I remember reading something about when the ph is unstable it means the plants are either drinking too much water or taking in too much nutrients... My Ph goes from 5.6 to 6.2 in 24 hours. what can i do to keep them steady? feel free to fill me in on what the hell my stoned self is trying to remember. thanks guys. -Teapot
If your res is getting more concentrated (PPM going up) the plant is drinking mostly water. So lower your PPM. If the res is getting more dilute (PPM falling) the plant wants more nutes. So raise your PPM.
sounds good...heres the thing. i dont have a ppm/ec/tds meter. i have ph strips. i have been using soil and still am using soil. I am just trying out a small ebb/flow table for the first time. So am i really going to need to buy a ppm meter? or can i wing it for now?
Does it keep going up or does it cycle? If you have algae and light your pH will cycle. My pH in the Bubble Bucket creeps up until I get enough veg to get close to a water / nute uptake balance. If you are going to play Hydro - yea - spring for a multi-meter. Temp, pH and Elec Conductivity are the numbers you need Dont get hung up about PPM - it is a derived number and 2 meters showing the same EC can give you different PPM (depending on if it is a .5, .7 or .64 conversion machine) A good meter on eBay will run you $150 before shipping. Look at HANNA Waterproof pH /EC/TDS/Temp Tester Also remember to get 500ml each of the calibration solutions
yeah im going to end up getting one sooner or later. I just dont know if i can spend the money on it right now. I havent noticed a cycle, but then again, im not sure what you mean exactly by a ph cycle. I will keep checking the ph every few hours to see how it is holding. it hasnt got over 6.4. I dropped it back down to 5.4 a few hours ago. ill go check it out and post up a ph a little later.
Cycle = Morning is high - Evening is low and repeats (or visa versa) So net pH does not really go up much day-2-day .. just swings during the day. Also - if you have a pH meter - EC / PPM meters are the cheap half. http://www.amazon.com/HM-Digital-TDS-EZ-Tester-Purity/dp/B002C0A7ZY These are really just volt meters
ok gotcha. thanks for the info. hydro is a bit more complicated but my plants are doing well so far. They are fresh cuttings only 3 inches tall but they all have new growth and are doing great. i just want to get things dialed in before these hoes get pissed and start working the other side of the street... thanks again for the help R -Teapot
Spend the 20 bucks and get a digital PPM and PH meter. Fleabay has em' cheap. You can't guess, you'll fuck up the whole thing over 20 bucks, and look at the time\money wasted. I don't do dirt, so I can help you on your PH problem there, other than you may need to do a flush....If your bucket is 3 gallons of dirt, I think you flush with 9 gallons of PH adjusted water....This is from memory, you need to check yourself to verify.
I have the dirt down. My girls are flourishing in dirt. Its my hydro set up that im worried about ph and ppm and all that jingo jango. Im going to go get a meter as soon as i can.
I just looked on fleabay, a cheap PPM 9 bucks and 4 to ship it, and PH 4 bucks and 6 bucks to ship. Those are what I bought, and have used em' over a year now. PH meter needs checked and set about once a week.
Buy yourself a good ppm pen between 60 to 100 u can get one. I went through 3 cheap ppm testers before I decided to waste 120 and get myself a good one. In the long run itall save u money To go with something good. I know from exp I have 3 ppm checkers that all are shit and 4 Hanna ph checkers which got wet and went to shit. So my new Moto is buy the better one coz in the long run u end up wasting more money.
yeah im a strong advocate for doing things right the first time so i will be spending the money on a nice one that will last me a long time. My Ph has settled around 6.0. I am using an air stone in my res so that might be the thing thats doing it. My plants seem to be loving whatever im doing because the clones are growing almost a new leaf set a day now that their roots have grown farther down. im still using what i consider a light nutro solution. Im pretty sure its around 20% of fox farms recomended. Im going to be bumping it up a little every time i need to top it off.