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Earth Juice Users

Greensub

Active member
Just applied my first EJ/EWC tea to the veggies. i used 1 T Grow, 1/2 T bloom and cat per gallon along with about a cup of vermiblend per 5 gal bucket.made two buckets. bubbled them for 48 hrs. one was spot on ph wise (which was hard because with the drops the ideal ph color is piss yellow and my tea was a similar color in small quantities, it was black/brown in the bucket) the other was around 8. just wondering if anyone had thoughts on this. both were identical set ups. I'm hoping this jump to EJ from FF goes well...

I too am in a switch from FF to EJ... don't trust the drops with EJ... that's what I learned. I came to the conclusion that my PH has been all over the place... mostly high at the beginning because I was using the drops. Then it was too low... I cut down the strength and just gave it to them at a low ph to make sure I wasn't too high. Finally I went and bought a piece of crap lowes tester (Mosser I beileve) $9.95, it was all I could afford.

I checked in soil following the directions (water to saturation, insert and wait 60 seconds for the reading to settle) I checked against my run-off and it was spot on, then I checked it in different levels of plain PH'ed water and it read that correctly too. I think the trick with these is to be anal about cleaning them... still, with no way to calibrate it... I think it needs to be checked almost every time to make sure it's still accurate.

Anyways... after all that, my plants looked much happier this morning (2-3 days after finally getting my PH in the right range using the run-off/soil PH meter method).

Once again... I wouldn't trust the drops while using EJ (worked fine for FF) but EJ's way thicker and more colored... everything ends up looking like a PH of 6 before you even add drops... the stronger it is the more so it does this. Jjust wait till you try to use the drops with the Hi-Brix in the mix... useless.
 

FinestKind

Member
Well, at least that's one issue I don't have- my pH is always at 6.0 to 6.3, whenever I test it. However...

First of all, I fed tonight with EC 1.1 tea; it took A LOT of Bloom to get me up to 1.1, and I just want to make sure that this is cool. Into the tea went (these are all per gallon) 1 1/2 t Grow, 1t each of Liquid Karma, molasses, Catalyst, and Microblast, 1/2 t Meta-K and 1 1/2 t of Hygrozyme. With all of this in there, it took me 5 teaspoons (per gallon!) to get me up to 1.1... that seems like a lot!

My resulting EC numbers were, frankly, all over the place. On a few, with the runoff from the nutrient solution, the EC was around 2.0. On another couple, closer to 1.6. On another few, 2.8, and 2.4. I mean, what I am I supposed to do? I can't cater to individual plants... the ones on the low side were starting to yellow... I checked one yesterday with plain water and it was at EC .6. Advice?

FK
 
Thats a bit crazy - read your round 2 thread just now & thats complicated things even more.

In there you said your had 3.6 runoff at one point & im seeing some burnt tips.

5 teaspoon per gal ain't that much but 5 tablespoon is.

What all did you put in that promix amendment wise ?

Your 3 different phenos of LUI13 are probably not helping matters.

The ones in prime light are eating more than the outer ones probably but can't do much about that.

Geez - Im not sure what to tell ya, sorry to add all this hassle to your life ?

It should get easier ?


ah - since you have 3 phenos, pick best looking one of each, label & record each one, & track how quickly or slowly the EC drops from feeding to feeding (or watering).

Its a tough call, something thats just not right is it taking 2 weeks for the soil to dry up. Is that still going on ?

I think 3 days is more normal or thats what mine have always been in these huge tubs under a wimpy 400W.

They suck water like crazy - 4 gal per 25 gal tub every 3 days & they are bone dry starting to droop slightly.

Whats the temp on the main floor ?

Lots of questions sorry..
 

Greensub

Active member
well I found two posts from you on PH...

Well, at least that's one issue I don't have- my pH is always at 6.0 to 6.3, whenever I test it. However...

First of all, I fed tonight with EC 1.1 tea; it took A LOT of Bloom to get me up to 1.1, and I just want to make sure that this is cool. Into the tea went (these are all per gallon) 1 1/2 t Grow, 1t each of Liquid Karma, molasses, Catalyst, and Microblast, 1/2 t Meta-K and 1 1/2 t of Hygrozyme. With all of this in there, it took me 5 teaspoons (per gallon!) to get me up to 1.1... that seems like a lot!

My resulting EC numbers were, frankly, all over the place. On a few, with the runoff from the nutrient solution, the EC was around 2.0. On another couple, closer to 1.6. On another few, 2.8, and 2.4. I mean, what I am I supposed to do? I can't cater to individual plants... the ones on the low side were starting to yellow... I checked one yesterday with plain water and it was at EC .6. Advice?

FK

and

Huh, interesting... I have the same meter, and mine never stays calibrated! I mean if I use it once, I feel as if I need to check it 15 minutes later... sometimes it even shoots up to like 9.something when it's in the 7.0 solution, and then I can't calibrate it (because it would see the 7.0 calibration as the 10.0)... my hydro guy said to bring it in the next time it goes wonky like that and he'd give me a new one. Good to hear that they at least can be reliable.

