (autos) look like they had a severe Calcium lockout... This happend late in mid/late flower

kodak91 said:

I've done the opposite of screwing around. I've followed all the manufacture guidelines and ended up with a super acidic soil... So im trying to figure out what went wrong, so the same doesnt happen to my younger plants.

The 2 oldest plants (autos) look like they had a severe Calcium lockout... This happend late in mid/late flower

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You say calcium lockout why?

Checking soil pH runoff is pretty much screwing around.

Next time don't pH if using organic living soil.

Have a look at ecothrive.

You’re running organic soil and nutes? If you have legit organic soil, stop fucking with nutes. Top dress if plants ask for it, keep it moist for your beneficials, just plain water don’t fuck with PHing. These are things that were learned here and made my life so much damn easier.

I never ph adjusted my water... Mixing my tapwater with half nute strength would get me the 6.5ph...

Biobizz says its organic, and they have a nute line for their soil..

adding nuts every water cylcle will be a major problem. plain wrong in soil. some company selling crap to newbies. Most ph pens suck keeping accurate. tired of the ph commenting.

Little update, i found a email from Biobizz that answers most of my doubts and busts some myths and 'broscience' info around the forums...


Im gonna share it here in hopes that i will help some future googler with the same questions...

Question:
Would it be a good idea to really use all the products all together at full dose during an entire grow? Isn't using all products all together making the solution a bit too hot for the plants? Or would this actually be very beneficial?

Biobizz Answer: First of all : the Grow schedule is not the bible. It is a general guideline that gives the maximum dosages and when to start using which product, or when to stop. If you would use all products at the same time you do not need to worry that much, since you are only using maximum to NPK products: Bio-grow or Fish-Mix and Bio-Bloom. All other products are stimulators that compliment the nutrients, improve assimilation, metabolism, chlorophyll production etc etc etc.
We try to give a divers menu to the plants. If you want to live healthy, you do not eat a hamburger with a hamburger and a hamburger for desert. You’d eat a hamburger, with a salad, some orange juice, a yogurt or cheese for desert and maybe a small digestive afterwards. This is the function of the stimulators: Root-juice, Bio-Heaven, Top-max, Alg-a-Mic and Acti-vera.


Question: Presuming we would be sticking to the official chart, should we be feeding nutrients every time we water the plants or alternate water with nutes? People actually argue about how long it takes for the nutrients to become active in the soil and how long it takes for the plant to react to nutrient changes. Some say it takes up to 3 days which then implies a bit of 'thinking' ahead. If it takes that long, alternating nutes and plain water would be really counter-productive. The question is about the built up in the soil. There's lots of rumors around this as well.

Biobizz Answer: We prefer you give water with Biobizz every time you water the plants. If you switch between just clear water one time and water with nutrients the second time, you’ll have every time different Ec/pH levels. Every time the plants need to adjust.

Indeed, the organic material in Biobizz products needs time to decompose inside the soil. About 30% is available immediately, the rest becomes available in 1-3 days maximum.

What you can do is this: you start with 50% of the recommended dosages and use Biobizz every time you water the plants. You stay at this percentage or slowly increase if the plants demand it. Organic gardening is all about the visual connection with your plants.


Question: Should we consider the chart as the absolute maximum of nutes to use or is it really just an avarage?

Biobizz Answer: The schedule is the general guideline. With these dosages we think it is almost impossible to not get a good result. But as we stated above: try to see the guideline as an indication for maximum dosages and when to start/ stop using products. No more no less

Question: BioBizz says if your ph is between 7.0 and 7.3 it's just perfect. Don't change anything! Feed it to the plants and the soil will buffer the rest. " but What would happen if you were using organic ph-down to drop this 7.3 nutrient solution to 6.3 from the start, before feeding? Would this be counter-productive for getting the right ph or actually help the soil getting it right faster?

Biobizz Answer: Again, a very good question. First of all: always measure the pH, measuring = knowledge. Now here is how Biobizz works:

Our soil has a pH of 6,1-6,2. This is the perfect pH for using our liquid products. When you water the plants, the Biobizzproducts start to decompose, with the help of the micro-life in the soil, the organic material breaks down and the pH always stay naturally at 6,1-6,2. So if the water you give has a pH of for instance 7,0-7,3, the micro-life will ensure the pH in the soil will drop to the desired 6,1-6,2. This is why you never had problems, because you let nature do it’s work.

Now, the micro-life can lower the pH to 6,1-6,2, but if you feed water with a pH lower then 6,1-6,2 you can have a problem. The micro-life can lower the pH, but not increase it. So basically: as long as your water, mixed with Biobizz is above 6,2-6,3 ( give it a bit of margin ) you are just fine. Of course, when you have tab water with a pH of 9,0 ( which happens ), you will have an issue anyway. Try to avoid the use of pH correction products. Try to rely on the micro-life to do the work.Non-organic pH products will damage the micro-life we rely on so much.



This email was not sent by me. I found it in another forum...

Relaxed said:

adding nuts every water cylcle will be a major problem. plain wrong in soil. some company selling crap to newbies. Most ph pens suck keeping accurate. tired of the ph commenting.

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you are wrong tho, according to biobizz...

Beats the shit out of me why a business doesn't spell right