S
SeaMaiden
C-ray, what kind of soil(s) is the farm sitting on, if that's not giving too much information?
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C
c-ray
it's great that everyone is taking the time to offer their opinions, shows the interest is here.. many thanks to all..
C
c-ray
not going to give the exact classifications but they are calcerous bedrocks..
C
c-ray
if the plants are all same genetic just need to take sample leaves at the same height from enough plants and do 1 squeeze for a composite reading of overall garden health.. what I do sometimes when I am doing a walk through of the garden so it is not really much extra work, for me at least.. tis how it is done on the broadacre crops so it is applicable on a large scale maybe even more so..
You must have an awful big 'res' as I think you called it for that big farm huh?
This is what I thought once as well as a youngster.
This is what I thought once as well as a youngster.
North Thompson, South East Columbia water shed or prairies.
M
MrSterling
Right, but most pH sap testing doesn't involve vicing plant leaves. It's not at all practical for cannabis.
Sea, statements like that are vexing, just putting it out there. To make a comparison between the accuracy of pH strips and bud quality as a gauge for soil rightness is putting words in someone's mouth and asking them to refute it. I gauge whether my soil is 'right' not by how high the bud gets me but by things like the health of my plants and things like cec and soil testing. A right soil is one that grows healthy plants without nutrient lockout or deficiencies.
If having a pH at 6.4 is what you're aiming for, the testing is only useful in figuring out your soil "formula" for future soil builds. Say you bungle and your soil is off and your pH is like 5.9. I do not see what you could do to fix off pH in soil at the time. Any lesson learned can only be beneficial for future soil mixes.
Rather than taking corrective measures based on readings from the crop which require removing functional parts of the plant, wouldn't it be better to take preventative measures and simply ensure you have a solid humus component in your soil, which would buffer any mineral imbalance with extra exchange sites?
DuckDuckGoose
Member
Cray,
how often do you need to check each individual plant during it's life cycle? or how often would you test a plant even if all seems well visually? and at what age/size should the plant be before you test on it? i'm speaking of cannabis specifically in an indoor situation, not a full season outdoor scenario... sorry if it's answered somewhere and i missed it. lots of lengthy posts that i'm catching up on.
thanks,
DDG
how often do you need to check each individual plant during it's life cycle? or how often would you test a plant even if all seems well visually? and at what age/size should the plant be before you test on it? i'm speaking of cannabis specifically in an indoor situation, not a full season outdoor scenario... sorry if it's answered somewhere and i missed it. lots of lengthy posts that i'm catching up on.
thanks,
DDG
S
SeaMaiden
Seems my previous post has been completely deleted, so I'll try once again.
The vice grip thing is for reading Brix, not pH. You need a refractometer to read Brix, the pH papers only need a drop of sap to give a reading. I've been playing around with mine, will be doing some more comparisons in order to determine for myself how accurate or useful they are. I'm willing to give it a go for $10.
Yup. Vexing for sure. I figured I could try some of the same debating tactics I see others using on for size. I see it causes easily as many issues for others as it does me.
I'll just say that it seems to me that the idea that people are just pulling these numbers out of their asses is silly. They came from somewhere, and c-ray has been working hard to show where, from whom, etc. Folks can do whatever they like with the information.
I would like to see some pics of C-Rays work...
The only thing i ever ph these days is the actual soil or medium i am transplanting into. And thats only when i remember. Aint much use ph testing the sap if your medium is reading 9...
The only thing i ever ph these days is the actual soil or medium i am transplanting into. And thats only when i remember. Aint much use ph testing the sap if your medium is reading 9...
TLoft13
Member
Can' use the damn things myself. Always have a far too big window to get usefull data, like"pH is somewhere between 5,2 and 7. I guess???"
My color perception doesn't seem to be up for the task.
C
c-ray
Dr. M ercola Interviews John Kempf on High Performance Agriculture
https://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=MQDbkSn9rpo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=MQDbkSn9rpo
"you cannot increase yields you can only prevent yields from being lost" - john kempf
poetic
poetic
C
c-ray
c-ray.. much respect !!! quality stuff amigo
I bought a horiba to test sap. I went from Ph'ing every solution ( salt ) to not ( organic ) to pH'ing ( salts) to not ( organic coco )
I'm finding coco a good medium, as to me it's far superior to peat ( water retention, dry cycles, plant can get bigger... ). But lack of sources here is making it hard to mix a good batch.. I'm missing gypsum particularly, and lack of people running full coco organic make sit harder to get input, as the soil pH is already higher then peat, and from what I read some interesting things with iron / Ca / Mg.
