What is the ideal PH for the best results?
I think most people shoot for 6.5 for growing in soil.
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About 6.2 to 6.5 pH.
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Mine is usually between 6.5 and 7 +. My run off has been 6.0. My tap water is 6.0 but when I put my meter in the soil it runs 7.8 to 7.0 but itâs usually at 7.0 is 7 ok for the plant?
This is why I think Iâm going to start using coco in future grows. I like the idea of being in complete control of what theyâre getting.
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@smokysmurf
You have the right idea on the timeline /plan but there are a couple things that just due to you being on your first grow I can give you a better idea about.
First letâs talk about medium, if you want a soil with no nutrients and switch to a coco perlite mix of anywhere from 50/50 to 70/30, you just follow a weekly schedule and if your feeding heavy you flush your medium after pre flower stretch.
Letâs talk about PH in soil, 6.5 is the middle of the barrel but letting it swing from 6.2-6.8 is ideal this causes mold stress and also helps absorb nutrients at different rates Durring different Phâs.
Run off PH is usually not to important in soil to be honest, if your feeding PH water and not seeing any deficiencies I wouldnât worry about it thst being said mine always say around 6.2 even when I fed nothing but 6.8 PH water.
This is because the soil itâs self has a PH and changing thst with water is very hard if not impossible at times, instead you can add powdered lime and other things but in fox farms I wouldnât worry about it as its fine right out of the bag. You want to be more conscious of tds run off so you can do the math and see how much you need to feed. That being said here is a PH chart.
Also your harvest time will depend on many variables like strain, genetics, grow environment, light strength, etc.
The one variable you will be able to have complete control over is when to harvest.
This can help alter the strength of your bud and some say the effects⌠Although this is debated currently.
You will get the highest thc, terps, effects etc at mostly cloudy some clear and thst means you will have a touch of Amber in spots.
Two theories out there are that the more Amber the more couch lock/sedative feeling but if left to much you can also feel sick due to the cbn this all happens as the thc degrades.
The second theory is that if you harvest at the mostly cloudy some clear then it will be the best regardless of if itâs a couch indica or a energetic sativa, this is because the effects are coded into the genetics so you will have maximum effect if harvest at the highest point.
Unfortunately there is still a lack of true research out there so there are a couple true unknowns like flushing plants and harvesting times, hopefully Canada is studying all that as we speak since itâs all legal.
@jetlag numbers look good, your doing well canât wait for pictures. Mine are working again but I know alot of people are having issues Iâm sure @dbrn32 and @Myfriendis410 @MattyBear and others will post a sticky once things are sorted and the IT guys have given more info.
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@Nicky Thanks for all the info. I do have a phosphorous deficiency and possibly calcium too. I just noticed some of my lower leaves are now showing symptoms and purple stems. The PH guide indicates they both need 6.5 or higher to uptake and my runoff PH was stuck at 5.5 for a while and after flushing went to 6.2. The subsequent watering was 6.0. I will be watering again tomorrow morning and will update. I have also been adding dolomite lime and just ordered some calmag. Hopefully my plant makes it to the finish line.
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Purple stems can mean so many things I wouldnât sweat it unless itâs the spines in between the leafs, genetics is a huge reason for purple stems.
If your in soil feed 6.5 water until flower and then feed 6.8 PH water/feed
You shouldnât be feeding nutrients in soil until flower and thus you shouldnât need to flush at all.
I would say ignore your run off PH unless you have back yard home made soil but if your running fox farms forget it.
You need to do a true soil sample to tell the PH anyways, I know alot of people here say check run off but tds run off is more important than PH I find in soil.
CoCo is a different beast all together.
Head my advice and Iâm sure you will be fine but keep us updated.
You definitely seem like you would rather enjoy coco than soil.
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@Nicky Unfortunately I do have the dark spines in between the leaves. Watt-sun showed me this when I posted a picture in another topic and he/she diagnosed my phosphorous deficiency. Also the stems werenât purple until recently.
The only reason I flushed was to try to get the soil PH higher. I did do a slurry test with some of the leftover Ocean Forest in the bag and it came out to a PH of 5.3.
I do have my TDS dialed in thanks to a suggestion to test the TDS IN and out. My first regular watering after flushing was 780 in and 800 out. I PH adjusted the nute water to 7.0 and the runoff was 6.0.
I am in third week of flowering by the way. Thanks.
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Okay good to know /hear and @Watt-Sun knows whatâs up.
