PH stays in the low 5

[little-soldier]

Im 4 weeks almost 5 into flower and wonder why the PH has dropped down to 5 recently. I use lucas formula and the PH of my nutes has always been 5.8-6.2.I've decided to flush them for the past 2 days but the PH remains the same even after flushing with tap water (ph 6.5)
I also noticed the EC being 400 ppm higher than its supposed to so thats when I decided to flush hoping that it would bring my ph down too but nothing seems to work even after adding PH up.
any idea anyone?

 

[Moterreal]

Sounds like to me, since your PPM's are rising your girls are thirsty. What PPM are you running your nutes at?

 

[Haps]

At 4 weeks they are feeding heavy, that is the cause.

I counter this with high ph addback, I do not adjust my addback from the high range it is after mixing.

 

[little-soldier]

im running my nutes at 8/16 micro/bloom which gives me around 750 ppm then I HAVE to add 300ppm cal/mag which gived me 1050 and also added pk booster which brought everything up to 1150 ppm= 2.3 EC
the rockwool is accumulating nutes in them so it climbs up higher after a while. this is why I have decided to flush for a day every week from now on.
I checked the ph again last night after 2 days of flushing and it seems to have went up a little. Im around 5.6 right now. I have diluted my nutes down to 1050 ppm and brought the ph up to 6.1.
Lets say I have to bring the ph up to 7 to keep the runoff from falling below 5.6 will this affect my plants? Basically I need to know whats more importent, runoff PH or nutes PH

 

[Hydro-Soil]

im running my nutes at 8/16 micro/bloom which gives me around 750 ppm then I HAVE to add 300ppm cal/mag

No you don't.

If you up your pH to 6.0-6.1 you won't need to as there is plenty of Mag and Cal in the GH 3-part, it's just not as available at lower pH. Next run try just upping the pH around day 20-30 before dropping it back down for the rest of the run. You won't see any deficiencies.


I can already tell you're running DWC/SWC of some sort. Your low pH issue is most likely due to the lack of dissolved oxygen in your res. What do your roots look like?

Personally, I switched to E&F and Drip as they don't have this issue.

You also might want to quit using the PK booster for a few grows, just so you get a baseline on what your nutes alone can do. Helps a lot when you're trying to figure out exactly what the PK booster is doing and whether you're using too much or not.

 

[little-soldier]

Sorry to tell you this hydro-soil but you are wrong.Im already running E&F and this is my 3rd grow using this system. the roots look fine and the ph is usually always in the low 6 high 5. I have tried multiple strains and they ALL require cal/mag. If I dont add any, they will get stunt and show defficiencies. there is no way Im going to stop adding it, Ive played around too much with the cal/mag (because lucas never mentionned to add more cal/mag but others have to) and this is what works best for me. the ph issue was temporarily because like I have mentionned before its usually always around 6. It dropped cause of the EC climbing a little too high in the rockwool.Now things are stable again. The PK booster really makes a difference so theres no way back. 100ppm is not that much anyways and it will soon be replaced with cool bloom.

 

[cyberwax]

As stated in my last 3 posts about ph; the plants exchange one part minerals for one part acid when growing fast, so this is to be expected, if your ph doesnt rise when adding ph up, you are using too clean water(ro) and you should get a hold of some ph up with kh(carbon hardness), go check ur local aquarium store.

"You could use pH-plus, but pH plus has no buffer capacity, it only raises the pH but don't make it stable. if you would add KH plus (the best is potassium hydrogen carbonate KHCO3) this buffers the pH and hold it on the same level.
The reason is the carbon hardness (KH) in water, if the KH is 4-6 degrees you are safe in pH. If the KH is less than 2, the pH of water is unstable.
With mixing your tap water (I guess, you have a high KH in it) with RO, you can make it stable. You will find tests for KH in shops for aquariums or ponds, so you could determine, how much tap water is necessary to mix it with your RO. It could be possible, that you have to mix 9 parts of RO with only one part of tap water. "

 

[passion]

Cant see anywhere what your medium is?
I'll bet its hydroton / claypellets or what you call them small brown/red bals?

A friend of mine kind of had same problem. He said it was built up alot of shit in the pellets.

EDIT: see now that you used rockwoll....

 

[Hydro-Soil]

Sorry to tell you this hydro-soil but you are wrong.Im already running E&F and this is my 3rd grow using this system. the roots look fine and the ph is usually always in the low 6 high 5. I have tried multiple strains and they ALL require cal/mag.

Are you running 1300-1400ppms(@ .7 conversion)? If not you're underfeeding and, yes, you'll get deficiencies regardless of pH.

No. You don't need Cal/Mag. FNB is 4% Calcium and 2% Magnesium. At 1300-1400ppm there's way more than enough for your plants.

 

[little-soldier]

omg guys I hate to be an ass and BELIEVE ME but do you read my posts.
Passion, the medium is rockwool but maybe you just never heard of it before (google it if thats the case).
hydro-soil where did you read that I use floranova, I said Im using micro and bloom which makes it the GH 3 part (2 in my case, hehe). Also I was refering to .5 conversion. How can you tell me I am underfeeding if you have no idea what strain I have and you should know its strain dependant. Also if the EC rises your plants are consuming more water than nutes therefore you need to dilute your nutes which is what I have done and see, now things are doing better than before. ph is stable and ppm too. I would like to believe what you say hydro-soil but everything you say contradicts the basics of hydroponic but thx for trying to help anyways.