I hit my first PM this cycle, and in 7 years of growing never had it once.. never ever. but I was frustrated as hell and decided, "how can I use this", so I decided to take a path of using it instead of it using me, so here I am ready to learn more. I will say the Pm hit as I moved to a different state ( area ) , but no matter what I want to apply this to future growing as I'm not staying in my current location.
please keep doing what your doing.. I'm behind all you as I just got back into organic from a leave of absence, honestly from all the hostility put out by a lot of organic guys here, but it's not going to let it stop me.
wanted to say a big, THANK YOU. I am going to admit it seems like you lead, I will follow. I'm here to learn
I bought a horiba to test sap. I went from Ph'ing every solution ( salt ) to not ( organic ) to pH'ing ( salts) to not ( organic coco )
I'm finding coco a good medium, as to me it's far superior to peat ( water retention, dry cycles, plant can get bigger... ). But lack of sources here is making it hard to mix a good batch.. I'm missing gypsum particularly, and lack of people running full coco organic make sit harder to get input, as the soil pH is already higher then peat, and from what I read some interesting things with iron / Ca / Mg.
I hit my first PM this cycle, and in 7 years of growing never had it once.. never ever. but I was frustrated as hell and decided, "how can I use this", so I decided to take a path of using it instead of it using me, so here I am ready to learn more. I will say the Pm hit as I moved to a different state ( area ) , but no matter what I want to apply this to future growing as I'm not staying in my current location.
please keep doing what your doing.. I'm behind all you as I just got back into organic from a leave of absence, honestly from all the hostility put out by a lot of organic guys here, but it's not going to let it stop me.
wanted to say a big, THANK YOU. I am going to admit it seems like you lead, I will follow. I'm here to learn
N
NorCalDreaming
Just found this thread. This post is a joke. I need to go through this and get all the solid info and ignore crap like this.
Hey C-Ray...John Kempf...lol...spent a lot of time with him on the phone a few years back and the person that really opened my eyes to the benefits of sap testing. Dudes in 'regular' agriculture been doing that for YEARS and canna growers were supposed to be leading edge lol.
it kind of reminds me of thoes Old Timer High School Football coaches... you know, the one that never graduated college... all he did was yell at the team to run for 4 hours at a time and could never understand why they lost so many games, i mean, after all - this is the same workout routine that won when he was in high school...
... and then the rival team arrives, and they have tools and charts and stopwatches and they all cycle thru warm up exercises and practice ballet("ballet of all things!" old time coachs mutters to himself) and then the game starts...
and the new dudes dance around the old timers without breaking a sweat. and coach old timer yells at the team for losing and orders them to run a couple miles as punishment while the team that just beat them does cool down yoga and meditation.
... and then the rival team arrives, and they have tools and charts and stopwatches and they all cycle thru warm up exercises and practice ballet("ballet of all things!" old time coachs mutters to himself) and then the game starts...
and the new dudes dance around the old timers without breaking a sweat. and coach old timer yells at the team for losing and orders them to run a couple miles as punishment while the team that just beat them does cool down yoga and meditation.
so I finally got my pH meter, and some modified vice grips to squeeze the leaf.. was very nice.. with one leaf I got like 4-6 drops, also thanks tot he horiba all I needed was two I think
but the pH came in at 5.8 .... BOO . I'm going to try upping Ca as I felt it was low to begin with, and I'll see if I get a change
one question I had: does timing of taking a sample affect sap pH? like what if likes just turned on, or are just turning off, does that matter?
THANKS again C-ray for shedding some light on this topic, as I still have a ways to go to get there ( 6.4 ) .
time to go check the outdoor plants
but the pH came in at 5.8 .... BOO . I'm going to try upping Ca as I felt it was low to begin with, and I'll see if I get a change
one question I had: does timing of taking a sample affect sap pH? like what if likes just turned on, or are just turning off, does that matter?
THANKS again C-ray for shedding some light on this topic, as I still have a ways to go to get there ( 6.4 ) .
time to go check the outdoor plants
