Major HELP needed...???

[Colt888]

I need your expertise folks. I'm 3 wks in flowering. I am using advance 3 part 1-1-1 ratio a little cal mag 80ml for 30 gal rez. The pups are sitting in 2gal pots filled with black gold. ph coming in is 6.8, ppms are at 900. I use tap water but my tap is 30ppms so the water is not hard. I dont know whats the deal with the yellowing and the leaf curls upwards and also you can see some black blotch between the fan leaves...I need your help...

 

[Core]

looks like ph troubles...seems alot of people don't know there own medium....drop your ph between 5.5 - 6.0 ish ..you are growing in all organic soil....and maybe drop the nutes a bit at 3 weeks of flowering....

 

[aota]

I had a similar problem my last round. I flushed and leveled off the pH then bumped up the N (12-6-6) for awhile and things greened back up.

 

[Colt888]

I thought 6.5-6.8 is a good ph level in soil? now I'm confuse.

 

[Core]

its not soil..i checked the net ...its soiless

 

[DirtDoctor]

Most people advise a pH of 6.2-6.4 for soilless (peat&perlite) grows.

Black Gold is fairly hot soil - did you let the plants live off the soil before adding nutrients? what strength are you feeding those girls?

It looks like you've got some clawing and burnt tips.....

 

[MynameStitch]

Can you list all micronurients that is says on your nutrients?
To me it looks like a magnesium/iron issue; cause magnesium CAN and does affect the upper plant in flowering; for some reason I have no clue. Iron also affects the same way starts on semi newer leaves.... why I have no clue; I bet it's due to pH though like Core and everyone else who said it was pH related....

Strains can have different tolerances to pH ranges; we say a pH range due to not knowning if the strain can handle the pH range.

Normally we tell growers of soiless mediums for 5.5 to 6.3

 

[Colt888]

thanks folks...I just flush them with 6.3 ph... and the next feeding I will use half strength nutes then bump it up. so do you guys think 6.3 is an ideal ph level to use in black gold medium??

 

[dre86]

the bag looks like this ?

 

[Colt888]

that is the exact bag...it says potting soil so why some say its soiless???

 

[MynameStitch]

Because around here the term is used soiless; meaning more soiless items like perlite,vermiculite peat moss and so on..... and different from"earth" which is soil.... when more of the items I listed are in there; it's termed soiless; companies do not use the term; us growers use the terminology.

 

[Colt888]

stitch...so what must do to get things going. I have flush with 6.3ph now the next step should be...??? your help is greatly needed thankyou

 

[aota]

Okay...check with stitch first but...I'm guessing...wait until they need to be watered....which will take awhile...since now they are wet and soggy. This will require patience since one always wants to do something for plants. Remember they are here to teach us something.

Calmag and lite bloom formula...for the calmag follow the directions on the label and for the bloom 1/3 strenght.

that is what I would do.... had the same problem! Yeild was OK...don't worry!!!

see what stitch thinks first...I'm still learning too.

 

[MynameStitch]

Ya, aota is right on the money; if you flush now you will over water them and you don't want that.

You have 2 choices to bring your pH down; you can either use something acidic to put into the soil like coffee grounds...... which you have to add a little to a different pot with the same mixture so you won't overwater your plants and test the pH run off from that pot so you know how much coffee grounds to add; or you can take the easier route and use pH down with your water; you want your water to be the pH that the mixture needs to be.

When you feed your plants, take a pH test of the nutrients as long as it's acidic you won't need to use pH down for your nutrients otherwise it will goof things up.

SO use pH down ONLY when you use plain water.

If you had RO water you wouldn't need to do this....I think black gold they added lime to the mixture... I am not 100% sure but I think they did have some lime in it; this causes the pH to raise to the level you are seeing now; normally when mixtures use lime there pH is in a range of 6.4 to 6.5
They do this because peat moss is very acidic and depending on what type it can be even more acidic.