FK

Have you gotten a new meter recently... are you sure your PH is OK? The slow water uptake sounds like that... do you mix one whole batch of tea for all of them at once... or is it split up?
 

Scrappy4

senior member
Veteran
My resulting EC numbers were, frankly, all over the place. On a few, with the runoff from the nutrient solution, the EC was around 2.0. On another couple, closer to 1.6. On another few, 2.8, and 2.4. I mean, what I am I supposed to do? I can't cater to individual plants... the ones on the low side were starting to yellow... I checked one yesterday with plain water and it was at EC .6. Advice?

FK

FK, my run off test generated simular numbers. Some were double or almost triple others. But my main symptom was slow growth in late veg, along with what looked like a slight color loss. Plus my best looking plants had the highest and lowest numbers. Was my data bad? possible for sure.....



Then I got thinking about my adding alfalfa to my soil mix, and how when i made alfalfa tea how crazy high the numbers get. And started considering how my numbers might not be telling me the whole story. Plus my gut was telling me to feed.

To make a long story short. I fed a nice 1.4EC ewc tea with an added shot of blood meal. They took it well so three days later they got an lite EJ tea, and now the next morning, they look better, new growth has started, and the leafs look darker.

I'm not telling you to ignore the run off numbers, but, they may be more important to spot trends than actual hard evidence of current conditions. And with all the possible variables, of soil, and amendments who the fuck knows.

I guess the jury is still out on my grow, but really you have to look at the whole picture, so you see the forest and not just trees.........scrappy
 

FinestKind

Member
Hey guys, thanks so much for the responses, I read through them real quick and it seems I've got some questions to answer. :) Seriously, you guys rock!

I don't have the time or energy today to give a thoughtful response (having just gotten back from one of my fiancee's oldest friend's funeral)... I will take the time deserved tomorrow. Until then... have a good night, and I'm going to get some sleep.

FK
 

FinestKind

Member
Let's see, where to begin this autopsy? :D

First off, @ Tac: It is 5 teaspoons and not tablespoons... so you think this amount is okay? They'll certainly have enough P until the next feeding, that's for certain. :)

Amendment-wise, nothing but lime and mycorrhizae... that's why I was so surprised when with my initial watering the EC was way high- 3.something if I remember correctly. This with an initial feeding of only .6. Weird.

My waterings are now once a week... I know why it is so different than what most experience; it's because I transplant from 1/2 gallon containers to the 3 gallons at the flip from veg to flower... so there's obviously a lot of root development that needs to take place. I know, this isn't ideal, and probably decreases my yields, but I still get around .61 grams per watt, which is okay. (And this with my tendency to over-feed! Hoping I'll get a little improvement on this round.)

On that note, temps are fine... they are on tables, so no contact with the floor, and the room temp on avg. is around 70 at night and 80-ish in the day. Humidity 50 to 60%, around 55% on avg.

I'm going to take some pics tonight at lights on, and show the difference between Day 31 on this round and last round- there is no doubt that the overall plant health this round is much better than last round... it's just a bit inconsistent is all. I'm not sure if there's any way to change that completely with out going over to hydro, which I just don't want to do for various reasons.

I will pick one of each pheno and track it... good advice. I've been kind of picking them out at random and testing them, which hasn't really showed me any patterns... that makes far more sense.

Greensub, I have a good amount of confidence in my meter when it's calibrated... the problem is sometimes it's not calibrate-able. But most often it's pretty close to the 7.0 and 4.01 solutions, so I have to assume it's pretty good.

As far as the teas are concerned, they are split up- I make two identical batches of 24 gallons apiece... usually they're pretty close in pH by the time they're done... and if they're not, I mix them 1/2 and 1/2 into a separate container.


@Scrappy: I see your point for sure... the EC meter is a tool, and we can't let the tool completely run our lives.... it has definitely, absolutely improved things for me this time around, but like you said, some common sense is required, too.
 

FinestKind

Member
Here's that comparison:

Last round:
picture.php


This round:
picture.php


It's still not a perfect world. I'm posting some other pictures and details in my round 2 thread... I've included some of the more screwed up looking plants over there. :)

FK
 

Bud-Boy

Active member
Veteran
wow
can I say overwhelmed....??

Read a few pages up front, makes me think im way out of whack somewhere in my grow approach. Saved entire thread to pdf to read later. Then Ill come back with questions.

I live where they make EJ, or at least originally did in the begining. It's always been popular in the area, I dont have negative feelings for it, Im just not too fond of it. Now Im seeing I may have been using it incorrectly, somewhat.
Switched to AN's Iguana a few years back, but the $ has me hesitant to buying it any more.
But it sure was ez, and good stuff, for me at least.

One things for sure, I'll learn alot absorbing it all.

Thaks for sharing all!
 
FK you said: I transplant from 1/2 gallon containers to the 3 gallons at the flip from veg to flower..

Might want to give them a bit of veg time in the big container to get a bigger rootmass then put them to flower ?

I would just skip the hassle of the 1/2 gal & put beer cup rooted clones in the 3 gal for about 2 weeks then topdress some ewc & flower ?

Its all about experimenting & trying different things, just an idea.
 

