My tap water is very soft, 0.1 EC. Through help on here I learned that when your ppm is that low, the ph of the water going in is almost irrelevant, and it just takes on the ph of whatever soil you run I through, so I’m going to add some calmag when I water to raise the ppm. That way my correctly ph’d water will have a greater affect on the ph of the soil. Thanks for sharing your experience
@Low hey man sorry I can’t figure out how to PM you. I did get some lime, I hope it’s the right one.
Is it ok that it’s pelletized and not powdered? My plan is to use 3 teaspoons for my 3 gallon pot and work these pellets into the soil then water it with some calmag water (just to get the ppm up). Should I crush the pellets into a powder? Should I use a small amount of my GH fertilizer to raise the ppm instead of cal mag since the lime already has calcium and magnesium?
That’s the lime I keep on the shelf too.
You won’t need to worry about doing both, only feed when your run off ppms tell you to. If you are deciding to do the lime now instead of waiting for a natural rise, keep this in mind. If it naturally rises while reacting to lime you may find yourself in a situation where your pH gets too high. I suggested to wait after you are a couple feeds in with nutrients because the nutrients actually may help raise/stablize your pH. For now if I were you, I’d just do the cal mag and water with an appropriate pH adjustment.
My recommendation is patients, and time. However should you choose to use lime now and you think it’s necessary because of problems you are seeing in plants then yes, you would want to powder the granules. Delivery and time is better.
Pre loaded soils can be tricky
I see. You’re the expert so I suppose I will wait. I’m just worried about that ph being so low, like maybe it’s not uptaking nutrients due to lock out. I guess at the very least I’ll give it a calmag watering and see how far up that will take it.Once again I greatly appreciate your input
Definitely not an expert, but I have had to use lime with FF, it had crazy ppms and low pH out of the bag, when I used lime it shot up to over 7.2 ph. Lots of flushing followed.. lol. FF can be crazy and totally random from bag to bag.
I just don’t want to give any bad advice that others may see and run with. At the end of the day, you are the one’s hands on with them, and you make the call.
All I can do is share what I’ve been through and studies I’ve read, every situation is different brother man.
FF is the main reason I went to coco. More control, easy to fix problems.
Edit again
This site also doesn’t allow personal messages, it’s for safety of members.
I have had both HF and OF come out of the bag mid 5’s on pH. I recently switched to coco but the last new bag of Ocean I had came back at 5.2 when doing a slurry test.
Yea I’ve had some success with FF soil but I think next time I’ll go with something different. I will probably stick to soil just because I don’t have the time or energy to learn a whole new medium lol.
Coast of Maine is a good one I hear and see results on the forum if you stick with soil.
I’ve gotten bags of HF hotter than bags of OF many times.. hate the unpredictability. As low as mid 4’s on pH scale
@Bfreezy
Don’t blame you at all. They all have their trade offs.
Can’t say I’ve heard of that one, I’ll look into it. I was leaning towards promix just because I’ve heard a lot of good
Yea, it’s the unpredictability for me. And I’d also kind of like soil that isn’t pre amended. It would be nice to be able to put in my own nutes from the start
Promix isn’t soil it’s peat. But gets treated like soil in terms of watering frequency. 5.8-6.2 pH window. I think you would like it. Easy to control. Only downfall is that peat is a non renewable resource.
Damn that ph window is pretty tight.
It’s the sweet spot and it’s technically a hydroponic medium like coco. Basically just means “soilless”generally inert
I can vouch for the promix (red bag) premium moisture and I ad 1/3 perlite. Unfortunately walmart has raised the price to $33 per compacted bale. 2 years ago it was$14 . Anyway its really consistent bag to bag . They do recommend ph of 6.2 for nute solution. I’ve personally found a sweet spot when ph’ing to 6.3 , getting my runoff to 6.5ph. Once you get it dialed in its good to go. Keeping in mind the smaller the pot the more frequently you can fertigate. I really like every other day , but am not adverse to a pot size that lets me fertigate daily. Hope I’ve been of some help. Happy Growing
I will look in to promix, it’s just daunting g because I’ve invested so much time into learning soil lol.
I can’t figure out why my pot is staying wet for so long. I watered on Sunday and it still feels like it’s too damp to water again. It’s in a fabric pot, happy frog with added in her light. It’s up on a plant tray, and my temps have been 70 to 80 with humidity 65 to 70.
You will thank yourself for any transition out of soil, unless you go organic route.
If it’s too damp, don’t water. They are still little it’s not unreasonable to go 5-7 days.
I’m a FFHF user but I’m only on my second grow using it. My experience is dwarfed by many growers here. I like it because its less work for me. Watering schedule is like a spot on the calendar for me - very predictable. I haven’t had to PH the water for the last two months with my current grow, but I only grow 2 plants at a time. Jacks 321, roadside organics, silica, and CalMag is what I use. I’m not a proponent of these, I’ve just found something that works.
No doubt and it sounds like it’s working for you great. Soilless is just another option with a lot less things to worry about, for me, it’s significantly easier.
I haven’t used coco yet, and for sure it produces an awesome finale if you do your part, but I think it would require more time and attendance in the grow room. We got other things that occupy our time. Its about balance of my time. I will eventually crawl out of my box and try other methods.