So they use dolomite lime to buffer the acidicness of the mixture which causes it to raise; dolomite lime is alkaline and should only be used to raise it. Long time ago they say it can lower it with high amounts; but it would take A LOT of lime to lower it and the levels would be so high it would lock out other nutrients so lime is only used for bringing pH up and not down.

What does the directions on the cal mag say? Normally you don't want to go over 2 ml per gallon.

What bloom are you using? what brand?

 

[Core]

lol...still odd though...if i say put in 5.5 - 6.0 water in .....tehy trow in 6.3 ...nobody listens....i don't even know why i help peeps sometimes

 

[Colt888]

this is whats happening to me...I have a 30 gal rez. I mix all the nutes in it. then I ph the rez to 6.8 and I feed. Now my runoff water is at 6.0 ph. Now your telling me to just mix my rez half strength and just feed without ph the rez.?? I'm kind of confuse??? thanks for being patient with a newbie

 

[Colt888]

I have mg issues due to ph imbalance. I ran a test with the black gold soil. I added 1 tbspn of epsom salt to the water and feed them and the runoff was at 6ph. now I did the same thing with ph water at 6ph and it came out at 4ph. so my question now is when I'm back up to pace...when I feed them after putting in my nutes do I ph at 6ph or just put the nutes in then feed away. my water starts at 8.2 ph and 0ppm right out the tap. thanks

 

[MynameStitch]

You have a RO system installed in your house?
Without pics it's hard to say what problem you are having now......

But I will say this; there is absolutely NO way in hell your ppms is 0 and your pH out of tap is 8.2........

your water pH would be acidic range if there was no magnesium and calcium; so if the pH of your water is indeed correct; your PPMs is wrong and your not doing something right or your meter is broke or not calibrated.
Since your running hydro you want to keep pH up and down; when you add your nutrients to the water you test the pH after you mix your nutrients; if the pH is off you add pH up or down depending on if it needs to be dropped or raised; pH up and down should always be kept when growing hydro.

 

[Colt888]

stitch...after filling the rez...I check the water with my ppm meter I own 2. The Hanna pen reads 45 an my other reads 0. I figure the Hanna is more accurate. Now the water in ph reads 8.2 ph. Maybe I'm confusing you but this whole ph thing is killing me. My plants sit in a 2 gal pot filled with black gold potting soil. It has earthworm casting, hummus, peat moss, pumice, and perlite. Now at first I figure I'm in soil so I set my ph at 6.5. But after coming on here a few folks have say its soiless and I need to drop it to 5.5-6.0. So my question is when feeding my plants...1 set the nutrients in the rez to 6.0ph then feed or just mix the nutes and feed??? I'm lost with this ph stuff because I did a test run with one plant...I mix the nutes at 6.0 and feed it and check the runoff ph was 4.8??? now I was like wtf??? and when I just gave it straight water out the tap at 8.2 the runoff read 6.0ph. wtf. so this is where I'm lost. mix nutes and ph to 6.0 or just mix nutes and fead at8.0 ph???

 

[MynameStitch]

Dude, something is wrong; anyone who knows about pH and TDS knows that one or the other is wrong or right ...... if your pH is higher than 5.5 there is levels of magneisum and claicum and other forms of things in water zinc iron and such....

I still say something is wrong; what are you using to check the pH?
With advanced nutrients you can jsut mix and feed If I remember correctly.

Did you have other nutrients mixed in the res when you mixed in your other nutrients?
That is why you need to use pH up and down stuff.... because things like this happen it's very common.

Have you tried mixing nutrients in the water and letting them sit out and test the pH later?

AN 3 part is already pH adjusted for hydro so there should be no pH adjusting needed..... so something your doing is wrong; either your pH your testing it with or not calibrated if your using a meter; I don't know... but something your doing is off.....

Your not confusing me, I fully understand what you are telling me; it's just the information about the pH TDS reading is the most confusing as it does not add up.