In that case itâs good you have the like coming as if your careful you should be able to dial it in.
I grew in fox farms soil for a year and a half and never had an issue but thst doesnât mean that It doesnât have issues I have heard some complain about PH on other sites.
Have you checked the amount of calcium / alkalinity in your water?
Because this is a key factor and you could be chasing your tail forever unless you have checked this.
@Nicky I read the article about alkalinity but it didnât say how to test it. I have a PH tester. I have a TDS tester. Is there a specific tester for Calcium and alkalinity? I searched for both on Amazon and it just shows PH and TDS testers.
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Thatâs a little deep for a novice grower. I donât believe it has anything to do with your water. There have been bad batches released and they will absolutely deny that ( behind the scenes they are scrambling to find out what went wrong) and put it on the grower. The sure way is to run coco or DWC and eliminate soil all together. Coco; youâre looking at more watering/feeding. DWC; your looking at more upfront costs (air pumps, water pumps, water chillers, etc).
Best thing to do now is let her be. Stick to your feed and flush schedule. Too much intervention is going to send you down a wormhole.
K.I.S.S.
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@BobbyDigital I agree. I would love to keep it simple at this point. I am also taking in everyoneâs advice in hopes of getting this plant to the finish line. Is it reasonable to think that my plant will still produce a decent harvest even if the phosphorous/calcium/whatever deficiency ends up affecting the entire plant?
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It will. But it takes time to see if youâve corrected things and even when you correct things the damaged leaves will not repair. Yeah, 6ph soil sucks and youâre not going to have a perfect looking plant at harvest. But, the buds donât care what the leaves look like. Sheâll get what she needs, even at a low ph. Sheâll sacrifice her leaves to live.
This is a learning experience and if everything goes perfect, you wonât learn a thing.
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As always, great explanation, thanks
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If your water is alkaline your PH meter will read above 7. My water is alkaline at 7.4 so I adjust to 6.5 with citric acid. TDS meter will tell you how much dissolved minerals are in your water, mostly here it is calcium in the ground water with few slight trace elements. You already have the tools to check this.
I had a blueberry auto that went droopy on me and my runoff was at 5.4, in happy frog. I flushed with my 7.4ground water and did a 1/2 dose feeding after flush and the plant perked right back up and has been fine since. 2 other plants on same feeding schedule and soil had no symptoms. Donât know why only 1 plant was affected. I never checked runoff until I saw a problem with the plant. The other 2 I still have never checked because they are very healthy. IF I keep growing indoors I will stick with Happy Frog, so far it has been a very easy grow and seems to work well for me.
Good luck with your plants, I hope all turns out well for you.
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@fast-grow My tap water ranges from PH of 6.5 to 8.0 with a TDS of around 45PPM. After adding nutes my water is at about 5.5 so I adjust it up with PH up until it gets to 6.8. I just watered this morning and my runoff PH was 6.0. Not ideal but better than the 5.5 it was.
If you want to keep it simple go to autopots, and for now just water phâd water and ignore PH runoff.
Go to the grow journals secontion and fun my autopot guide.
You only need to adjust your system once OT twice a week but in flower can leave it for 2 weeks.
@BobbyDigital I agree it is advanced but knowledge is power and I never count out how well others wish to be informed so I provide the info/ adivice but they decide if it what they want to learn about
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That low of a ppm youâre not going to get a true PH. Thatâs why is bounces around. Are you phâing that water on water only days? This may explain your issues. That low of ppm water doesnât need phâing.
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@BobbyDigital @Nicky @MrPeat @blackthumbbetty So Iâm using two parts happy frog to one part ocean forest. Iâve left plants unattended outdoors in a swamp with little to no attention paid to them until the fall. Iâve had VERY few issues doing it this way. Well, we canât do that anymore, due to the military helicopters spotting the swamps here, so I started a small grow indoors. I am using the same combination of fox farms soils as I did outside. I can flush this soil and get the ph to 6.3-6.8. When the pots dry out and itâs time for water, I water to 20% runoff with RO water and calmag at a rate of 1 teaspoon per gallon. Runoff ph is 5.8-5.9 every single time. Whatâs the deal with that? When I transplant, can I cut the fox farms with 50-75% coco coir? I figure that way, I can tell the medium what the ph is going to be, instead of the other way around. Iâve tried straight tap water also, with the exact same results. We have excellent water quality with 45 or so ppm.
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