AACT Flowering Tea

[Sadhu Sciences]

Well how do you know you have a pH lockout? Your flushing sounds drastic. If you are going to swamp your soil, I'd let things dry out a bit otherwise you'll drive the O2 out of your soil. What soil do you have and what volume?

I don't really change ACT recipes for veg or flower.

Hey Microbeman,

I had a question about the PH level of the tea I feed to the soil. I have a low PH to my RO water based on my location. The tea naturally becomes acidic and is already at around 3.6 after 24hr of brewing. I usually mix the 5 gal of concentrated tea to 40 gal of RO water. The PH comes out to 4.5 range after they are mixed. Would I want to raise the clean RO water to a higher PH of < 7 in order to achieve an acceptable PH range within the soil?

Your advice would be much appreciated. I only say this is because it dropped the PH in my soil to 4.2-4.6 range. The plants then became locked out due to PH , after checking the runoff. I have never had to deal with the base RO water being too low of PH, but I guess I must adapt. I have been raising the PH to 7 in the 40 gal tank before adding the 5 gal of concentrated tea.

Am I killing the colonies by doing this? i Know using PH is a no no anyways, but I am in a dilemma. Your advice is much appreciated. Thanks

Namaste

 

[Microbeman]

How are you measuring your soil pH? A living soil generally maintains a stable pH (if it is actually living) at somewhere between 6.0 and 6.8 depending on what plants are growing. For me, when growing hemp it has been around 6.4. This has never been influenced by pH readings of CT, water nor AEM. Measuring runoff is not a reliable way to measure pH. Try googling a few methods. I use a neutral distilled water and add my soil to it agitate and take a reading immediately, in a couple of hours and the next day. OR/AND I send a sample to the lab.

 

[bigshrimp]

Adjusting pH after a tea is brewed seems like a very bad idea.

 

[Sadhu Sciences]

I check the pH of the solution, the media, and the waste water. I take 3 readings to get an exact pH zone. So the pH of the tea should not matter or change the pH of the media?? The problem is that the pH is too low with the tea added to my clean water. Acidity is a good thing as far as what I have read , correct Microbeman? This means that colonization is occurring?? How can I bring the pH up of my clean water before adding the tea so it is around 6-7 ph? I use well water as my source of water and it has a low pH to start with. Thanks

 

[Microbeman]

How are you measuring your soil pH?

Sorry, I really do not follow you.

 

[Pepe le skunk]

Anyone ever hear about a flower tea that helps stop verticle stretch and causes the plant to bulk up?

Usually try to measure feed water PH at 6.0-6.4 If adding cal.mag will go to 5.8 - 6.0.
With Coco in the mix usually shoot for this range with good results.

 

[bigshrimp]

Pepe - I've heard of people using a "kelp botanical extract" for that purpose. Supposed to halt or slow vertical growth and induce side branching. Never used it myself.

 

[Granger2]

Sadhu,
I have never checked my medium [coco] pH nor my runoff pH. I do make sure that the pH of anything I feed/water with is in or near the 5.8-6.1 range most of the time. This is much more necessary in coco than soil, but when you start talking about a pH in the low 4's and even down into the 3's, something must be done. You can ask only so much out of your herd, and a pH that low affects the herd profoundly. It affects the mix of critters and even which strains can survive. With your pH going lower during the brew, that tells me that the predominant strains are not likely to cause a stablization and rising to a good pH range in the medium. The pH is probably too low for proliferation of strains that would raise it.

Typically, my brews start pretty low, often in the 4's, and rise to high 7's if allowed. I usually monitor and brew till pH is no higher than high 6's, then use it. This will usually be 24-30 hours, but sometimes up to 48. [These are conclusions drawn from monitoring and observation, and from what my plants say.]

If it were me, short of another higher pH water source, I'd raise the pH of the both waters before the brew starts, including the water you add the brew to. I would do it with something like Earth Juice pH Up. Then see what the finished product pH is. Adjust waters for next batch accordingly.

Another thing I would do is to make sure you are using plenty of inoculant, but also important, use 1 or 2 other inoculants. I usually use mostly EWC, with 2 other composts to get a lot of strain diversity. Good luck. -granger

 

[Microbeman]

I've used fermentations with a pH of 3.2 as well as compost tea with pH readings between 4 and 5 plenty of times with no issues. Most AEM, which is used worldwide for organic farming is 3.2 to 3.8 pH. Just because something has a certain pH it does not mean it is going to turn your soil to that pH.

 

[BurnOne]

I've used fermentations with a pH of 3.2 as well as compost tea with pH readings between 4 and 5 plenty of times with no issues. Most AEM, which is used worldwide for organic farming is 3.2 to 3.8 pH. Just because something has a certain pH it does not mean it is going to turn your soil to that pH.