 

[Hydro-Soil]

hydro-soil where did you read that I use floranova, I said Im using micro and bloom which makes it the GH 3 part (2 in my case, hehe).

From the way you post, it's difficult to tell what you're doing, exactly.

Quit using the additives, go with straight lucas and keep your ppm around 950-1000 (since you're at .5 conv). If you see deficiencies, raise your pH to 6.0-6.1. Until/Unless you've done this, all your complaining is your own fault.

If you're throwing anything else into the mix I can't help you and yes, it's very possible to have deficiencies if you do that.

Edit: Oh yeah, strain doesn't matter unless you have some freak of nature that lives on nearly no nutes at all. Out of over 30 strains I haven't run across any like that yet that wouldn't eat like a horse when gradually pumped up to full str Lucas.

 

[laidbackgreen]

From the way you post, it's difficult to tell what you're doing, exactly.

Quit using the additives, go with straight lucas and keep your ppm around 950-1000 (since you're at .5 conv). If you see deficiencies, raise your pH to 6.0-6.1. Until/Unless you've done this, all your complaining is your own fault.

If you're throwing anything else into the mix I can't help you and yes, it's very possible to have deficiencies if you do that.

Edit: Oh yeah, strain doesn't matter unless you have some freak of nature that lives on nearly no nutes at all. Out of over 30 strains I haven't run across any like that yet that wouldn't eat like a horse when gradually pumped up to full str Lucas.

Little Soldier listen to Hydro-Soil and you will save yourself alot of headaches. If you are not running RO with your system you need to ASAP. Also I bought a bottle of Cal Mag and it is sitting on myshelf unopened for 2 years. I also run E&F and have put several strains through it each liking the exact same formula everytime 8/16 or in my case I just use Floranova.

 

[Hydro-Soil]

Little Soldier listen to Hydro-Soil and you will save yourself alot of headaches. If you are not running RO with your system you need to ASAP. Also I bought a bottle of Cal Mag and it is sitting on myshelf unopened for 2 years. I also run E&F and have put several strains through it each liking the exact same formula everytime 8/16 or in my case I just use Floranova.

Otherwise you get

And everyone else going

When you SHOULD be going

Can't wait to see happy posts about happy plants!

 

[little-soldier]

im not using RO water but my tap water has around 50ppm so my guess is its alright. how do u manage to get 950-1000 ppm when lucas formula alone (8/16) gives me 750ppm.
I dont think the pk booster is giving me problems because I only add 100 ppm. now if we add all that up it gived me 850ppm still too low according to your 950ppm target

 

[little-soldier]

8ml of micro gived me 400ppm and 16 ml bloom gived me 350ppm
I think this formula has too much nitrogen (micro) and not enough phosphorous and potassium (bloom). the proof is the first grow I had using this formula still had dark green foliage after flushing for 2 weeks.

 

[Hydro-Soil]

8ml of micro gived me 400ppm and 16 ml bloom gived me 350ppm
I think this formula has too much nitrogen (micro) and not enough phosphorous and potassium (bloom). the proof is the first grow I had using this formula still had dark green foliage after flushing for 2 weeks.

Sounds like you haven't shaken the bottles properly.

Don't take my word for it. Follow the link in my sig and read it from Lucas himself. You'll learn it a lot better than from me.

The point is that the formula works, regardless of strain and without deficiencies, if you follow it properly.

50ppm shouldn't be a problem, depending on what the 50ppm is made of though it could definitely cause you issues.

I'd still rather use RO water since you get rock solid, stable, pH.

 

[DjRightHooks]

Sounds like you haven't shaken the bottles properly.

Don't take my word for it. Follow the link in my sig and read it from Lucas himself. You'll learn it a lot better than from me.

The point is that the formula works, regardless of strain and without deficiencies, if you follow it properly.

50ppm shouldn't be a problem, depending on what the 50ppm is made of though it could definitely cause you issues.

I'd still rather use RO water since you get rock solid, stable, pH.

the link is dead in your sig

 

[Hydro-Soil]

the link is dead in your sig

It still works for me.

 

[little-soldier]

the sig dont work for me either but I already read most of it anyways. the bottles are well shaked, believe me, you cant miss all the foam the micro makes compared to the bloom. Plus its not as if sometimes I get different ppm, its always the same therefore its well shaked. I know u are trying to help but everything you have said so far is not much help so I guess Im on my own again. Is lucas still active on the forum? I think heleft, didnt he?

 

[Hydro-Soil]

the sig dont work for me either but I already read most of it anyways. the bottles are well shaked, believe me, you cant miss all the foam the micro makes compared to the bloom. Plus its not as if sometimes I get different ppm, its always the same therefore its well shaked. I know u are trying to help but everything you have said so far is not much help so I guess Im on my own again. Is lucas still active on the forum? I think heleft, didnt he?

Interesting that you have problems connecting to that site.
I believe Lucas left the site around page 34? It was up to 38 pages when I last checked.

I would definitely look at your tap-water then. This isn't that difficult and it always works with RO water. I wish you luck as there's definitely an issue with your setup somewhere.