Hi!
So I was going to do 3 separate threads for my issues but I figured the info from one thread was important for diagnosis of issues in another thread. Anyway, I’m a first time grower looking for some help here so would really appreciate your patience. Thanks all!
Until now I have always had to use PH down or vinegar to lower ph of water since my City water is high ph. I started using nutes a few weeks ago and I just assumed if I brought the water ph down to 7 and then added the nutes (half dose) then I would be fine. I got a ph tester and realized I was giving plants way too low ph soliton. So, now I add the nutes to water (after sitting water out for 48 hours) and then ad PH up. My question is how much PH up is too much? I read places that only a few drops are needed, however, I find myself needing 15 ML per gallon to raise the ph of the solution from 5-5.5 (after nutes) to 6.5. I’m using General Hydroponics PH Up. Is adding 15 ml too much? Seems like I’m adding a lot of this solution… also, is there an alternative ph up that I could use to raise the ph of my solution to the 6.5 range?
In a related issue, 2 of my plants are starting to turn lime green… I’ve been adding 1/4 to 1/2 strength fox farm bloom nutes (not also adding some “grow” during first 2-5 weeks of flower as is recommended by fox farm. Should I also be adding grow and this is a nitrogen deficiency on the line green plants? For the one plant with a few random discolored leaves I’m not sure what the issue is here. Keep in mind that I had MAJOR PH issues (too low) and nutrient lockout during the first 1-2 weeks of flower. I did a heavy flush one week worth with straight water (lots) and one flush with FF sledgehammer. This got my ph runoff to 6.5 when feeding with a 6.5 1/4-1/2 strength bloom solution with 1/4 teaspoon Beastie Bloom. I’ve fed this solution for last 2 weeks. They don’t seem to be getting more like green but they aren’t getting darker. I’m in week 5-6 of flower and I’m a first time grower. Any tips here will be greatly appreciated!
1 more thing… I was gonna leave this off to not complicate things but on the 1 plant that isn’t lime green but has recently had some odd colored leaves (random ones here and there,) in trying to normalize ph (raise it) I added a couple tablespoons of Dolamite lime to the top inch or two of soil (mixed it in.) This helped to normalize my ph runoff but I’m wondering if this is causing a few leaves to yellow… I only did this to 1 of the 3 plants. I also have 4 larger plants in the basement using a totally diff set up and they don’t have this lime coloration (well 2 of them do have a little lime coloring.) I did several different set-ups because this is my first time and I wanted to try all sorts of diff things… I also had some plants that started outside so they were in a diff stage so I needed to put them in a separate bigger tent (per advice of someone on this site.) I have 6 different strains. The 3 in the pic below with issues are Bubblegum, AK, and White Widdow.
Last thing… if the leaves continue to yellow, how soon am I allowed to remove the buds and dry them? In an attempt to salvage in case things start getting worse, since I have some buds that have developed could I harvest soon if needed? Thanks all for your patience!!
You need to be using Cal Mag and some supplemental N: bloom nutes won’t help with either. As @merlin44 asked: what are you using to determine the PH and if so how do you calibrate same? If you do not have a TDS meter it’s time to invest $15 and get one as well.
Everyone has you headed in the right direction, knowing the #s is critical! As far as harvesting some, you can do it anytime you want but the final product will suffer, unless you wait until she is ready. You know when by the overall look of the plant and Trichome color which you will need a magnifier of some sort to check!
Awesome thanks for the help. I have 2 PH meters (bought another cause I didn’t trust the first one.) I use them both and they are usually within .10 of each other. I calibrated them again with 3 diff solutions last weekend. To determine ph of the water I am using the ph meters. I also do a lot of aquarium stuff so I have ph test strips and ph liquid solution… prob w them is they are color based and nute color messes with it. I also test the ph of the soil by digging down 4 inches and taking a couple samples, adding them to equal parts distilled water, stir vigorously, wait 30 mins, then test, then test again after sifting solution through coffee filter (both ways give me similar results.) Soil reading is currently 6.3-6.5. I do have an EDS meter and while at one point a month ago my runoff readings were like 1500 when using straight city water lol. now they are 800 when using 750 solution. I’m also wondering how long it takes for plants color to come back when they turn lime green, if at all… I know if they turn straight yellow they won’t ever come back. The reason I want to know is because when I screwed up a month or so back and was giving crazy low ph solution w heavy nutes, and then I did a heavy flush if either, a.) my plants were actually doing fine, just still reviving but I thought they weren’t so I over-did it or B.) when I did the heavy flush, I have been too afraid to re-introduce higher levels of nutes and therefore my plants are in need of nutes. I’ve been using 1 teaspoon per gallon of the Bloom and 3-4 teaspoons of Big Bloom (their micro) and 1/4 teaspoon of Beastie Blooms. I just ordered a jug of Cal Mag. Hope that helps. Also, if I spray (foliar) 1/4 of a plant (2-3 colas and leaves) will just that 1/4 of the plant receive the nutes? Or are they fully mobile like w root uptake and will distribute to rest of plant? I’m thinking Of doing some trial and errror w a few solutions foliar feed. So, I guess I have 3 new questions lol…if anyone can answer these 3 I would be super grateful!
Also, other notes in case it helps… humidity is at 40-50%, had some light damage so moved up to 18 inches, and I water once a week… wait for the pot to dry out completely and then water until 10% runs off.
Thanks for the reply. I just ordered some Cal Mag. What should I use for more N? Can I just use some “Grow Big?” I also have Holy Maceral by Fox Farm. Also, Rather than type it all again I just replied to other post re ph readings. If you are able to answer any of the 3 questions that I just typed in other reply That would be awesome. (I.e. how long does it take color to bounce back after giving proper nutes? Question I had about foliar feeding and mobility of nutes, and question from OP about how much PH Up should raise 1 gal of water ph by 1 ph and if too much PH Up is harmful.) a lot of those questions I have are me trying to find out if my issue is nute lock-out again preventing uptake of N or is lack of N in soil/solution. Know if an easy way to find out?
I feel so dumb… this whole time I have been measuring only TDS and PH of tap, mixed solution and runoff… I just I thought EC was just another way of measuring TDS. I just measured my tap before and after adding nutes. The TDS was 140 before adding cal Mag and 440 after adding cal Mag; my EC was 260 micro s/cm before adding cal Mag and 960 micro s/cm. I read online that the EC should be between 1.5-2.5 but I think they are referring to ms/cm instead of micro s/cm (I can’t find how to use the micro symbol.) anyway, if that’s true then my EC after adding cal mag is still 4 x higher than it should be right? Or is micro 1000 m? Or 100 x m? I can look that up… bigger question is a tap of 260 micro s /cm too high? And if so, how do I bring it down? Also, if me only adding a light cal Mag solution brings it up to 960 EC (and 440 tds) then how am I ever gonna get it below 2.5 EC? I was hoping to not have to purchase a RO thing and just continue using tap w adjustments made to the water… any input here would be very helpful!
After adding the cal mag your EC is .96. You need to move the decimal 3 spots to the left. It will take you 500ppm to get to 1 EC, 1000ppm to get to 2 EC, etc.
Ok great. Thanks! Someone in another forum had mentioned that since I’ve been giving sufficient nutes, maybe I have something that he had which is Ca toxicity in his tap water which caused his plant to not uptake Ca and therefore he had to amend it. Do you think my EC and Ppm that I shared earlier of my tap water is too high? Do I need to invest in an RO machine?
Oh no not at all. My tap is 250ppm and have never had an issue with it even when adding calmag to it. You have to almost deliberately overload a plant with calcium to give it a calcium tox.
