whats up with canna coco being too damn acidic?

[little-soldier]

Im using canna coco and been having problems lately so I decided to test the ph of the run off solution which gave me about 5.4. I decided to flush them with plain tap water (ph of 7). I have spent 10 hours doing so making sure every plants ph got up to at least 5.8. now 2 days later I have watered them again with canna coco A and B/cal/mag/sm90 the ph of my mix is ALWAYS between 6.0-6.2 but yet I checked the ph of the run off solution again and it was at 5.4 AGAIN. So much time wasted for nothing and dont know what to do. my plants show calcium deficiency but without having the ph up to at least 5.6 no calcium is available. now I could just add more calcium but that would just make things worst.
can someone tell me why the ph is so low in my canna coco?
anyone else noticed the extremely acidic canna coco?

 

[SweetNightmare]

Pretty sure most people don't bother checking runoff... I know I don't... just drop the PH of what you put in to 5.8 so the plants can take in more calcium...

 

[BlindDate]

I have never heard of anyone checking runoff PH. Canna has a procedure for it if interested. You cannot simply measure the runoff PH in coco as if it were another type of hydro.

There is nothing wrong with the coco. Also, none of the Ph ranges that you wrote about are going to cause a problem with the plants. Use the A/B without all that other crap and you will be fine. SM90 is the worst thing you could ever use in coco as it will kill all your beneficial bacteria.

 

[Bush Dr]

Well allow me to introduce you to 30+ ppl who always measure their coco run-off ...... checking pH in vs pH out will tell you if all is OK in the roots, the pH out should be higher, indicating healthy aerobic activity in the root zone, low pH out indicates anaerobic activity from an unhealthy root zone

Little-soldier you have some form of decomposition going on in your roots = possible pythium, flush them several times then allow them to dry out a bit then try and get one out of a pot .... guarantee there will be dead roots ...... and you're having grow problems, there's your answer

It's harder to recover the crop damage if in flower but not impossible, in veg you just flush everything out and start again ..... this time measuring the pH of the run-off

How can it be the coco after you've flushed it several times??

 

[little-soldier]

blindate, how can it kill the benni if there is none in my mix. unless coco Aand B has benneficial bacteria in them which I highly doubt.well the cal/mag plus I was using in the first place had benni in them but even if they get killed by the sm90 I was told it shouldnt matter
the only reason I am using SM90 is because it kills the fungus gnats.

 

[little-soldier]

unfortunatly Im 4 weeks into flower so I need a fix asap.
bush dr I dont understand your question

 

[SweetNightmare]

You != 30+ people... you'd have to drown your plants to have anaerobic activity which would be obvious anyway besides having to check runoff PH... I really don't know why someone would be taking chunks out of their coco everyday anyway to measure the runoff... This is the advantage to using bigger pots and only watering everyday when the plants actually need it in flowering... you can't have anaerobic activity... seriously you'd have to water so much to have anaerobic activity... that's the whole point of coco that it's nearly impossible to do this...

 

[PharmaCan]

Use those yellow sticky traps to catch the fungus gnats. To stop them, cut a paper plate to fit around your plants and cover the coco. If you read the Cana sight, somewhere on there it says that measuring the pH of your run-off is something a useless endeavor.

PC

 

[astartes]

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that it's the SM90 that's tanking your pH. Try the yellow strips instead and see how the pH pans out...

astartes

 

[Bush Dr]

You != 30+ people... you'd have to drown your plants to have anaerobic activity which would be obvious anyway besides having to check runoff PH... I really don't know why someone would be taking chunks out of their coco everyday anyway to measure the runoff... This is the advantage to using bigger pots and only watering everyday when the plants actually need it in flowering... you can't have anaerobic activity... seriously you'd have to water so much to have anaerobic activity... that's the whole point of coco that it's nearly impossible to do this...

Who said anything about cutting the coco, you measure the run off???

Which part of "checking pH in vs pH out will tell you if all is OK in the roots, the pH out should be higher, indicating healthy aerobic activity in the root zone, low pH out indicates anaerobic activity from an unhealthy root zone" is beyond your comprehension"

Will you please explain to me in your own words how anaerobic activity occurs, lack of oxygen seems to be the key, please correct me
.. .... ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ................

Littlesoldier ...when you put an airstone in your rez the pH rises correct, let the rez get stagnant or allow decomposition and it will drop

Anaerobic bacteria at work are the only thing that drops pH

You could have patch in your coco where something went wrong and the roots died (cold,etc) those roots are now rotting causing your ph out to drop

Just check your roots, if you're 4 weeks away from flower you best sort this soon

 

[little-soldier]

ok so I flushed one of my plants last night and checked the ph afterwards and it read 6.1 Im going to stop using sm90 for now and tomorrow I will water with cal/mag + canna A and B and pk booster. I will check the ph of the runoff solution and let you guys know if the ph is still low.
Ive tried sticky traps, potato peals before and it dont do much. I wanted to use musquito dunks but they dont seel them in my area and cant order from the net so sm90 was my only solution

 

[SweetNightmare]

I did explain it... watch the video about how to PROPERLY measure runoff and you'll understand what I'm talking about... you'd have to water log the coco which would cause the lack of air... OBVIOUSLY (pretty sure that's why canna retracted their statement about watering many times a day, as coco works like a sponge)... god damn trolls... next round try a perlite layer on top and bottom... it dries faster so it'll kill the fuckers...

