So every time I water, I adjust the PH of my nutrient solution to 6.5. I am only watering about once a week, maybe every 5-6 days, bc my soil stays pretty moist. So I have been feeding with every watering considering the nutrient solution recommendation says twice a week, but that isn’t possible for me bc I don’t want to overwater. My plant is in week 8 surprisingly and is an auto flower. The reason she is so small is because of early stunted growth that was not able to be caught up with during veg. I water with 1 gallon and get about 15-20% runoff.
My plant is doing great and has never had any nutrient issues that I can tell of. Very lush green color. But every time I test the runoff, it’s like 5.5/5. Even last night, I watered with a PH of 7 and it came out at 5. How is this possible if she looks so healthy?
I’m using FF Happy Frog soil, and am using Big Bloom, Tiger Bloom, tapering off of Grow Big, 1 tsp of Cal/Mag per gallon, and just introduced Beastie Bloomz yesterday. It doesn’t show signs of lock out at all so I’m really confused. Is it a salt build up and I need to flush? Or is the PH in the runoff lower because the plant is actually retaining/absorbing the nutrients, therefore causing the runoff PH to drop? (If that makes sense). Please let me know what you think!
Runoff pH will creep down and eventually become unmanageable as nutrient salts build up in your soil over time. Recommend following the FF flushing schedule.
I would ditch any type of bloom booster. They are not needed and are more trouble than they are worth. They only worsen the pH problem you are seeing. Bloom boosters also corrupt your PPM readings, as the NPK ratio gets out of whack.
Thank you man. Do I need to get a flushing solution to use or can I just use water? And do I just water until 100% runoff? What PH should I use, 7 bc she’s in flower so a little higher? Am I able to flush the day after watering? And do I use nutes after flushing or what’s the process for that when it comes to giving her nutes again?
You can’t pH RO or distilled. There are no ions in the water for a pH to exist. They have no pH and take on the pH of the medium into which they are introduced.
If the PPM of your spring water is > 100 PPM, then it should be pHed to 6.5.
Wow that’s so if I should wait until it fully dries to give a full feeding, how much should I feed after flushing? And will just distilled water work? I don’t have any money to buy any flushing agents right now
Hey bro, sorry to blow you up. Just an update though, I have literally watered it with 8 gallons I think at this point, and the PH is still 5.5. It will not come up. PPMs are much lower, like 800-900, but no matter what I do the PH won’t come up. I’m watering with a PH of 9 at this point, and when it runs off it’s still 5.5. I don’t know what else I can do at this point. I assumed my runoff was just 5.5 because of the soil, but with what you’re telling me, it should be the same as the water I’m giving it. Please let me know if you know of any solutions.
Also, if I finally do get it to test 6.5, it’s going to be by watering it with a ridiculously high ph water, like 10. And then I feel like once I get it to read 6.5, if I then water it again with correct 6.5 ph, it will for sure just read 5.5 again. What the hell do I do bro? What is going on?
Hey bro, thanks for all your help. I finally got the PH down to around 6.5. Took about 10+ gallons. The last gallon, I fed, and backed off some of the nutrients. It was sort of confusing bc the ppm of my final runoff was pretty low, I can’t remember like 400-600 or something, and that was with the nutrients I was using to feed. So I don’t really get that. But either way, hopefully we are looking good now.
