Thank you everyone in this thread for sharing your thoughts and experience with me.
After reading, thinking, and overthinking. I think I am going to ride it out and just observe how the plant behaves since I am relatively close to the finish line. Since this is my first plant I want to avoid making any drastic changes and keep things as simple as possible to see how the plant grows naturally. I didnt train the plant or adjust the lighting too much to avoid stressing or stunting the plant. I did have to supercrop or bend the top of the stem as it was reaching the top of the tent when it started stretching a few weeks ago.
@Docnraq Thanks for this info, I definitely under watered the plant at some points as I didnât realize it would drink so much as it got bigger. The past few weeks I started going off of weight and watering about 4-5 liters or until I see some run off that I let the pot absorb or I dump out if its too much.
Can you explain why I need at least 350ppm distilled water in this situation instead of my usual hard chlorinated tap water?
The pot is also pretty light today and I think I am going to water with 6PH water, then measure the run off and hopefully try to bring the soil PH down. I could also mix in some of that rusty water that bud brother recommended. What do you think?
Tell me you are filtering it at least? I may be biased but I live in PHX,AZ and our tap water is around 400-425ppm tds and heavily chlorinated and floridated. Along with other various chemicals and metals. My 1st question is are you sure its chlorine and not chloramine? Either way you want it gone from your water before giving it to your ladies. One is harder to remove then the other.
I use RO because it is essentially a blank slate. Your plants arent at the mercy of whatever the state or county decides is âcleanâ water. It does mean I will need to compensate via minerals and salts (fertilizer). Water, devoid of any dissolved solids, is considered ph unstable so you have to add calmag, or epsom to get the tds up so the ph will hold. If not, instead of adjusting soil ph, it will adopt soil ph.
You can use your tap water if you are sure about whats in it, lots of people do. Im sure I just assumed you were not using tap for whatever reason..I smoke alot of weed.
I think if @Budbrother recommends it, its a good idea.
Thanks for this info Doc, I am giving the water to her raw and unfiltered. I wanted to see how the plant would do with my tap water just PHâd down. I will definitely look into getting rid of or avoiding chloramine for my future plants though.
Last night I also got a TDS meter and watered my plant with 6PH / ~200ppm water and measured my run off at 7PH and ~1000ppm. So I assume that means there are nutrients in the soil but the PH is too high and the plant cant absorb them properly.
I refuse to drink my tap water, gives me the trotts anyhow. I know that stuff aint no good for my plants.
Thats good. You can get a water report from the county that will tell you exactly or next to it, just what is in your water. This can help you decide if and how far you want to go in cleaning it up. Which will then have you figuring out how to achieve that. If I can help, let me know.
Yes. However, with a tds of just about 1000 its not a ton of nutrient thats avail. I think this might be part of the issue. Your soil is essentially depleted of nutrient. Nutrient will drag ph down. You have a little but not much and your soil buffers you to 7ph (neutral). I saw it was suggested to flush and I dissagree. Ive never seen anyone flush soil to bring the soil ph down. Only to bring it up.
How many weeks in flower are you? You may need to feed this plant if you want her to make the end. The nutes you gave arent gonna be available soon enough so a liquid readily available option may be in order. If your tap comes out at 9.5phâŚ
Thanks for this info Doc, I guess I am seeing mixed info on the internet suggesting flushing to âresetâ the PH back down, then add liquid nutes to compensate. Maybe this only applies to coco and not living soil that buffers PH?
Should my PPM be closer to 2000? At this point if I just add FF Trio liquid 284 bloom nutrients would that help drag the PH lower or will this require the PerfectPH nutrient due to lockout / PH buffering up?
No with roughly two weeks left Id just keep giving her clean water (tds 300-350) 6.2ph. Its fine if she cannabalizes every leaf on her at this point in the run. The good news is that there is very little you could do right now to not have this plant finish.
Lemon juice and vinegar have no staying power. Citric acid or sulfuric acid will sustain down better over time. How long are you waiting to water after you pH it? This could be partly the issue.
With your high input source, you need to add then wait 30 mins for it to dissolve the solids. What starts at 6.5 will become higher as it dissolves the Ca making pH increase. Youâll have to keep adding and waiting until it stabilizes out at 6.5-7. Keep track on how much you used to get it there to make the future dosing easier to start.
