Do I need to PH when I water with Pure Blend Pro in Coco?

[GreenTrampoline]

Have some clones in botanicare readygro coco mix, 1/2 of the aeration 1/2 moisture.
I got the pure blend pro grow for nutrients, and I am mixing that with RO water.

I am wondering if I should use full strength or dilute the nutes to start, and if it is likely that I will need to add ph up or down?
I don't have a ph meter so I am a little sketched I will kill the plants.

When I transplanted the coco into the mix I watered with plain water because I wasn't sure.

I'm just so scared, I'm wishing I would have stayed with soil which is easy as pie and worry free

 

[beejium]

if in doubt dilute.

 

[freeride high]

yes get some ph drops or strips and test your water! i can almost guarantee you will have problems using water right out the tap.

 

[Coco Budder]

You can always just get some PH up and PH down and some PH test drops.. no more then 20 bucks at a local hydro store. You could find out your water is fine without the UP or Down and just fine from the tap. Good Luck

 

[Retardo Motabon]

Yes, with r.o. you definitely need to adjust the pH. You'll need a calmag supplement as well. DOnt go by PBP's dosage instructions!!!!
If you follow ther emeasurements your ppm's will be way above acceptable range.
When I use r.o. and add calmag, PBP, and LK to reach 800-1000 ppms the resulting pH of the water is around 3.3pH. Ouch!
If I use tap water (mine is at 160ppms and 7.2 pH) and mix to the same ppm it comes out perfectly at 5.8pH.
Off the top of my head I think it takes me about 1ml per gallon of pH up to reach a pH of 6 at 800-1000ppm strength solution.

The PBP grow wont lower the pH as much as the bloom will but it will still drop substantially. Without testing pH and ppm's of your solution you are flying blind. TDS or ppm meters can be purchased very cheap and still be accurate. The cheaper they are, the easier they will break down though due to lower quality materials used. Drops will work fine for pH as long as your nute solution is pretty transparent. if you add LK, molasses and stuff liek that the solution may be to dark to use the drops as you wont see the color well enough to judge what pH is at.

What the hell, i'm going to figure it out for ya real quick.

10mls of PBP grow in 1 gallon of r.o. gives you a ppm of around 670-700 and a pH of around 4.4
(i use the word 'around' as I dont think my gallon of water was exactly a gallon, but pretty close)

Dont follow the guidelines with calmag either. 5mls of calmag in a gallon of r.o gives a ppm of about 300. Try 2.5 mls to start which will be about 150ppms (which is a more sensible dosage for the soltn than the dosage on the botanicaire bottle.)


When I added 2.5 mls of calmag to the PBP grow sltn. mentioned above the ppms jumped to 770 and the pH dropped to 4.2

In order to bring this gallon of soltn with 2.5 mls of calmag and 10 mls of PBP grow to a pH of 6.0 I added 1ml of pH up.

Again, if you use straight r.o. water you really need the calmag supplement.

10mls of PBP grow in 1 gallon r.o. water = 670pppms and 4.4pH
2.5mls of calmag in 1 gallon of r.o. = 150ppms.
10mls of PBP and 2.5mls of PBP grow in 1 gallon r.o = 770ppm and pH 4.2
1ml of pH up brought this soltn. of cal-mag and PBP grow to a pH of 6.

Until you get calmag I would recommend using tap and r.o at a 1:1 ratio so you at least get some CA, MG, and Fe into your soltn.

THis should help until you have some measuring tools.
RM

 

[GreenTrampoline]

Whoa Retardo you rock!
I picked up a little ph kit from the store, it's GH and has the UP and DOWN, and the little vial and dropper.
I will go with your measurements and ph it just to make sure it's close.
The only problem with the dropper testing is that it's really not accurate, but I guess it is good enough to get a general idea.
The hydro store only had ph meters that were $100+ so I wasn't going to be able to afford that right now.

Anyways thanks for the little recipe! I have a tiny bottle of magical which is technaflora brand calmag that I will use lightly for the first couple days. I ordered a 3 pack off of ebay that included the calmag, sweet, and clearex.

So in addition to that I should also get a bottle of liquid karma, and that should be it, or are there any other really nice additives i should get as well?

 

[Retardo Motabon]

I'm a big fan of Hygrozyme, but it is expensive. Aids in keeping the roots healthy and sluffing off the bad ones. Very noticeable difference in my root ball sizes with it.
Liquid Karma is very nice. When nute shopping the one thing I really recommend is to stay within the same product line of products for your fertilizing. When folks mix and match they often end up with too little of one mineral or too much of another in their nute soltn which will often cause lockouts in your medium.
i use PBP grow and bloom, LK, hygrozyme, calmag, and interchange between sweet and molasses. I use other products as well as needed. I dont use a flushing product as I always make sure I get some runoff and only feed when necessary so buildup is never too bad. Those products seem like money that isnt needed to be spent if you pay attention to ppm levels and only giving the plants what they need.
The LK will perform better when used in combination with molasses or sweet.
I tend to only use about 5mls of lk per gallon, same with sweet and molasses.
Once you have a ppm meter you will know how much to use of each product by measuring the ppms of your water per amount you add. Watch out with the sweet, I only use several ml's per gallon and only use it week 4-8 of flower, the bottle dosage is way too much. Try to stay within Botanicaires feeding ratios on their fertilization charts for each product used in conjunction with each other. Just make sure you adjust the dosage of each product so the final ppm of the soltn is at or below 1000ppms.
For example,(not actual recommendations) if their recommendation is:
15ml PBP bloom
10ml LK
10ml sweet
5ml cal mag
per gallon of water for bloom but it gives you a ppm of 1500ppms after mixing, cut each measurement back by a third to get 1000ppms
so more like 10ml PBP, 7mls LK, 7mls sweet, 2mls calmag.
I consider 1000ppms max feeding. In veg I start at 300ppms and work my way up to 800-1000ppms by flowering time.
Careful with the calmag and sweet in flower. both have high levels of magnesium. If you overdo the amount of magnesium you could potentially cause calcium deficiency symptoms even though you have enough calcium in the pot. If minerals have the same charge they compete for bonding sites in the soil. Too much of one, may ,make the other less available even though its present. This is why I recommend sticking with one product line unless you know how to calculate a balanced nutrient formula on your own.
The best deal I have found on meters is at a site called eseasongear.com.
I will warn you though, the meter I purchased from them was drop shipped from the manufacturer, not shipped from the site. Turns out that was for the better!
My meter came with a cracked probe, it wouldnt calibrate, drifted all over.
The site referred me to the manufacturer. I spoke with them and they overnighted me a new probe the day i called. They said if that didnt fix it to let them know and they'd send a whole new unit asap. Every brand will have lemons but not all brands have the same customer service. buy according to who will replace your gear with the least hassle if it is faulty. I am using a Millwaukee SM802 at the moment. Their price beat the hydro shop by $80 and I avoided paying sales tax and shipping was free.
RM

 

[GreenTrampoline]

Ok sweet, so I will get the LK and hygrozyme and just do what you're doing.
Can you tell me what your nutrient mixture is at the mid/end of flowering so I know what to work up to?
I am going to water them with a light nutrient solution now, probably about half of the nutrient formula you gave me before that came out around 750, and I'll bump it up slowly.
I just want to know where the stopping point will be.

Thanks again for all the good info and advice!

ps have you used hydroplex from botanicare? I got a free sample from the store when I bought the other nutrients, pretty big for a sample though, probably around 6-8 ounces.