so I'm growing in perlite/vermiculite mix and am having serious issues keeping my PH down. I have gone through almost 200ml of ph-down in 3 weeks. i bring my res down to mid 4 to mid 3 but after i ebb it goes up to 6 or so. I check it again a few hours later and it's pushing 7 so I drop the res back down to and do it all over again. anybody have any advice? journal is here; http://forum.grasscity.com/hydroponic-grow-journals/1206507-first-time-grower.html oh, and i recently split the two strains up so they are on separate res's now. they are all 4 looking better than before but are still showing symptoms of potassium and phosphorus deficiency but are at least growing again. the indicas are in serious need of nutes so i split them up and upped the nute level to ~25% of recommended (measured 225ppm). ANY advice?? please!
What is your water source? I had the same problem you are having when I was using tap water. Once I got an ro filter I only have to ph down once a week.
i use tap water but it's only ~20ppm from the tap. It is in the mid to high 7's though. I was thinking of getting an ro but want to see if it will help before i spend the cash. is the stuff you can get at the store ro filtered? the stuff you refill the jugs with? and thanks for the reply
Just because your tap ppm is low, doesn't mean the ph will be more stable. Try a water change with ditilled water, if you ph becomes stable then there is your answer (I bet it will). Then get yourself a ro filter, for a couple hundred bucks it will make your grow a lot simpler.
my tap water is 24ppm and I use GH grow micro bloom. not once had a ph problem due to my water. of course every grow is different, but i'd say it's something else. are ur ppm's fluctutating. how old are ur plants. if they are eating more nutes than water, or vise versa, it will cause ph to become unbalanced. jm $.02
got the clones a little over 5 weeks ago now. I assume they were a week or so old when they were purchased. I had them inside and watered them with un-pHed tap water for the first week (it was too cold in the garage) and they were fine. I put them in the medium and they declined pretty rapidly, which makes me think the medium might be the cause (50:50 perlite:vermiculite). My water is close to 8 from the tap but the runoff was almost 9. I started dropping the pH to 3.5 or so and would still get 7+ runoff at first. now i replace the water every other day with 5 pH, and drop my res to 5 twice a day and still have 6-7 pH runoff as soon as i ebb it. My water generally doesn't go over 7 now though and my plants have improved dramatically. I put each strain on it's own res a couple days ago so i don't have much data of the ppm but it was ~225ppm +-25 or so prior. i have the indicas at 250-300ppm now since they were looking a little hungry and haven't noticed TOO big a swing, sativas i put at 200ppm. they are all looking pretty healthy with the new growth being nice and green accept for the ~2mm at the tip of each leaf which is brown and dead.