So I just went out and bought some Fox Farm Tiger Bloom for my girl and a pH testing meter and kit, along with pH up/down solutions. My setup is a Northern Lights Auto (supposedly, went 2 whole months of no flowering before I induced flowering, now I have tons of pistils) 130w 2700k CFL's. It has been running on those CFL's a little over two weeks now and I just see more and more pistils, no buds. Oh, yes....and this is my first grow so I am indeed a noob Anyway, the nutes are an attempt to get her to flower because I feel like the nutrients in the soil may be depleting and hopefully the tigerbloom will give her a little boost and get her going. Regardless, tonight I found out that the meter I bought is near worthless. I've tested it on tap water and it says the pH of that is 5.1 (thats not good right?). I tested the tiger bloom solution and it says 3.5 for that. I mixed tap with the tiger bloom (slightly less than 1 tsp/gal, about half the recommended) and the pH of that reads to be anywhere from 5.1-5.4. If I've been using 5.1 pH tapwater to water my plant this whole time, wouldn't it pretty much be dead? I mean that's a huge discrepancy isn't it? Basically, if anyone out there has an idea of a better meter/probe let me know. I really don't want to add some stuff to the soil that will harm the plant this late in the game. Or, my grow link is posted, so feel free to check that out and offer up any other advice you think I might need. Thanks! http://forum.grasscity.com/indoor-g...nirvana-seeds-northern-lights-autoflower.html
pH is important, but not as big of an issue as you think. Ideal pH is between 5.5 and 6.5, and your plants can easily grow with water at 5.1 pH. And I think your meter is fine, but I can't see it myself obviously so maybe it really is broken. Good luck, hope this helps.
You will always have issues with ff tiger bloom, and ph. I think your ph is low @ 5.5 coming from a tap, but not unheard of. I quit ff nutes completely, (not saying they suck, just never worked for me) because I never could get my ph above 5.8! Would add ph up all the way to 10 water plant and test run off it would read 5.something. So I would say ditch the tiger bloom, your meter sounds fine. Do u have calibration solution to test it? And ph is important in budding. If its off your plant is not getting all that it could.... Peace and good luck.
Well, I did some research and according to what I found, the FFOF soil can buffer the pH level. So what I did was just mix the tiger bloom with my water (small amount, slightly less than half the recommended amount) and gave it to the girl this morning. She seems to be taking to it well, although I don't know how long it will take to truly see (it's only been a little over 5 hours). Just tested the soil pH though and it is sitting pretty at 6.6 so hopefully that natural buffer is doing its thing.