First off just let me day this is my first hydro grow, ive been growing in soil for 4 years and wanted to switch it up. Anyways here's my situation. I have 20 low ryders growing on a ebb and flow system. The res is 18 gallons. The nutes are cns-17 grow and hygrozyme. I will be using bloom but not yet. The growing medium is rock wool and the table floods twice a day for thirty minutes. The plants have been out of the medium for 6 days and The problem I'm having is after a day or two the changing the water I end up with the ph being way to high. I wanna know what may cause this cuz I don't wanna ruin the crop or stress them to much. By the way I an using RO water. Any else is greatly appreciated. I'll be starting a page here shortly for the entire grow for anyone that is interested. Thanks.
Wow I feel completely retarded but as soon as I posted that I realized that my problem is the ph going UP! sorry for any confusion.
Hi.. Couple of ?'s... What is the Ph when you start?... after a couple of days? I do the Lucas formula (with GH) and I start with 7.0 r/o water, and after I mix the nutes, it's around 5.2, so I have to add PH up to get it to 5.8. I also wait for 12-24 hours before I do the Ph adjustment, then I add it to my reservoir. Thanks
Your nutrient concentration is to weak. You have to make it a little bit stronger. Whats happening is the plants are consuming all of the fertilizer in the water. The fertilizer reduces the pH because it's acidic. So as the plants eat the fertilizer in the water the pH will start to go up. To really see whats going on you have to monitor the ppm's and pH with meters. If your going to grow hydro a TDS and pH meter is a must have. good luck!
Thanks I appreciate the info, I have a hanna grocheck but I let the ph meter sit out and it got ruined so I'm waiting on the ph prob to come in the mail. Once that's here it will make my world a whole lot easier but for the next 3 days ill be hoping I don't screw it up since they are already a week old
I start off with a 7 ph from the RO system and then add nutes, the nutes being used are cns 17 and hygrozyme. After I add the nutes the ph drops down to around 6 but without my ph probe working I don't know the exact ph level
hydro growing without a good ph pen/probe will prove problematic. but you got that covered... maybe this ph chart will help you a little too.... http://forum.grasscity.com/sick-pla...-weeks-1-2-into-flower-problem-oh-really.html In my experience I found out that ph rising is a direct consequence of the plants eating.... it's normal and it should happen.... of course once you get your routine going you will notice a ph pattern... anything that doesn't stick to that pattern indicates problems or gives you clues about your nutrients' absorption etc.... anyway enough said for now.... good luck
Thanks I appreciate the advice... My ph probe just came in The mail today so I should be back on schedule. I know I have to calibrate the ppm and ph probes together but do you have to use the solution that sold or is there another way to do it?
plus not all nute are acidic some raise ppm. as I agree with the plants eating up the nutes will raise the concentration, it is not necessarily the answer ppm can also rise when when the plant can't uptake a certain nute. raise ppm slowly and monitor ur girls if they start going south you know more nutes wasn't the answer just 2 cents.
Well depends on strain, medium, and nutrients being used.. I see you're using Rockwool and flood 2 times a day, without knowing strain, and what nutes you use, a good starting place for any plant over 2 weeks old would be about 1000ppm.. I normally run between 1100-1200ppm, but I'm using hydroton which does not let salts buildup as fast as RW does... But if it were me using that system, again I'd start at 1000ppm, maybe 1100 tops....
If I follow the schedule for the bonicare cns17 and the hygrozyme and I'm at 1225 ppm right off the bat. I'll send you a link tomorrow because I'm posting a bunch of pictures of my set up and plants so far but they are thriving and healthy but I just don't wanna screw up my first hydro grow ya know
Well personally I feed 200ppm in seedling stage (1 week), then around 800ppm in week 1 of veg, then I go to full in week two of veg (1100ppm)... When I ran rockwool (10 of the 6" blocks), once a week (on res change day), I'd knockoff the last feed, pH a bucket of water and pour 1/2gal of it through the blocks from top down, and I never had a salt buildup problem... So if you flush your blocks once a week, I can see 1200ppm in rc being fine... But again, it depends on strain too, some can handle it high, and some can't... Just keep an eye on the plants, they will tell you when enough is enough..