I need help, I can't figure this one out!

cbcool · Aug 7, 2016

Hey slow, thanks for the reply, that's going to be a lot of milk for 46 plant! But that's better then them dying.

I have no idea what process they are using, I could probably call and find out though.

I did top dress with gypsum a couple of weeks ago, but should I make a solution and water with that?

I'll look into spectrum for a new soil test, thanks again for the help.

slownickel · Aug 7, 2016

slownickel · Aug 7, 2016

pH

pH

cbcool said:
Well I just took the readings from five of my holes, makes a bit more sense why I'm seeing issues, I was on the verge of a serious lockout.

Soil pH readings
Plant pictured above - pH 7.74
Three random holes - pH 7.62, 7.51, 7.78
Flowering not top dressed w/gyp- pH 7.68

I don't think gypsum caused any harm because the plant w/out gypsum is high as well!? I'm unsure what I did or didn't do that caused a rise in the soil pH, I thought for sure they'd be low.

I don't want to start adding a bunch of stuff and cause a drastic pH swing, but leaving it as is wouldn't be good either. My only thought is to pH my water lower to 6-6.2 in hopes that it will temporarily balance out the soil and ride it out for the rest of the season!?

Does anyone have thoughts or input on what would be the best course of action at this point?

Thank you everyone for the help thus far, I do appreciate it.

Realize what pH means. When it goes up, this means that the soil cannot bind all the elements present.

Adding any hydroxides will spike the pH as will nitrates.

The bank if full and the money is falling out the doors...

slownickel · Aug 7, 2016

Nitrogen low?

Nitrogen low?

corky1968 said:
The main thing to do is reduce your pH from 7.6 to around a pH 6.2 - 6.6

The only nutrient you really need is a little nitrogen so don't add too much.

Everything else is supplied in more than enough quantities for now.

On the right side of the test is a bunch of stars. Above that it shows LOW-AVE-HIGH.
So anything AVE to HIGH is plenty supplied. In other words, you have very good soil.
AVE = Average.

Like I mentioned above your pH has to be dropped a bit.

Otherwise you have it pretty easy.

Corky,

Having 290 ppm of nitrogen is super high. NOT LOW. Sorry.

FoothillFarming · Aug 7, 2016

Yea, I knew there was a problem with the 7+ ph. Mix that with high sulfur and that's a sticky problem. I totally passed over the salts also, yea, 2.2 is very high. The highest I like my soil at is .7, and .5 is where most like to be.

Slownickels advice makes all the sense in the world. That is the difference between a pot head and a professional.

SlowNickels how would you recommend applying the milk? At least 5 gallons a container, lets say 10..... 460 gallons of milk is hard to come by. Do you have a source? Dry milk better? That sounds crazy impossible to me, did I miss something? Enlighten me please.

cbcool · Aug 7, 2016

I need more detailed information to figure out whats going on, so on slownickels recommendation I'll be getting a new soil test and water analysis from Spectrum, and see if I can get a tissue test from Colorado lab.

This whole thread, should if anything, state the importance of knowing whats in your soil instead of going in blind and hope it works out. At the very least all of these ups, downs, and pitfalls have been teaching me a lot, should make for a stronger start next season.

Thanks everyone, corky, FF, and Slownickel, for all your help it's been a learning experience for sure, I appreciate it!!!

I'm going to try to get the samples out in the next day or two, I'll let everyone know as it progresses.

FoothillFarming · Aug 7, 2016

I wanted to also get the chance to say nothing is out of hand here. When talking soil results we tend to get out of hand with what should and shouldn't be. Lets not freak out, but everybody's advice will only help your crop get even better. You plants look great, just have a few problems. Keep the chin up. If I showed you some of my old soil results you would think I was growing bammer, yet I had some really good crops.

cbcool · Aug 8, 2016

Thanks FF, it's has had me a bit stressed the past few days! Now I just don't know how to proceed till I get new tests? I guess just pH'd water only would probably be the best.

slownickel · Aug 8, 2016

Or use phosphoric acid instead...

cbcool · Aug 8, 2016

I've been using citric acid to pH, I guess phosphoric acid would add the missing P I need, but doesn't phosphoric kill microbial live? Then again with the salt build up there's probably not much biological activity going on in there anyway I would assume?

slownickel · Aug 8, 2016

To get yields, you need high K, Ca and P. If you are willing to tolerate lower yields, you will be happy with lower K and P, and have extra quality, there you will have great biology in the soil.

But once you are over 100 ppm of P, forget about the microbes. At a conductivity over 1.1 or so, forget microbiology for P uptake. With nitrates over 20 ppm, forget about microbiology. Get my point?

cbcool · Aug 8, 2016

*spinning head* it makes sense but it doesn't make, if I even make sense. So screw the soil biology for now cause my elements are out of whack rand the salt build up is high right? Then get new tests to find out what's really in the soil and how it's occurring to know how to eliminate the salts and give the plants what they need (P,K,Ca) to finish strong, correct?

cbcool · Aug 8, 2016

When you say high what would be considered high for P,K,Ca?

slownickel · Aug 8, 2016

Anything over 40 or 50 ppm of P is going to kill your Arbuscular mycorrhiza.

cbcool · Aug 8, 2016

So my P is high and my K is super high!?

slownickel · Aug 8, 2016

No. Your potassium is high and you need P to catch up to it.

With your conductivity, ain't much use worrying about the microbes unless you be selling microbes....

cbcool · Aug 8, 2016

slownickel said:
No. Your potassium is high and you need P to catch up to it.

With your conductivity, ain't much use worrying about the microbes unless you be selling microbes....

Lol, that's more inline with what I've been questioning in the thread, K should equal P. And the microbes, that's inline with most current marketing strategies, a lot of fluff. :peacock:

corky1968 · Aug 8, 2016

cbcool said:
I've been using citric acid to pH, I guess phosphoric acid would add the missing P I need, but doesn't phosphoric kill microbial live? Then again with the salt build up there's probably not much biological activity going on in there anyway I would assume?

Phosphoric acid would not kill anything if the amounts used didn't change the pH too rapidly
and the pH stayed within the range of the bacteria's or other life form living range.

Fast pH changes are stressful to everything. So go slow.

cbcool · Aug 8, 2016

Correct me if I'm wrong, but until I know how the elements occur in the soil, adding anything new could potentially create a greater salt build up and make things worse, right?

slownickel · Aug 8, 2016

CB,

What is the pH of your water?

Add phosphoric acid very slowly to your water and take it to pH of 6.3 to 6.4, tell us how much does it take to get there per gallon. Ideally you would calculate everything in ml, grams and liters. The math is a zillion times easier....

Drench it through the whole pot.

I need help, I can't figure this one out!

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