Brown thumb grow

[Brwnthmb]

the plant at the left front is the topic of my question. Its leaves are lime green to yellowish. It’s ph is 6.1. The other plants have ph of 7.2, 7.3, 7.0, 7.0 (from upper left going clockwise. The 6.1 plant then is the last reading going clockwise.)
I couldn’t find where a low ph would cause the lime/ yellow leaves. I’m betting on watering.
I think that this one just hasn’t recovered yet from overwatering. I don’t think the light color is a new problem, it just hasn’t recovered yet. The question I have is should I add ph adjuster or nitrogen (or another nutrient) or give it some time?

Thanks
p.s. I do have the plant on a much better watering schedule now. It’s been 3 days since I watered it, and the soil is still moist around the plant.

[Smallgrow]

Looks like things are going better. I would stick with the new watering schedule but I would try to get that PH up. 6.1 is low for soil and can lead to deficiencies. Deficiencies can lead to yellow leaves.
Considering the start they had I wouldn’t go crazy, just give ‘em some time and focus on correct ph and watering appropriately

[Brwnthmb]

Smallgrow
From what I could gather from the hamburger menu, the ideal ph range should be 6.5-7.0, slightly acidic. My (proposed) method of adjusting ph is to use the bottled products ph up and ph down, which I don’t have yet but when I do have them, my plan is to maintain my same watering schedule while adding ph adjusters to the water. Is this what you recommend?

[Smallgrow]

Yes that’s correct.

[Rwise]

PH in soil while vegging should held at 6.2-6.5 in flower 6.5-6.8. I would start with correcting the PH.
Is it the same soil in all pots? IF so then why the wide range in PH?

[Rwise]

Yes, I corrected that, acids are a PH down

[Brwnthmb]

@Rwise
About the pelleted dolomite and sulphur for raising and lowering the ph; is this because it is a “gentler” way than ph up and down?

[Rwise]

no, it is natural substances.

[Brwnthmb]

PH in soil while vegging should held at 6.2-6.5 in flower 6.5-6.8. I would start with correcting the PH.
Is it the same soil in all pots? IF so then why the wide range in PH?

I can’t get the picture in the right place, but this is the answer to your question ‘how are you measuring the ph?’ Or something to that effect.
Rwise

[Gingerbeard]

Word to your mother Rwise ! My Blue Lab water pH meter was worth the $75 several years ago when I ate rice and beans for a week to afford it. The little strips weren't worth whatever pittance I paid. My 2-prong pH/water/light meter is only worth the moisture bit. But I only use it on houseplants as me and my bags are in tune.
The price has gone way up to 2 weeks of rice and beans, since. Still worth it. Just need to keep it calibrated.

[Brwnthmb]

@Rwise
I was not able to edit my previous comment in order to add the other functions of the meter. Besides ph, it also measures the light intensity, the temperature, and soil moisture content. At $22 it is worth the price, but only if it continues to work. As I said the only other review I’ve had (from @Bluey) said that the meter failed the accuracy test not long after purchase.

[Bluey]

Apera have a store on Amazon. The meters are cheap there. A meter that costs $22 is rubbish. It measures nothing with accuracy. It's crap.

[Gingerbeard]

Looking like a nice recovery Brwnthmb!
Notice the differences between the plastic and clay pots versus the bags? Keep it up. You have some time and work ahead of you.
As the plants get bigger, you can use LST to keep everything at the same height, rather than the multi-tiered method that is likely to get knocked over when a big, stoned, dumbass like me knocks into it.
I'm going to make a suggestion for down the road: Don't top. Get your plants back to healthy and fill up that space. If your grow space is even four times what you are showing in your picture, that will be a very tight fit for five plants without topping. Unless you have upgraded in the last little bit, you do not have enough light to take care of much more than the table you are growing on.
What I first said, though. Looking like a nice recovery.

[Gingerbeard]

https://www.growweedeasy.com/low-stress-training-lst

[Brwnthmb]

The flower pot size and type is experimental. The 3 gallon fabric pot is my upper limit. The brown plastic 8” pot is a pot down from a larger size, to see if the plant would grow faster in a smaller pot, and to see if the faster growth offsets the damage from transplanting.

[Brwnthmb]

Gingerbeard
Thanks for LST. That is cool!

[Brwnthmb]

Grow 2
plant 2 (plant 1 is the upper left hand corner, numbered going clockwise) has been topped. It’s the tallest plant, and is in a 10” clay pot. The other 2 clay pots, plant 4 and 5, are 8”.

[Bluey]

That pH meter is useless for growing cannabis. They are very inaccurate.

Use a pH pen like an Apera PH60 and measure the pH of your input water. If you are using rainwater you will need to add a tiny amount of salts in the form of nutes or suppliments to get an accurate reading.

That is how to best manage the pH in your medium.

Bigger pots required for big buds.

[Brwnthmb]

That pH meter is useless for growing cannabis. They are very inaccurate .

is it the inaccuracy that makes it useless for growing cannabis?
the meter seems to be fairly repeatable, for what it’s worth. The plant with a low ph continued to have a low ph when I tested it the following week. It was 6.5 last week, 6.1 this week.

[Bluey]

Well mine was not accurate after a few weeks.

Best measure the inputs.

