PH Problems - Extreme Yellowing - Suggestions

Hey everyone, here's my setup:

Strain: GHF Cheese Feminised

Container - 1 5 gallon bubble bucket - 3 gallons of water
Medium - Hydroton Pebbles
Light - was using 400w HPS, now 400w MH for better veg
Temps - 83 during the day, 68 at night
Humidity - around 30, higher at night
Nutes - Biobizz BioGrow = 1.8-.1-6.6 and FluoraNova Compost Tea its like .5-1-1.
pH - very unstable, around 7 when I check after work and I have to add 2ml of acid to compensate. Back to around 7 the next day.
6 inch pots
7 inches from lights


I fed by mixing a solution containing 2 ml of Compost Tea and 6ml of BioGrow in 3 gallons of water and put the plant back into its container with the new solution. Did I do this right? I'm new to hydro and it doesnt seem to be working out right.

Also, the BioGrow seems very thick, it is derived from molasses and I think it says you can use it for hydro but its very hard to mix. Any recommendations for 3 part nutes?

I also found a chunk of rockwool in the solution, not sure how it got there but it clogged up the root system bigtime.

Since the pictures were taken I have cleaned the roots and put them in a new solution of just water with 5.5 pH. I also changed the bulb back to my MH. I am hoping to see more green by tomorrow.


Any suggestions about anything I can do to improve my grow are much appreciated

[SmknVTEC]

Has to be the pH not allowing nitrogen to be uptaken correctly. Keep the pH at 5.5 if you can. Do you know the PPM?

any suggestions on how to stabilize the pH? and no I don't have a PPM meter, is it extremely necessary to have one?

[SmknVTEC]

pH should be stableized with a good liquid pH down. Yes I know of no hydro growers who don't use a PPM meter. http://www.htgsupply.com/products.asp?categoryID=13

[Help_Needed]

Originally Posted by hwhobbs

any suggestions on how to stabilize the pH? and no I don't have a PPM meter, is it extremely necessary to have one?

A good pH meter and good TDS/EC meter are essential to growing hydro. You should also calibrate them frequently to ensure that they're accurate.

i have general hydro pH up and down, I have a lot of pH stuff, just nothing for ppm or nutrient measurements. I ordered an electronic pH meter to be more exact, but on a lighter note my plants are slowly turning green again. I put a small dose of compost tea into the water and have kept the lights on 24/7 and the green is starting to show. I will get a ppm meter soon.

Also, what's the difference (if one exists) between a PPM meter and TDS/EC meter

I'm a real amateur at hydro as you can all see, I should've stuck with soil because I've had much better results.

I took a picture to compare with a few days ago... what is the usual recovery time because I think I have my baby on the right track now, I think it's just a matter of time...

It's real hard to tell the difference in the pictures but up close its different.

Pic 1 is a few days ago

Pic 2 is a few minutes ago

eidt: They yellow on the fan leaves only. All the leaves under the big fan leaves are green... I think the roots are looking a lot better too

[SmknVTEC]

Originally Posted by hwhobbs

Also, what's the difference (if one exists) between a PPM meter and TDS/EC meter

http://www.bghydro.com/BGH/static/ar...0406_tdspH.asp

ok thats what i figured... thanks smkn for all the help! i'll post back in a week or so to show progress

pH is 5.5 right now and I added some superthrive so the roots can bounce back. ppm meter is on the way.

[SmknVTEC]

Sounds good man good luck.

ok i know i said i'd post back in a week, but overnight the plant has drooped, all the leaves are almost vertical. any ideas?

i am going to put new water in, but i don't know if i should add anything to it to account for the deficiencies the plant has.

suggestions would really help. thanks.

[SmknVTEC]

If it happened over night it leads me to believe under watered. You will know that's it if after an hour of watering it perks back up.

[eL Tauro]

how the hell do you calibrate it???

plant hasnt perked up yet and it has been 24 hours since i put new water in the bucket. i honestly don't know what the hell it could be. I think the plant is trying hard to perk up but is also trying to restore the yellow leaves.

I chopped the extremely yellow fan leaves off (i know this is a bad idea because the plant gets a lot of light from them) because it seemed like they were draining the energy from the plant. all new growth is green at the moment.

The roots look extremely healthy and have really developed just in 24 hours. They are almost all white compared to before when they were brown and sludgy. I have cleaned them as best as possible.

pH is about 5.3 and I had to add 4ml of compost tea just because I think the plant needs a little food. Also the tips of the yellowed fan leaves were turning brown leading me to think nute burn so i'm really needing that ppm meter right now.


calibration on the pH meter (should come with directions but i'll post anyways):

dip meter into clean distilled water and dry electrode
dip meter into pH 7.0 solution and twist the screw until the display reads 7.0
dip the meter into clean distilled water and dry the electrode
dip the meter into pH 7.0 solution and twist the 4.0 calibration screw until the display reads 4.0.

if your meter reads 7.0 and 4.0 off the bat then you dont need to calibrate.

[GigZ-16]

I with I knew more about hydro to help you, but I grow soil. If you need cheap pH up/downs, check the guide in my sig. As for the droopiness, are the drooping leaves just limp, or are they limp and hardening?