PH water problem - is there any hope for my plants?

pushu

Active Member
my first grow and I'm off to a bad start. indoors in soil - T5's
germinated some free seeds from attitude and a month later they look like absolute shit. stunted, eagle clawed and anemic looking. I'm too embaresed too post pics so find the saddest looking pics you have seen here and that is probably what my plants look like I figured I was watering too much and cut way back.
meanwhile, I germinated some seeds that were in a bud a friend grew last year. All 8 seeds germinated rapidly and looked great for about three weeks. I just started seeing yellowing of the edges and slow growth and have watered these plants more carefully.
I was using well water so I just assumed it would be fine. I just picked up a PH test kit to check the water and the well water tested above 8.0
I checked some rain water to be sure the test was accurate and that tested at 6.5
I would guess that the high PH of the well water is what was causing my plants to look so bad

So my question is... is there any hope for these plants? I hate to shitcan them if they can be salvaged as I don't have an abundance of seed and no access to clones. What if I was to repot them into fresh soil?
 

painkillerman

Active Member
who cares how bad they look pics tell more of the story post them asap
repot them should help tons, but u need to get ph 6.5 ish and sounds lik ph/nutes problem get ph back in range theyll come round but if u can find new beans grab em as these will do fine once saved but would be out gunned by same strain that started healthy
 

TriPurple

Well-Known Member
You can use lemon juice to lower pH. Some use cider vinegar.
Nooooo Not this again..... lemon & vinegar are very temporary. Buy some phosphoric acid on amazon .. a $17 bottle will last a long time. About six to 10 drop a gallon & you've made a $30+ bottle of PH-down. You can also use nitric acid.
 

pushu

Active Member
Nooooo Not this again..... lemon & vinegar are very temporary. Buy some phosphoric acid on amazon .. a $17 bottle will last a long time. About six to 10 drop a gallon & you've made a $30+ bottle of PH-down. You can also use nitric acid.
thank you for your suggestions... I have other sources of water as I now have municipal water and also started gathering rain water. I am quite surprized that my well water is so high in PH and never considered that this could be such a problem. I have been using this on my flowers and vegetables for years and not noticed any issues.

My concern at the moment is my current plants and is there any hope of saving them? I would think that simply stopping the usage of the high ph water would not be enough to save them. I guess I have nothing to lose if I go ahead and get as much of the soil off the plants and repot them?
 

TriPurple

Well-Known Member
Be patient ...... the rain water should help. Transplanting a stressed plant is not a good idea, the roots can't handle it.
 
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