Ok, so I'm now 40days since the 12/12 flip. It's Pineapple Chunk, which has a reputation for 70day flowering cycles. Growing in: 40% Canna Bio Terra Plus soil 10% Perlite 50% Red Clay Pellets 26 litres for each plant With a soil mix that weak I'd expect all the amendments to be used up at this point. However my run-off PH has been drifting down to 4.4 despite feeding/watering at +7 Some ppl say soil run-off PH is important. Some say it's irrelevant. However, it seemed like growth was low, and my leaves have been slowly discolouring for weeks. 2 days ago I decided enough was enough and flushed. Brought the PPMs down around 100 (my tap water is 74 so 100 runoff is very low). Brought the run-off PH to 5.75 after a very light feeding after the flush. Then let them for 2 days. The plants responded very well. Bud growth was visible after 2 days. However there was very little feed in the medium, so they couldn't be left long. Today I gave them a robust feeding at 6.8ph expecting the run-off to land in the low 6's now that the medium has been flushed out. Nope Run-off reads in the low 4's... Why, though I religiously water slightly above the target ph level, does my medium continually push the run-off down into the mid 4's? What the hell's going on in there?!?
270 views, and not one answer. Indicative of the soil PH question really. Here's a diagram of what I've figured out so far
How much runoff are you getting? What is the pH of your nutrient water before you adjust the pH? I'm not familiar with red clay pellets but I do know that hydroton in your soil will cause the pH to go down. Maybe you could try soaking a few of the red clay pellets in water to see if that causes the water pH to drop? If so, maybe that's the culprit. In any case, your plants look very healthy. Well trained and budding beautifully.