Good luck flushing organics. Itâs not usually recommended. They arenât salts and donât flush, without enzymes added. The enzymes dissolve the organics to make available and help push their excess out.
My situation: My source pH starts out 7.5 range. I add citric acid to it and that brings it down to ~5.5 area. Then over several hrs itâs stable at ~6.7.
Thanks for this info. I was reading about lemon juice and PH drift last night. I did a test this morning after I saw your comment. I lowered the water PH to 5.6 using the same lemon juice and I also have a control measuring at 9.6PH. After a couple hours the PH hasnât changed on either of them but I will continue to wait and take measurements to see if anything changes
Thanks Doc, do you have any opinions on using peroxide to treat chloramines? I was reading this thread where it was recommended to use 1 tsp/5 gallon. Another person states Vitamin C can neutralize chlorine and chloramines
I also found another thread that cites this USDA article stating Two forms of vitamin C, ascorbic acid and sodium ascorbate, will neutralize chlorine, but it does not state anything about chloramines specifically. @Budbrother Curious if you also have any opinions or experience with this?
This article claims you can remove both chlorine and chloramine. âthe San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) âestablished that 1000 mg. of Vitamin C will completely dechlorinate a bathtub of tapwater without significantly depressing pH levels.ââ
I was also reading about this product used for aquariums.
Sorry if this is a lot but im curious if anyone here has any experience with these methods?
Interesting my water is different. That suggests your water doesnât have much bicarbonate/carbonate buffering pushing that pH back up. I guess high pH doesnât automatically equal high alkalinity. Makes me wonder what driving it up to 9.5 though?
I dont know anything about carbonates and alkalinity but I will read up on it. I was able to find some information on my water. It says the hardness, carbonate is 173mg/L.
For the high PH, according to AI that summarized the data:
âYour primary source is groundwater from alluvial wells. As water moves through soil and rock underground, it naturally dissolves minerals like limestone (calcium carbonate) and magnesium. These minerals act as buffers that raise the pH, making the water slightly basic (alkaline).â
âThe high pH combined with Carbonate Hardness suggests high alkalinity. This means your water has a strong buffer.â
From city website:
"The City has eight pumps that send water from underground wells in the River floodplain to our lime-softening plant where itâs prepared for customersâ use. Ground water contains some impurities and a large amount of iron that make it unfit for consumption. The process to âsoftenâ this water includes the addition of lime, which helps take out the iron. A large silo at the water plant stores lime for this purpose. Chlorine, meanwhile, cleans the water as well as helps remove iron. Fluoride is also added at the water plant to help with dental health.
After these chemicals are added, the water is sent to clarifiers that settle out the lime and impurities before the water enters detention tanks. Next, the water moves through charcoal and sand filters to take out remaining impurities. At this point, the water is ready to move through water mains to homes, with excess amounts stored in water towers. The settled lime and impurities are separated out of the water plant and recycled on local farms as a beneficial soil amendment to control PH levels in the soil."
Its been over 5-6 hours at this point. I just tested my water again and the control is measuring 9.6PH â 9.3PH. While the lemon juice water is reading 5.6PH â 5.7PH. Maybe it takes more time for the PH to drift?
No ongoing dissolution source like raw limestone exposure
So:
His water is buffered, not reactive. Itâs likely a fully equilibrated municipal distribution water with low particulate content (filtered + settled + carbon filtered)
Whereas yours sounds like:
Still actively equilibrating with solid, particulate carbonate sources like undissolved micro-dust.
Why this matters after your proposed bench test. This is the important tie-back:
His water is chemically buffered but not dynamically reactive in the cup
That does NOT mean it lacks long-term soil impact
It just means it wonât show dramatic pH drift in short bench tests
So both can be true:
Stable in a jar for hours
Still contributing alkalinity load to soil over time and causing an upwards buffering as you suggested.
Edit: Back to me and my words. An adjustment could be made for the next grow using cotton seed meal to help regulate the downward pH push. That was my solution to my pH buffering me outta range
I know that stuff aint no good for my plants.
