[budrot]

Hi Guys,

I've done a few Hydro grows with Lucas formula nutes and i have now started to get involved in the Biosevia range.

Its all baffling me a bit. I feel like I'm walking blind at the moment and don't have enough of a general understanding of Hydro to work it out for myself.

I was hoping one of you kind people would help me get my head around this as I really don't want to give up on it.

My main problem I am having is maintaining a stable PH on my res.

I started off at PH 6.2 and the res keeps rising back up towards 7.0

It is now at 6.6 but I have been adding the odd litre of water (PH6.0) to the nute 15 Litre nute tank to keep the PH down.

I can't work this out or understand why the PH keeps rising.

Please help!! I'm nearly at my wits end with this, i cant find much info on the net, anything i do find is in drips and drabs. I was hoping someone would have a Biosevia grow diary but I can only find the one that I have started.

Any help would be so so appreciated, I hate the feeling of failing a grow!!

...Budrot...

[budrot]

Is anyone here??

[budrot]

FFS - It looks like people get a lot of fucking help on this forum!!

[fletch]

Here's the ph scoop. During the week to 10 days between res changes, ph can range from 5 to 7 if properly started around 5.8 to 6. Many nutes uptake at different ph levels and the levels naturally change a bit as the plant uptakes nutes from the res. For years now I have shot for 6.0 immediately after a change and again at about the middle (4 days or so) between the change. A huge mistake that many beginners make is to get too paranoid about ph levels. Sustained levels over 6.8 will cause some leaf damage as will sustained levels below 5.2 or so. Check them daily and adjust no more than every other day. If you have major probs that fall outside of these ranges, have your water tested and consider changing to RO water for better control. Most municipal supplies try to stabilize the water near 7 to prevent pipe decay and most nutes help to bring levels within normal ranges. Find a nutrient uptake chart to settle your mind on ph fluctuations. They happen naturally and you can't and don't want to prevent them. In simple your answer is that your water is probably around 6.8 to 7 and as some nutes are consumed by the plants the ph rises. As a side note, rising ph is the norm in a proper hydro operation and is considered the sign of good plant growth, and good nute and water uptake. Hope this helps.

more nutrients=>drop in ph
nutrients eaten by plants=>less nutrients in solution=>rise in ph
since you are only adding water, you are not covering the deficiency of nutrients in the solution. the plants, subsequently, are still hungry.
Raise your nutrient levels and your pH will stabilize

remember though that too much nutrients=>too much of a drop in pH
if too many nutrients in solution=>plants drink more water than they eat nutrients=>further drop in ph since the ratio of water and nutrients gets worse (even more nutrients per ml of water)

itll take a while to learn what the proper ratio of nutrients to water is. just like all chemistry, cooking, arts etc.

[budrot]

The trouble is that there is no way of measuring how much nutrient is in the tank. The EC stays the same regardless.
Oh well, good news is she is looking really healthy.

She looks a lot different to other plants i've grown. She looks really shiny and lucid green. In comparison I'd say she looks more like see weed than bud weed!
I am very impressed with the system.

I am dripper feeding into a 12 litre Auto-Hempy bucket filled with pure Fytocell.
The bucket is just one big giant Biofilter filled with roots now. Its growing like crazy and looks out of this world.

[budrot]

Does anyone know if I'm supposed to do a res change out at all with Biosevia?