Can you help saving a rare pheno??!

[Tictok]

Hey GR420

Been away for a while and after some successful grows I've run into some problems.

These two are clones from a rare NL5 pheno that pre-dates the Sensi offering. They are all that's left, so if I lose them thats it for this pheno (its a mad frosty pheno I don't want to lose).

Organic Bio Terra soil/ bio canna nutes.

My water is tap that gets the PH lowered to 6.5 and some Bioysis water treatment to get rid of the chlorine and chloromine. I test ph with an old school test tube, ph drops and the colour chart. Always worked well.

Until.....a more experience grower mate said I needed a ph pen instead of colours on a chart. Bought two of those yellow cheap ones, calibrated them and the results totally different to my testing, suggesting my method was too acidic. Watered a couple of times at 6.3 as per the pen (my ph drops said it was too alkali) and its screwed things up.

I also possibly over watered repotting to the finals a bit early.

So growth has stopped dead for a couple of weeks, clawing like a tiger and generally not happy. I should have stuck with my PH method.

The one on the left has been flushed with 5l of correctly PH'd water, the one on the right has not, just let dry a bit and added 250ml of properly PH'd water.

But what to do now?
Leave them to totally dry out and water just a little?
Flush the one on the right (didn't seem to make any difference though?)
Feed them a little (I'm thinking not).
The tops have started to lighten a bit but I cannot tell if this is growth or the start of lockout.

I'm desperate not to lose this cut, so any advice would be much appreciated.

[2-Scoops]

Organic Bio Terra soil/ bio canna nutes.

My water is tap that gets the PH lowered to 6.5 and some Bioysis water treatment to get rid of the chlorine and chloromine. I test ph with an old school test tube, ph drops and the colour chart. Always worked well.

Until.....a more experience grower mate said I needed a ph pen instead of colours on a chart.

A more experienced grower would tell you that there's no need to pH your water when growing in organic soil.

[Tictok]

Organic Bio Terra soil/ bio canna nutes.

My water is tap that gets the PH lowered to 6.5 and some Bioysis water treatment to get rid of the chlorine and chloromine. I test ph with an old school test tube, ph drops and the colour chart. Always worked well.

Until.....a more experience grower mate said I needed a ph pen instead of colours on a chart.

A more experienced grower would tell you that there's no need to pH your water when growing in organic soil.

Thanks Aspie, he is definitely more experienced than me, but in hindsight, I agree with you.

Untreated my tap water measures 8.5, is that not a bit high or will the soil buffer even that?

[Marcus]

They look overwatered to me. Might be hungry too.

Ph your feeds in soil won;t hurt but you;re just slinging diluted acid or alkali at the plants. I use organic apple cider vinegar if needed. BUt I find it's not needed.

I;d let them dry out and up the ferts next watering. How much are you feeding them now BTW?

Oh and are you ph-ing your final feed mix?

[Tictok]

They look overwatered to me. Might be hungry too.

Ph your feeds in soil won;t hurt but you;re just slinging diluted acid or alkali at the plants. I use organic apple cider vinegar if needed. BUt I find it's not needed.

I;d let them dry out and up the ferts next watering. How much are you feeding them now BTW?

Oh and are you ph-ing your final feed mix?

Thanks Marcus, I suspect the overwatering may be the main culprit. They haven't had nutes for a while as initially when the problem started they were very very dark green. My guts were telling me to dry them out fully then water with some nutes. The nutes didn't seem to change the PH.

So a total dry out followed by light watering with some nutes. Confirmed what I was thinking. Cheers dude.

[FX]

I test ph with an old school test tube, ph drops and the colour chart. Always worked well.

I love my gadgets but only if they help me, unless you buy a super expensive pH tester and get it regularly calibrated, it's accuracy is never going to match that of a basic chemical reaction with drops or pH paper.

[Tictok]

This is why I want to keep them....they are cuts from this beauty, currently 4 weeks into an 8 week cure before they are touched..

[Marcus]

They look overwatered to me. Might be hungry too.

Ph your feeds in soil won;t hurt but you;re just slinging diluted acid or alkali at the plants. I use organic apple cider vinegar if needed. BUt I find it's not needed.

I;d let them dry out and up the ferts next watering. How much are you feeding them now BTW?

Oh and are you ph-ing your final feed mix?

Thanks Marcus, I suspect the overwatering may be the main culprit. They haven't had nutes for a while as initially when the problem started they were very very dark green. My guts were telling me to dry them out fully then water with some nutes. The nutes didn't seem to change the PH.

So a total dry out followed by light watering with some nutes. Confirmed what I was thinking. Cheers dude.

Are they in veg still? They've just stalled, let them dry and thenn give them a feed and they SHOULD be sound.

If you don;t want to lose the pheno/geno (whatever they;re being called this week) then take a load of cuts.

The Captain has an idiot's guide to taking cuts on here somewhere.

And what Fibro said... The litmus test will beat any cheap ph pen all day long.

Unless you're colourblind I suppose.

Good luck anyway Tocketh McTicketh.

And where you been?

[Tictok]

They look overwatered to me. Might be hungry too.

Ph your feeds in soil won;t hurt but you;re just slinging diluted acid or alkali at the plants. I use organic apple cider vinegar if needed. BUt I find it's not needed.

I;d let them dry out and up the ferts next watering. How much are you feeding them now BTW?

Oh and are you ph-ing your final feed mix?

Thanks Marcus, I suspect the overwatering may be the main culprit. They haven't had nutes for a while as initially when the problem started they were very very dark green. My guts were telling me to dry them out fully then water with some nutes. The nutes didn't seem to change the PH.

So a total dry out followed by light watering with some nutes. Confirmed what I was thinking. Cheers dude.

Are they in veg still? They've just stalled, let them dry and thenn give them a feed and they SHOULD be sound.

If you don;t want to lose the pheno/geno (whatever they;re being called this week) then take a load of cuts.

The Captain has an idiot's guide to taking cuts on here somewhere.

And what Fibro said... The litmus test will beat any cheap ph pen all day long.

Unless you're colourblind I suppose.

Good luck anyway Tocketh McTicketh.

And where you been?

Yes, still in veg and I wondered about taking cuts in this state, grand idea.

I only use Captain's method for cuts, it's genius. It was how these were taken when I grew the mother (pic above).

I went dark for a while on the Interweb, just concentrating on growing and working stupid hours. I lost track of what a great community it is on here, I'll have to post some pics (Bodhi's More Cowbell, Top Shelf Elite Black Valium and Humboldt SO Sugar Breath have been amazing).

This NL5 is a selected cut, bred from seed obtained from Indians from an island off Seattle. The breeder rekons the pheno I found is non typical frosty, cannotbwait to try it at 8 week cure. Good to be back bro.

[Tictok]

Organic Bio Terra soil/ bio canna nutes.

My water is tap that gets the PH lowered to 6.5 and some Bioysis water treatment to get rid of the chlorine and chloromine. I test ph with an old school test tube, ph drops and the colour chart. Always worked well.

Until.....a more experience grower mate said I needed a ph pen instead of colours on a chart.

A more experienced grower would tell you that there's no need to pH your water when growing in organic soil.

Thanks Aspie, he is definitely more experienced than me, but in hindsight, I agree with you.

Untreated my tap water measures 8.5, is that not a bit high or will the soil buffer even that?

It is a tad on the high side, but the microbes should be able to buffer it okay.
Can you collect rain water at all? That is slightly acidic and may be better for you.