Roots Organics Soil and nutrient lockout

H

highinbreck

Member
I am on my third go around with Roots Organics soil and have had issues with each one. The first time, I was the problem in adding to many nutrients(all roots line). The second, just got locked out using the smallest amount of nutes. This time, I'm going using ph'd water and am still getting locked out on a plant I just switched to 12/12 and is 2 wks into flower. I'm running some strains that can be touchy)purple urkle(mendo cut), island sweet skunk(vancouver island cut), and 3d twister(sour diesel v3 x purple urkle). The leaves yellow, but tips are really burnt or curled.

Does anyone else have lockout issues with RO soil?

If you use there whole line, soil and nutes, how much are you feeding?
 
H

highinbreck

Member
I always start to notice the very uniform yellowing of the leaves, starting on the largest fan leaves and moving to the smaller leaves a couple wks into flowering, through veg they look great.
 
Viagro

Viagro

Well-Known Member
Molasses can rebalance overfed soil through chelation. Thereby allowing the roots to do their job and the plant to function properly. It's not just a source of carbs.

Yellowing leaves as budding begins is common among some strains.
 
K

krok

Active Member
I find it hard to believe yellowing is natural as soon as you switch to 12/12, where do you have this info from? A strain is not a separate species you know, it's all a plant.
The last thing newbies (I'm talking about lurkers) need is wrong facts.
 
collective gardener

collective gardener

Well-Known Member
High in Breck,

We, too use RO soil, but NOT their nutes. The soil comes with too much of a charge IMO. To get around this, we "dilute" the soil with 30% coco and 30% #4 perlite. This gives us some options as far as feeding, without being too concerned with overfeeding and a potential lockout. The added perlite prevents any over watering problems. I still think it's the best organic soil right out of the bag.

I don't like the secondary and micro nutrient package in the RO nutes. One is a good organic P an K (I forget which one...NPK of 0-5-4), but that's about it. For what it's worth, I use Earthjuice Microblast for the micros, Botanicare Ca for calcium, and Botanicare Sweet Raw for magnesium and sulfur. After that, you can do whatever you do for your N-P-K. I've found with pure live soil organics the N-P-K is easy...it's the others that can be overlooked and cause problems.

As far as your leaf yellowing problem at hand, might be time for the old standby nutrient problem fix: HEAVY flushing, followed by a complete nutrient solution feeding, and maybe some light foilar feeding. May want to check the PPM and PH of your flushing water that comes out of the pots to give you an idea of what is going on in the root zone. I would think that if you have excess yellowing of ALL your strains, it's a nutrient problem that can be fixed. The only yellowing I ever experience is late in my pre harvest flush.

Good luck and let me know if you need some help. Somewhere around here I have a great formula for an all purpose totally organic "first aid" nutrient solution mix that may help you.
 
mayor juana

mayor juana

Active Member
krok said:
I find it hard to believe yellowing is natural as soon as you switch to 12/12, where do you have this info from? A strain is not a separate species you know, it's all a plant.
The last thing newbies (I'm talking about lurkers) need is wrong facts.
Click to expand...
It's true, yellowing occurs more in some strains and different phenos than others. Indicas tend to stay greener in my garden.

Roots Organic is tricky and needs to be toyed with in flowering. There's no way I could keep up with more than 4 strains and their different feeding schedules. IMO, make sure you have plenty of dolomite in your mix and get the yellowing plants on a steady cal/mag routine before flowering next time.
 
L

lucky23

Member
I could really use that recipe! I am new here and livin in Centeral America . I am using R.O aand i am getting locked out. New shoot are pale and distorted. I am checking the ph again tomorrow after the flush .
 
thegreensurfer

thegreensurfer

Well-Known Member
i use roots soil and have the same problem:
I get what looks like K deficiency & brown dots along the leaf veins
their quality is going down, gnats are a common prob too. coco here i come
Is your runoff low too?
 
*DUBSTAR*

*DUBSTAR*

Member
I use straight dechlorinated non ph'ed water throughout veg with no problems. I've noticed the Roots soil runs a very low ph and my tapwater ph is around 8 so it works out. Plants don't skip a beat.
 
*DUBSTAR*

*DUBSTAR*

Member
I noticed that when I would lower the pH of the water I would get what looked like an Iron deficiency (new growth is yellow)
 
iPACKEDthisBOWL4TWO

iPACKEDthisBOWL4TWO

Well-Known Member
My plants also too have a low runoff Ph with this stuff. I raved about this soil to some other people but the Ph drop has me worried. My runoff always ends up in the mid 5's. Curious what to add to the soil to combat this?
 
bushybush

bushybush

New Member
collective gardener said:
High in Breck,

We, too use RO soil, but NOT their nutes. The soil comes with too much of a charge IMO. To get around this, we "dilute" the soil with 30% coco and 30% #4 perlite. This gives us some options as far as feeding, without being too concerned with overfeeding and a potential lockout. The added perlite prevents any over watering problems. I still think it's the best organic soil right out of the bag.

