dodgy ph pen?

[tink]

this ph pen cost 40$ but i think it is dodgy here 2 3 week old plants watered with just ph6.5 water,the one is looking very sad and the outher isnt looking to good iether

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could you recomend a good ph pen upto 100$,and what can i do till i get a new pen to pull these 2 plants back?

[sttony]

Can you calibrate that pen?

I have went through a few pH meters and my advise would be to get the best meter you can afford and then treat it like the scientific instrument that it is. With regular cleaning and calibrations it will outlast and out perform the cheaper pH pens.


On your plants

What is your soil?
How often do you water?
Do you spray them with water?
Have you tried foliar feeding them?


:)

[tink]

i give them there first water when they are 7 days old so the roots will grow through the whole pot,then i water them every 3-4 days after that.
they are in compost /perlight,i dont foilerfeed as i always seem to burn the leaves.
i noticed a day after i watered them that the leaves were drooping and the leaves starting to lighten,so i thought ph strait away but i had watered with ph,ed water6.5.
i took the ph pen and calbrated it to the 6.86 solution and rewatered with ph,ed water again but no improvment,which is why i think the ph pen is dodgy.
the compost is for bonsi plants,its all i can get around here it has time release nutes in it i think.

[sttony]

I dont foilerfeed as I always seem to burn the leaves.

The trick to foliar feeding is to do it once (maybe twice) a week with 1/4 strength nutes (6.8 pH) and the days in between spray them down with plain (6.8 pH) water to wash away the nutes and to increase the moisture levels around the plants.

Your plants problems are probably related to the compost / perlight mix. Maybe if you can mix some dolomite lime (1/4 -1/2 tsp, don't over do it) into the planter to bring the pH up. With using just compost and perlight the plants can't get to the food because the pH is wrong, they like it around 6.8 -7. The pH in that mix is very low and by adding dolomite lime it will come up.

Hope that helps :)

[Zandor]

First compost is not soil and is not a proper grow medium. Compost is an amendment for soil to replace minerals that the plant has used up. Your burn is from the compost. This plant needs a balanced NPK to grow well at all and compost is NOT a balanced NPK just so you know.

From what I see in your pictures is a plant that is starving for basic nutrient's

Peace

Z


i give them there first water when they are 7 days old so the roots will grow through the whole pot,then i water them every 3-4 days after that.
they are in compost /perlight,i dont foilerfeed as i always seem to burn the leaves.
i noticed a day after i watered them that the leaves were drooping and the leaves starting to lighten,so i thought ph strait away but i had watered with ph,ed water6.5.
i took the ph pen and calbrated it to the 6.86 solution and rewatered with ph,ed water again but no improvment,which is why i think the ph pen is dodgy.
the compost is for bonsi plants,its all i can get around here it has time release nutes in it i think.

[tink]

thanx for answering zandor :)
about the only thing i can do is to mix soil from my garden with compost and perlite,i have just dug over my garden ready for planting.
it hasnt been turned over before and the soil looks quite nice and crumbaly,what would be a good ratio with soil,compost,perlite?

[latewood]

What Z said. they looked a bit over watered, and starved for nutes. Good Luck tink, oh yeah. You might want to repot in fresh soil, adding 3 parts soil to the compost you are already using bro :)

[tink]

ok repoted to 6 inch diamater pots with 50%soil,20%compost,30%perlite also gave them a foiler feed of mother earth tea grow did this about an hour ago.
i think they are looking a bit better already top cola is reaching for the light instead of just drooping.
lets see how they do ;)

[Steeldiehard]

Looking forward to seeing how the change affects the plants! :)

Steel

[tink]

ok for those interested here is an update on those 2 sick plants,this is 4 days after i repoted them they are 27 days old.
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thanx for all the help guys especialy zandor :)
as you can see they are a far cry from what they were 4 days ago.
they get a foiler feed once a day and a clear water spray once a day.