 

[onegreenday]

Well allow me to introduce you to 30+ ppl who always measure their coco run-off ...... checking pH in vs pH out will tell you if all is OK in the roots, the pH out should be higher, indicating healthy aerobic activity in the root zone, low pH out indicates anaerobic activity from an unhealthy root zone

Little-soldier you have some form of decomposition going on in your roots = possible pythium, flush them several times then allow them to dry out a bit then try and get one out of a pot .... guarantee there will be dead roots ...... and you're having grow problems, there's your answer

It's harder to recover the crop damage if in flower but not impossible, in veg you just flush everything out and start again ..... this time measuring the pH of the run-off

How can it be the coco after you've flushed it several times??

coco is usually acidic it will lower the Ph of nutrient it contacts (i just checked this with my coco & my public water & it is so). also plants uptake different nutrients which will change the Ph of the runoff and plant roots exude substances that change Ph. That's why Canna says not to bother measuring Ph runoff in coco and they are experts.

 

[little-soldier]

well im back with a little update.
it seems like the sm90 is not the problem because I have watered (ph 6.0) the plant I had flushed before and the ph was still down to 5.4. tonight I will grab coco str8 out of the bag and flush it with my mix to see if it comes out acidic again. this will deffinetly let us know if the coco is simply acidic. sometimes I wonder why I didnt try this before I spend 10+ hours flushing the first time.

 

[~fvk~]

Im using canna coco and been having problems lately so I decided to test the ph of the run off solution which gave me about 5.4. I decided to flush them with plain tap water (ph of 7). I have spent 10 hours doing so making sure every plants ph got up to at least 5.8. now 2 days later I have watered them again with canna coco A and B/cal/mag/sm90 the ph of my mix is ALWAYS between 6.0-6.2 but yet I checked the ph of the run off solution again and it was at 5.4 AGAIN. So much time wasted for nothing and dont know what to do. my plants show calcium deficiency but without having the ph up to at least 5.6 no calcium is available. now I could just add more calcium but that would just make things worst.
can someone tell me why the ph is so low in my canna coco?
anyone else noticed the extremely acidic canna coco?

I think you're stressing dude. As long as your plants look okay, runoff is completely irrelevant... I'm sure 99% of the coco growers in here are going to agree with that. The "right" way of checking coco ph is taking a sample from the core of the container and adding it to distilled water with a PH of 7.

 

[little-soldier]

ok so I have checked the run off of pure coco and its at ph of 4.5
so that explains it all. I also checked the roots to see if I could spot dead ones and they looked fine so that means I can go back to using SM-90 with coco. Yay, lol. I can already see those damn gnats floating around when I water my plants and it has not even been a full week yet since I last used SM90.
I could always add perlite to the top of my mix but it just makes more shit to carry around and dispose of afterwards which is why I want to go hydro. less medium, less hassel not to mention the super hard nuggets.
so I guess my problem since day one was the fact that my plants dont get enough cal/mag but I do add 300ppm more into my mix and they still need more.

 

[BlindDate]

Little Soldier, you need to show us pictures. One thing is for sure, It is NOT the coco or the Ph that is causing a problem. How bad are those gnats?

 

[little-soldier]

I wish I could blindate but unfortunatly I have no camera for now. Im planning on getting one soon though and will probably do a diary next run this way I can get all the help I need from you guys hopefully. Im almost 2 weeks from harvest so I think I will just let them be for now. as for the gnats I dont see them flying around yet but I see a LOT of them floating around when I water*. so far so good I guess

 

[SweetNightmare]

Yea it does make it a bit harder to dispose of... but it works to keep those gnats at bay... should get a sticky trap too at least for now... I wouldn't bother measuring the run off anymore... just make sure you swing the ph between 5.6-6.2 to make sure the plant can take in all the nutrients properly... that is if the only problem seems to be calcium deficiency and the gnats... it still is hydro though... just got a dry layer that kills the gnats when they try to get into the nice moist coco but yea my guess is you just got an infestation of gnats causing the weird PH shit... and the cal def from not dropping the ph down to 5.8 for the water going in... Systematically using neem oil or something similar in veg will help a lot too...

 

[onegreenday]

ok so I have checked the run off of pure coco and its at ph of 4.5
so that explains it all. I also checked the roots to see if I could spot dead ones and they looked fine so that means I can go back to using SM-90 with coco. Yay, lol. I can already see those damn gnats floating around when I water my plants and it has not even been a full week yet since I last used SM90.
I could always add perlite to the top of my mix but it just makes more shit to carry around and dispose of afterwards which is why I want to go hydro. less medium, less hassel not to mention the super hard nuggets.
so I guess my problem since day one was the fact that my plants dont get enough cal/mag but I do add 300ppm more into my mix and they still need more.

there's a link around on the coco forum about growing on coco in slabs and has lots of good info on ppm & ph, nutrient & flushing

it's by growside.nl and there's a PDF link somewhere.