What type of medium; soil or hydro? Hydro What brand and type of soil? No soil Indoors or outdoors?Indoors What strain? Lemon Skunk How old are the plants? 27 days What type of lights and how many watts? 184W CFL How far from the lights? 4 inches What is your watering frequency and source of water? I flood my tray for 30 minutes, 3 times a day What, how much and when was it fed? NPK? I'm using Fox Farm nutrients at half-strength What is the medium/runoff pH and PPM if in hydro? Everything is 5.8, but it's fluctuating more often What are the temps and humidity in the room? 78F 50% Humidity What size pots? My tray is a little under 10 gallons, I think Any bugs? No. I'm supposed to change out the reservoir on thursday, but I'm thinking about changing it tonight, because maybe I've had to add pH solution too much and maybe the plant doesn't like it. Is it just me? Thanks for any help.
How much is it fluctuating? Did you wash that gravel thoroughly? Are you using rock wool? If so, did you soak for 24hrs prior to use? Are you using distiller water? If so, are you leaving open 24 hrs before use? If not are you letting it set out in the sun for a lil while to evaporate chlorine? Did you start at 1/4 strength nutes? Is your table draining completely?
Well, it's fluctuating to the extent that I pH it to 5.8 last night and by now(7 PM) its down to like 5.5. I'm thinking that's it. At first, it fluctuated maybe a tenth every couple days, but I guess as the nutes get used up, it's not stabilizing the pH like it used to? I don't know, but it's fluctuating more and more. I washed the gravel out until the water I was washing it with was clear, I soaked the rockwool, I let the water sit, I'm using half-strength nutes, and my table drains all of the way.
alright, so i should just change out the reservoir early so that the ph quits freaking out. i was going to change it thursday, but i guess doing it a day or two early wont hurt anything
No, it won't hurt anything. If your ppms are dropping drastically, I'd suggest upping your nutes. (Dropping ppm more than dropping water= plant is taking in more nutes than water and therefore needs to be adjusted. Same goes the other way, nutes rise water plummets, to much nutes.) @[member="mmman"] knows his stuff. Listen to him.
alright, thanks guys. i actually dont have a ppm meter. i might have to get one of this situation happens in the future too many days before im supposed to change the res
if my ph is dropping like this, is it because of low nutrients? because if there's a way to narrow it down to that, ill just toss in a couple tablespoons at the halfway mark to stretch the res and be safe until purchasing a ppm meter is less like getting shot in the wallet.
Not really. Ph can be effected by many many things, including things as simple as leaving your res not "snapped down". They have em on amazon for like 10-20 USD. Ppm is something you pretty much have to know for hydro. Fluctuations should be monitored and adjustments made when and where necessary.
i think he means that he'd rather just part with the money and save time. i really cant afford to do that at the moment, though.
Not necessarily a cheap one but a decent one, say like you could purchase on ebay, that's my market place.