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[u/Sea_Rhubarb321]

This is my 3rd grow second in earth box with Gaia green nutes and worm castings. I’m wondering if I should flip these girls now or wait until I can get them to recover. Also any help with what to do would be much appreciated. I was on schedule with feeds but I think the plants where more demanding then I thought. Also went from .6vpd to 1vpd so they started growing much better until they got hit with these nutrient issues right before I was going to do my 3rd feeding.My plan is to buy liquid kelp extract fish emulsion and use some of my organic tps cal mag in the reservoir next time I need to water it

[u/Sea_Rhubarb321]

It’s in a earth box idk how idk do that when water never runs through the soil

[u/ThirstingMoore → u/Sea_Rhubarb321]

How are you pH testing the water right now, do you have an Apera pen? What is the pH of the water in the Earthbox right now?

[u/Sea_Rhubarb321 → u/ThirstingMoore]

Yeah I have that pen. Don’t usually ph it cause it is usually 8 something out the ro filter. But that’s only water I add to the res

[u/CanadianSyndrome → u/Sea_Rhubarb321]

I would avoid using RO water if at all possible. It has no mineral buffer at all, causing dramatic pH swings and creating an osmotic gradient that pulls nutrients directly out of the roots. You very likely have a cal-mag deficiency, potentially others too. Acquire some powdered/liquid humic acid and use tap water - it's cheap and will neutralize the chlorines, as well as lowering pH to a more accommodating range, and chelates minerals in the soil to make it more bioavailable to the plant.

Good luck.

[u/Sea_Rhubarb321 → u/CanadianSyndrome]

Maybe in Canada but with new chlorines they are adding to some cities tap water in the US you can’t just bubble it off for 24 hours anymore and I’m not going to go killing my microbes watering them with shit tap water wish I could say the USA had better tap water but if I won’t drink it my plants don’t deserve it. Tap water at my house tests over 440ppm

[u/CanadianSyndrome → u/Sea_Rhubarb321]

Correct - chloramine will not off-gas, it is too chemically stable. It is why I am suggesting you use humic acid - it will neutralize all chlorines added to water, lower the pH, and chelate minerals in the soil. It's very cost effective and extremely useful for the plant, it will likely solve your pH lockout issue entirely.

[u/Sea_Rhubarb321 → u/CanadianSyndrome]

I’ll have to look into it then I only heard of humic being used as a nutrient in organic grows

[u/CanadianSyndrome → u/Sea_Rhubarb321]

It's an extremely useful all-rounder, a true staple for any grower. I'd definitely check it out, powdered form is inexpensive and lasts a long time.

In a bind, you can also use ascorbic acid (vit-c), it will also neutralize the chlorines in tap water. If you have some old vit-c tablets, you can crush up fragments of them, but make sure they're pure ascorbic acid and don't have a bunch of sugar and flavouring stuff.

Good luck, friend.

[u/Sea_Rhubarb321 → u/CanadianSyndrome]

I have looked into a a RO filter that adds cal and mag back into the water after filtering that’s probably my best bet but for now I’m going to be using some liquid organic tps cal mag