If you had decent size pots you really wouldn't need to worry about it too much at all as the soil will take care of itself. That is the greatest benefit to using soil, it takes care if itself but you need a bit of it to do that. So the more the merrier

[Brwnthmb]

Use a pH pen like an Apera PH60 and measure the pH of your input water.

.

Dont you want to have the water be in the soil for a little bit before you measure the ph?

[Bluey]

You have so little soil it won't work as it should for very long so measure your inputs and keep them in the vicinity as Rwise said in post #3. Vary it within those parameters. Watch your leaves for tell tale issues and adjust when needed.

Don't do anything too dramatic. Small steps

[Rwise]

There are a lot of resources here just waiting for folks to read/study. Learn to read your plant, just what those leaves are telling you, note that the cause can be what it looks like or PH out of range with a lack of buffers in the soil. Hard to keep the soil just so in tiny pots, as the plant eats this or that.

Read/study this: It can tell you a lot about how to read your girls

https://www.growweedeasy.com/cannabis-symptoms-pictures

[Gingerbeard]

Brwnthmb about your meter petering out after a few weeks or whatever.
There are probably solutions for that meter you can use for calibration.
Alternately, find yourself a baseline or two. Let's say you always have liquids X and Y in your house. Maybe vinegar and milk. A high acid and a high base. See what the pH of each is and use those as a baseline when you want to check meter accuracy.
Just a thought. Haven't done it myself.

[Brwnthmb]

Looking like a nice recovery Brwnthmb!
Notice the differences between the plastic and clay pots versus the bags? Keep it up. You have some time and work ahead of you.
As the plants get bigger, you can use LST to keep everything at the same height, rather than the multi-tiered method that is likely to get knocked over when a big, stoned, dumbass like me knocks into it.
I'm going to make a suggestion for down the road: Don't top. Get your plants back to healthy and fill up that space. If your grow space is even four times what you are showing in your picture, that will be a very tight fit for five plants without topping. Unless you have upgraded in the last little bit, you do not have enough light to take care of much more than the table you are growing on.
What I first said, though. Looking like a nice recovery.

I thought for sure that I had already responded to this, but I must not have saved it, or didn’t post my reply, but I can’t find it now. So I will try again.
Thanks for the compliment about the grow, and as they say, I couldn’t have done it without you (y’all).
I’ve looked into the LST and that is a really cool idea! And since the plant knows which way is up, you can “top” as the limbs go around and create more bud sites! I can imagine a tomato cage or something similar around the plants.
No I don’t have the room or lighting for all I have growing, especially considering grow #2. As I said I kept germinating seeds trying to get that part right and ended up with a big group of newly germinated problems. I thought I would thin them out and only save the strongest ones, but it is hard to give up on one. Each plant is a challenge and you don’t learn anything by giving up.
Still for sake of practicality I will have to eliminate some of these under the grow lights. I have a few on the back porch already to let nature determine the flowering time. I can always put a few more there.
Thanks for your help.

[Gingerbeard]

You said it.
Go back to the post you quoted. Below the post, in the comments, in the upper right-hand corner is an up arrow. That arrow will be there if there are more than four comments to the post. Only three show at a time.
Click the arrow and the rest of the comments will appear.

[Brwnthmb]

Rwise
thanks for referencing the chart on leaf symptoms.
I printed one out for myself and will keep it handy. It looks to be very handy.

[Gingerbeard]

About your pH meter. I am going to talk smack about something I know nothing about.
The lack of any sort of brand on the box, instruction manual, or instrument itself is a good indication it is not a good product. That is not always the case, no. It has been my experience with anything I have purchased for growing.
Another assumption on my part is there is no sort of warranty with the instrument itself. Maybe a return policy with whom you bought it?
When you pH your water, pay attention to how much pH up/down you use from the beginning. If you keep doing the same thing and your meter starts giving different numbers, you will know something is wrong.

[Gingerbeard]

Burro? Burrow? Bureau? The other bureau?
If you right-mouse-click on a red underlined, misspelled word, it will give suggestions.

[Brwnthmb]

@Gingerbeard
Bureau! Of course! The national bureau of standards!
Thanks

[Rwise]

I would not trust that to be a calibration, mine uses 2 fluids one 4.0 and one 7.0 to calibrate, as suggested before one could get these solutions to test with to see where it falls.

[dirtymike]

Using litmus paper has always been a staple of mine.

[Brwnthmb]

This picture was taken at 2:30 pm before I watered this plant. It is a 10” diameter pot and I put 500ml of water in it. The ph of the soil measured 7.0, 7.1.
This picture was taken just after 6pm. The bottom leaves have perked up quite a bit but not the top leaves. Is this what to expect or do the top leaves normally get perky also? To me the darker leaves look healthy and I like the way this plant looks. It is a Northern Lights variety. (I have others which are not as dark green.) is this a healthy looking plant and what I want my other plants to look like?
(I would not normally ask such a question but there is a category of problems on the leaf troubleshooting chart under dark green leaves.)

[Brwnthmb]

I got my answer. It’s 7:45am the next day (today) and the upper leaves have perked up. I took a picture and if I could find out how to post it in this comment I would show it. But I can’t find the button.

[Gingerbeard]

Post new pictures in a new post. Pictures added to an existing post tend to get lost in the shuffle.