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Ph keeps dropping?

ultima

Member
No matter how much I lower the nutrients, the Ph keeps dropping.

I'm growing skunk 1 in an Aeroflo unit and im 30 days in or so. . not a lot of bud compared to 30 days , right ?
Pretty soon after I started flowering , I noticed the ph dropping pretty fast . At the time I was at 1.8 EC , and they started to burn at the tips.

A fresh rez using GH 3 part.

Ph from tap 8.5. .
Ec from tap 0.2
After nutes at 1.8 EC , PH is about 6.
After two days ,and only water added to fill up the rez and it's at 5.3 and keeps dropping till it's at 4.8.

So ....

I flushed for 24 hours, went back in with 0.6 EC and have been working my way up . I have been dealing with this for about two weeks and cant get the PH to stop dropping no matter what.

Now for the weird part , the PH will drop even when the EC drops as well????

Had a res going , went from the initial after flush 0.6 to 0.9 , few days later , EC is down to 0.7 and Ph has dropped from 6 something to 5.3

Its not as drastic of a drop as it was before , it goes down to 5.3 and not lower then that , but im also just using about 0.6 EC at the moment.

I can just feel that they want more food and I want to give it to them but I think they will just burn and the PH drop if I up the nutes.

Plants look pretty good apart from the tip burn , but it's all over place. Roots look great , plants look healthy.

What could be at play here ? I have a creeping suspicion that it might be obvious if you are not a novice like me.

I'm working on getting the pics up bit thought id put it out there as it might be something typical.. if such a thing exists.

PICS. Sorry bout the yellow light, I know you guys hate that





QUestion , can I expect proper yields If I run the whole grow at 1.0 EC or lower ....just a theoretical question....Might end up doing that though so...

I couldnt find the list , ill fill it out if someone can tell me where to find it.



If I can't get any advice , this is what I would probably do.

Flush now , tomorrow fresh rez at 1.5 and see what happens , and they will probably burn and drop the PH , But im kinda clueless.
Id love to sort this out , it's my 3rd grow and i always mess up....Sigh.
 

Kr@kEn

Member
It's your water source. You have hard water. You need to use a hardwater formulated nutrient or change your water source. Probably be best to use a different water source and maybe consider a PH buffered organic hydro nutrient instead. Such as Iguana Juice or Pure Blend Pro. Why bother with PH and EC if you don't have to?
 

ultima

Member
I might be misunderstanding the hard water concept but my water is 0.2 Ec from the tap.
Will that qualify as hard water? I also don't have a lot of choices when it comes to Nutes.
 
according to GH:
"If the total dissolved salts (TDS) in your water supply measures 200ppm or more, we recommend that you use obtain a water analysis to determine Calcium content. If the analysis reveals a calcium content of more than 70ppm then you should use hardwater floramicro"

with that being stated, i believe you're right at that point. correct me if i'm wrong but 0.2EC is just about 200ppm, so this might have something to do with your problem. are you seeing salt build up on/in your tank?
GH hardwater floromicro isnt that hard to get, im sure wherever you got your other GH products, they will have this as well. an other option would be to add a RO unit or some sort of water filter. it looks like the size of your garden warrents that. I ended up buying a Brita faucet style water filter for my small grow, and although it doesnt completely filter the water, it did make a noticeable drop in PPM (from 380ppm to 220), enough that i stopped using the hardwater micro and switched back to the regular one. i just need to flush my girls on a bi-weekly basis. hope this helps
HA
 

ultima

Member
Man , just lost half the garden to hermies. I just can´t catch a break.Cleansed with light bleach , vacuum, usual stuff.

It´s the strain, took the risk of an unknown, never ever doing that again.

On my meter 0.2 will give 128 PPM´s..640 conversion.
Can't see any salt buildup.
I was under the impression that I had great water, although kinda high ph 8.5

I have done 2 grows by now and although I had problems I never had this PH drop before.

And for those two grows I ran full strength Lucas at 1.9 - 2.0 most of the duration, now I cant go higher then 1.0 and they burn and drop the PH.
Admittedly , I´m not growing the same strain as my last 2 grows.

I was thinking the burn was lockout due to Ph , but what to do about it ? If I´m correct that is .

Is it cool to flush for 24 hours , again then start feeding lightly?
It's just that I already tried that ...and I'm afraid too feed them properly.
I'm also afraid that I'm running out of time,they probably need some more food to give me a proper yield , right ?

Can one even expect a proper grow running at 0.7 ec ?

Id love some more help if you guys have the time and inclination.
Its been a complete mess this whole growing experience.

2 bad grows and this one is going kinda bad.
 
hmmm...
@ only 128ppm, i would think your water is fine.
are u using anything else other than the GH 3part?
what ratio are u using?

your plants dont look that bad, and if its just stays at a lil bit of leaf-tip burn, you might be good to go. maybe get yourself some GH pH up and bite the bullet and correct pH every few days or so
 
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