 

[Granger2]

If Sadhu's soil pH is 4.2 like he says, something's causing it, and if he's consistently using low pH tea that's probably why. Sadhu, if it were me, I'd try to get the pH up on your teas for awhile to see if the plants improve. If they don't, then you'll know to look for other causes. Good luck. -granger

 

[Microbeman]

That could be granger, however I do not think he established that he was using an accurate measurement method. So far as I know soil pH can only be measured accurately by placing a sample in pH neutral distilled water, providing some sort of agitation and taking measurements periodically of the water.
OR - using a high end very expensive pH soil probe (those $15 ones do not cut it IMO)
OR - drying out the soil sample and apply various laboratory techniques

IMO; run off testing is highly inaccurate and I don't believe any other method has been detailed here. Please correct me if I am mistaken.

 

[Granger2]

MM,
I've never tested my runoff. I agree that trying to draw conclusions from it is risky. The key here is an accurate pH measurement of the medium. I've never done that either. From what I've read, and as you said, you have to do a slurry test.

Sadhu,
What kind of medium pH test did you do? Do you feel it was accurate? Good luck. -granger

 

[xmobotx]

pHfffft

 

[BurnOne]

pHfffft

 

[Granger2]

Xmobotx and BurnOne,
Do you have any suggestions that might help Sadhu out? -granger

 

[BurnOne]

Xmobotx and BurnOne,
Do you have any suggestions that might help Sadhu out? -granger

Yes, follow the instructions all over this forum about building a living soil with lots of humates in it and throw that pH meter in the trash.
There are thousands of other things that can cause problems in an organic grow. pH in a living grow medium is rarely one of them but for some mysterious reason it is the most common answer given for the troubled organic growers woes.
You'll see the same major problems in an organic grow as you would in a chemical grow. It's up to the grower to seek these traits out and experiment to find the cause. Most often times inexperienced growers will just throw everything at the problem and expect it to help. Only to find their issues are exacerbated.
Coming to the forums for quick information rarely helps. The grower should start with a single strain, a single medium mix and a single organic food source and stick to that one regiment over several harvests until the grower sees problems, remembers (or better yet refers back to his or her notes) where the changes that caused the problems occurred and makes small adjustments over time to see if the issues with their grow improves. These "changes" could be when the lighting went from continuous to 12/12, changes in temperature in the grow room, a new batch of nutrients or many other things.
Nothing happens overnight except stupid things like using pH up or down, whether natural or chemical to screw up a grow. If you have a good living grow medium and are testing the pH of a solution you are about to add and adjust it with pH up or down like lemon juice or vinegar, what you end up doing is screwing up your grow medium. Which would have been able to handle the pH of the solution anyway. This has been stated thousands of times right here in this forum, only to be ignored by the growers seeking help and the people helping them who both can find the answers with the click of the mouse.
This is not a "Go back and read" answer to Sadhu's problem, but Xmobotx, Microbeman and myself have spent thousands of hours, even years typing this information out for all to see. We are Mentors here to help, not babysitters. Neither do we have the garden with problems at our fingertips or within our control. It is entirely up to the GROWER to be the FARMER in charge of their crop.
The best suggestion I could ever give to any grower is this... "Start with patience".
Burn1

 

[Microbeman]

Granger; Note that Sadhu said his plants became locked out but gave no further indication of what his problem is. He stated that he measured his soil pH but when I asked him how he measured it he did not say. He has not given enough details for anyone to help him.

He has even apparently stopped posting so it is only you continuing the discussion.

Therefore how could he be helped out?

I can 'feel' that you may see ridicule where there should be advice and empathy but there is a responsibility for the person asking questions to provide sufficient information. I am in no way besmearching Sadhu. I say the same to any and all. Perhaps he will yet come forth with some answers.

 

[Granger2]

Yes he does seem to have disappeared. I'm done with this. -granger

 

[Sadhu Sciences]

Hey guys, thanks for your support and responses. I have been away from the electronics for a second. I have done some research and found my soil from my source to be completely jacked up. For pH testing, I only use it in times of experimentation. Wow, I didnt know I had to check my account every couple hours otherwise I would be out of a response .


This is the issue I am having. It IS causing a ph issue in the plants at this specific location.. This is my dilemma in the first place. What I was looking for was a collective answer on how to raise the pH, or if that is even the issue in the first place? I was adding the tea at 3.5 range. It was causing ph issue FOR SURE. I have figured it out btw. So if you guys would like to know I am open to explaining if you guys are still open to the convo. PEACE