I don't like the secondary and micro nutrient package in the RO nutes. One is a good organic P an K (I forget which one...NPK of 0-5-4), but that's about it. For what it's worth, I use Earthjuice Microblast for the micros, Botanicare Ca for calcium, and Botanicare Sweet Raw for magnesium and sulfur. After that, you can do whatever you do for your N-P-K. I've found with pure live soil organics the N-P-K is easy...it's the others that can be overlooked and cause problems.

As far as your leaf yellowing problem at hand, might be time for the old standby nutrient problem fix: HEAVY flushing, followed by a complete nutrient solution feeding, and maybe some light foilar feeding. May want to check the PPM and PH of your flushing water that comes out of the pots to give you an idea of what is going on in the root zone. I would think that if you have excess yellowing of ALL your strains, it's a nutrient problem that can be fixed. The only yellowing I ever experience is late in my pre harvest flush.

Good luck and let me know if you need some help. Somewhere around here I have a great formula for an all purpose totally organic "first aid" nutrient solution mix that may help you.
Click to expand...
BINGO! RO soil is the best out of the bag IMO. After MUCH experimentation, I basically use the exact same recipe. It is damn near perfect. The coco adds mass, gives bigger roots and plants and eliminates watering problems FOR SURE!!! This recipe plus botinacare's nute line at half strength is a DREAM.
 
Salvador Brambila

Salvador Brambila

Member
You can add Dolomite Lime to raise the ph of the soil to a neutral 7 or so! Plus the added benefits of calcium and magnesim that comes with the dolomite lime!
 
nugbuckets

nugbuckets

Well-Known Member
collective gardener said:
High in Breck,

We, too use RO soil, but NOT their nutes. The soil comes with too much of a charge IMO. To get around this, we "dilute" the soil with 30% coco and 30% #4 perlite. This gives us some options as far as feeding, without being too concerned with overfeeding and a potential lockout. The added perlite prevents any over watering problems. I still think it's the best organic soil right out of the bag.

I don't like the secondary and micro nutrient package in the RO nutes. One is a good organic P an K (I forget which one...NPK of 0-5-4), but that's about it. For what it's worth, I use Earthjuice Microblast for the micros, Botanicare Ca for calcium, and Botanicare Sweet Raw for magnesium and sulfur. After that, you can do whatever you do for your N-P-K. I've found with pure live soil organics the N-P-K is easy...it's the others that can be overlooked and cause problems.

As far as your leaf yellowing problem at hand, might be time for the old standby nutrient problem fix: HEAVY flushing, followed by a complete nutrient solution feeding, and maybe some light foilar feeding. May want to check the PPM and PH of your flushing water that comes out of the pots to give you an idea of what is going on in the root zone. I would think that if you have excess yellowing of ALL your strains, it's a nutrient problem that can be fixed. The only yellowing I ever experience is late in my pre harvest flush.

Good luck and let me know if you need some help. Somewhere around here I have a great formula for an all purpose totally organic "first aid" nutrient solution mix that may help you.
Click to expand...
i agree with this totally Breck.......i use roots, but i use General Organics liquids, Grow, Bloom, Bio, and Cal/Mag....with excellent results......good post C.G
 
nugbuckets

nugbuckets

Well-Known Member
i actually bulk mine up with Farfard 3-B....then casting, dolomite, guano, azomite, and a bennie and Mike blend......then just water through the 3 rd week of flower....then finally the liquids if needed.....good info fellas.
 
nugbuckets

nugbuckets

Well-Known Member
iPACKEDthisBOWL4TWO said:
My plants also too have a low runoff Ph with this stuff. I raved about this soil to some other people but the Ph drop has me worried. My runoff always ends up in the mid 5's. Curious what to add to the soil to combat this?
Click to expand...
dolomite is the ticket....... plus you get the cal and mag too...
 
Gopedxr

Gopedxr

Well-Known Member
Wow after reading this thread maybe i will just go with a sterile soil like sun shine pro mix its like a 0 0 0 from what i am told. Then maybe ammend with some organic stuff indvidually make it feed for a few weeks then start feeding with maybe collective gardener uses or fox farms? trio pack and there new stuff herd it works good
 
N

nitrofish

Member
If those of you who are having problems with the Roots soil or any soil mix AND feeding ORGANIC NUTRIENTS you may want to see if your water contains chloramine. Because if it does you WILL continue to have prob's. If your water does contain chloramine the only way to get rid of it is with a carbon filter.
 
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