I wanted to comment about the pH. Citric acid is an awesome pH down. It is more stable in the pots as well. This allows for a more sustained affect. It’s cheap, and it’s potent. It doesn’t take much to get the job done.
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Thank you for the tip @Budbrother, I will pick some up for my next grow. Is there a similar product that can be used for pH up? I have heard of using products like baking soda, or even pH up and down for swimming pools. but not knowing if it will work right I don’t want to risk it.
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I use these:
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That is exactly what I’m currently using. Only complaint I have is the pH up is week and you need a lot of it.
My first nutrient line was general organics. I have nothing slightly good to say about them. pH would be in the 4.5 range, and it took a coffee cup of pH up to get it right.
Gen organics is part of gen hydro, which is owned by harthorne, which is owned by Scott miracle grow.
After getting on jacks 321 I believe we can get most of what we need to grow successfully at a much lower cost.
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Baking soda, sodium bicarbonate, adds salt to the pots. That’s not a good thing.
Adding calcium carbonate to a low pH, the acidity dissolves the Ca, raising the pH. It takes a few minutes, so you have to add, wait, measure, add more, wait…
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Thanks again @Budbrother I will be getting some once my gh pH up and down runs low. And thanks for letting me know that it adjusts a bit slower. Is the citric acid slow to adjust as well?
One of the things I’m liking most about the jacks I’m using is that in flower I had to add little or often no pH adjust at all. In veg my notes show I was coming in around 6.1
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Day 59 of flower. I’ve been checking the buds with the trichrome microscope every single day. Seeing just a little Amber at the top buds but not 10 to 20% yet. Could be any day now!
In some areas I’m seeing a little bit of purple color, and liking my last row I have this interesting blue and purple colors on the stem part of the trichromes that I think are from the IR and UV that my light has. I wish I could show you guys pictures.
As it’s getting warmer around here I was dealing with some high temperatures in the tent this weekend. I had to open up the top half of it and add a fan to let more cooler air in. I think my high temperatures were around 83 and 84. Is that high enough to damage the trichromes and terps?
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It dissolves rapidly. It depends on the pH meter that you use, as to how long to get accurate readings. @Mote and I were just discussing this. My meter takes seconds, but his meter takes longer.
Those temps don’t reflect the actual leaf temps. Blackdog studies have shown that the ambient temps can be much higher than the actual leaf temps. Although the more volatile terps start to evaporate off at temps above 80F; ambient temps can be 5-8 degrees higher without any loss of the terps.
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What up guys!
Your girls are as always, looking fantastic @DB_Cooper 
I switched to citric acid (the exact one Brother linked a few posts back) a few grows ago.
Works fine with Jacks, my apera meter might be getting old after years of constant usage but bottom line is the citric acid is a nice alternative to ph down, the fact that its Food Grade non GMO approved for Organic Food is just an added and welcomed bonus.
Obviously your water and mine here in NY will be somewhat different but that aside it does what its supposed to.
The other big game changer I used in conjunction w jacks was Powdered Silica (AGSIL 16H) from
Build a Soil, $20.00 direct & free shipping. Silica blast pales by comparison and I’m being kind.
I did a PPM comparison reading w both using 1/8 - 1/4 tsp/gal powder and the recommended dosage on the silica blast bottle and the readings/differences were glaring in favor of AGSIL. I immediately dumped the remaining blast in my water along w the jacks and never looked back.
The other thing I added to the cauldron from Build a Soil was Coconut Powder.
These last two components significantly ramped up Trich production.
Happy growing dude and enjoy your summer 
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Thats some beautiful girls man. You are killing it
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Hello @Mote and welcome back to the forum! I will look into that silica. I was interested in getting away from as much liquid nutrients as I can. With just a single 2x4 tent I don’t know if liquid products will have enough shelf life.
What does the coconut powder do for you?
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Thanks DB
Getting away from liquids is just a good idea for so many reasons. We all started on that road when we switched to jacks, so the Citric Acid and powder silica are merely a continuation of that journey.
Its also much more economical on the ol wallet.
It does all sorts of crazy chit 
lets tag @Budbrother he’s much more eloquent & knowledgeable with the coconut powder aka Cnut as he calls it.
When I first introduced these three into the mix I noticed that my buds after harvest/cure
left tangible “Bud Dust” (like sawdust but trichs lol) on whatever surface you broke em up.
To the point where I first thought it was the genetics of a particular strain, Hindu Kush comes to mind.
But I started noticing that same phenomena w all the strains and that had not happened when I was on jacks exclusively.
Your girls are as always frosty as heck so it will be interesting to see them if and when you start using these amendments 
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Wow that’s some serious knowledge that just got dropped! Thanks guys
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So I have a problem with a couple small spruce trees in my front yard. They’ve been looking not so good for about a year. I started putting some of my flower runoff into them to try to help them…well it only made things worse.
If anyone knows much about regular gardening, please advise me how to save them.
Looks like you likely have bagworms.
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That’s Brother’s knowledge for which I am grateful, not as cheap as the two other components but worth it imo.
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I’ve seen that a lot but not something I’ve had to deal with.
How about starting off w a slurry test just to see what your soil’s got going on?!
Also how long has this been going on for?
Good luck with it DB
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After reading the article, I got home and thoroughly inspected both spruce trees and neither one have any of those bagworms or any type of similar pest on them.
Thank you for the quick reply newt.
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As for my other plants, they have received their last watering today. Thought long and hard about chopping them during today’s tric inspection. I will chop most likely tomorrow, possibly on Friday.
I was thinking about turning the lights off to do the 48 hours of darkness. I decided against it this time. I did do it on my last grow.
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