FinestKind

Member
FK you said: I transplant from 1/2 gallon containers to the 3 gallons at the flip from veg to flower..

Might want to give them a bit of veg time in the big container to get a bigger rootmass then put them to flower ?

I would just skip the hassle of the 1/2 gal & put beer cup rooted clones in the 3 gal for about 2 weeks then topdress some ewc & flower ?

Its all about experimenting & trying different things, just an idea.

I would LOVE to... if I only had the space :) In my continuous grow scenario, I've got room under my HPS for 48 3 gallon pots; my "veg" room only has 3x 4' T5's, so I can only get 48 5.5" pots under them. Like I said, I know it's not ideal... I just don't have the space for both. One thing did cross my mind recently, and I don't know if it would make a difference or not, but I could veg for a week under my HPS after transplanting to the 3 gallon containers... it would give the roots at least some chance to fill out the pots, and would only add a week to my total finish time. I don't know, I'll have to give it some thought. Another thing is I don't have a lot of head room, so I don't want them to get too tall, which could happen vegging under stronger light... *shrug*
 

FinestKind

Member
Okay, here we go again... just had myself a good fit, trying to get over it, but things look pretty much just like they did last time @ 4+ weeks... I just don't fucking get it. Ready to throw in the towel.

Anyway, I'm thinking about brewing my tea in a 10 gallon batch and then mixing it in with the other 48 gallons (or 38 at that point)... mainly because for some goddamn reason I didn't get much pH rise after 2 days the last time, even though it raised to 6.3 in 24 hours the time before.... granted it was a drastically different mix, but still... it was 4.something in one barrel and 5.something in the other barrel after 48 hours.

My question is, how should I go about it? I mean, I don't want the stuff to go bad, but I don't know what the pH should be in the 10 gallon batch in order to balance out my 6.0 pH water... should I just give it 24 hours and go with what I get? 48 hours?

Thanks guys, sorry for the frustration.

FK


P.S. Okay no more posts to this thread for a while, I've taken over almost the whole page. Sorry about that.
 
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Sorry bud, let the teas go 3 days & they should be pretty alkaline. Your soil sounds like its on the acidic side anyway.

You are putting some ewc or compost in the teas so the microbs are kicking right ?

Ya next round veg them babys for a week under HPS to fill in the pots, that should fix your slow watering issue & help with alot of possible side issues that could be originating from that. You will prob end up watering twice as much in flower but that can be a good thing.

You can Dbag it up - this info might help someone, or confuse the living hell out of them..lol
 

Greensub

Active member
I know I asked about your PH already... It just looks so much like low PH to me... (a mixture of macro nutrient deficiencies appearing on lower major fan leaves) I could certainly be wrong though. I'm sure you posted this elsewhere, but what's your current PH reading on your run-off. I'd even go buy one of those cheap soil probes I mentioned and check the actual medium at this point...
 

FinestKind

Member
Sorry bud, let the teas go 3 days & they should be pretty alkaline. Your soil sounds like its on the acidic side anyway.

You are putting some ewc or compost in the teas so the microbs are kicking right ?

Ya next round veg them babys for a week under HPS to fill in the pots, that should fix your slow watering issue & help with alot of possible side issues that could be originating from that. You will prob end up watering twice as much in flower but that can be a good thing.

You can Dbag it up - this info might help someone, or confuse the living hell out of them..lol

Hey Tac, thanks...

Yup, got like 3 cups of EWC per 24 gallons of tea, should be sufficient, no?

Are you saying I should just keep making the teas the way I have been doing it, rather than making a smaller batch and then adding it to the water?



I know I asked about your PH already... It just looks so much like low PH to me... (a mixture of macro nutrient deficiencies appearing on lower major fan leaves) I could certainly be wrong though. I'm sure you posted this elsewhere, but what's your current PH reading on your run-off. I'd even go buy one of those cheap soil probes I mentioned and check the actual medium at this point...

I have a soil probe, I'll check it tonight, also I'll check the runoff next time I water with my drops too, but I really think the meter I have is accurate... I know that my water is 6.0, and it always reads 6.0 in the plain water... it does look like lockouts though, doesn't it? My last reading was between 6.0 and 6.4, I don't remember exactly... like I said, it doesn't seem to vary too much.

Thanks guys, as always.

p.s. Oh, and here's some pics I took last night.

FK
 
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FinestKind

Member
So... was planning on doing a plain watering on Monday, but decided it wouldn't hurt to get some microbes in there... so I added my 3 cups of EWC plus 1 cup of cow manure to each 24 gallon barrel, plus 1 tsp per gallon of molasses and 1 tsp per gallon of LK. This brings my EC up to .3 ... should I dump it out and go with plain water, or is that .3 okay?

Thanks guys.

FK
 
Whatever way is easier to brew the teas should be fine, your EWC in the teas should be fine also.

My gut feeling at this point is, your ph seems to low, your feeding too much, pots aren't rooted enough, your light setup is causing feeding variations & your water quality is suspect.

Thats kinda bold assumptions but seems like there are several issues going on at the same time & maybe taking a look at that stuff might be of some help in the future ?

You going to reuse that soil or start with a fresh mix ?
 

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