R/O Ph question

[glitterpig]

Just started my second grow. I purchased an R/O system. I am growing in Coco Coir/perlite. After I nutes my R/O water the ph is in range between 5.5 and 6.2. I don't recall the exact number. Is there any point of using Ph to get it to a 5.8 or to keep it at a constant ph lvl? Any help advice or links to a previous post I missed would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Granger2]

You should be fine in coco with that pH range. Try mixing some dechlorinated tap to get the pH range a little narrower. Good luck. -granger

 

[Ganja Maker]

I'll second that.
That's a good range for coco. Keep an eye on it, as you don't want to go any farther on either end of that range.
I try to stay between 5.7-6.0

 

[glitterpig]

Thanks guys. I made some R/o water last night with 25% technaflora nutes. The pH was 6.0 so all is well. thanks for the help

 

[glitterpig]

One more Question. I have been pHing the R/o water for my humidifier do i need to do this? It seemed like something that should be done

 

[Former Guest]

the humidifier is actually RO water in the making the steam released has nothing in it making it pure just like RO. that is why you have white water marks in the bottom parts (well at least mine accumulates this). same with a dehumidifier. the water collected is RO water. the only water you need to worry about is the water your putting on your plants

no ph required. the only benefit to putting RO in the humidifier would be less water scale perhaps. I've never bothered to do it.

 

[glitterpig]

Thanks bro i appreciate your time and knowledge

 

[Mad Lab]

So I slightly disagree with most of these statements. I don't like the "you should be fine if you do that" or the "if it aint broke dont fix it" because i believe everything can be better and progress is required to achieve better yields and pulling the genetics full potential in quality.

Here's the deal with pH. Different nutrients are best retained at various ranges. Such as Ma and Ca are best absorbed at 5.3-5.4, while Mg is best absorbed at 6.0-6.1. Now your important nutrients are in between these two ranges so "you should be fine" at 5.8

What you want to do is try to allow to plant to receive a pH of 5.4-6.0 in a week period. If you run coco and do 3 feedings a week I would suggest 5.4/5.8/6.0.

All of this only matters if your feeding your coco plants properly. Which includes a 25% runoff every feed to avoid calcium buildup and unused nutrient deposits. These will change your pH and ppms. So make sure to check your runoff with each feed and see if your getting the same pH as your putting in.cThis is extremely important with coco.

This pH lockout chart will show you what i mean. Controling your pH is controling your yield and product quality, ignoring this will result in product that just quite isn't grade A.

http://www.420magazine.com/forums/indoor-soil-cultivation/114733-ph-nutrient-uptake-charts.html

 

[glitterpig]

I appreciate the help bro. I have been feeding my girls nutes every night. I use technaflora nutes. They suggest in coco to feed nutes,water,water.. What do you suggest?

 

[Mad Lab]

I have no experience with technaflora nutes, i prefer running House and Garden nutrients in coco, but as for water, water, water as you might do with rockwool, I would advise against this.

What else besides coco is in your mix? Are you mixing your coco with perlite? If so, what ratio? Also, do you have good drainage on the bottom of your pots? And, are you getting 25% runoff every feed?

The best way to utilize coco is to do a light mix. Something like 50% coco 50% perlite. this allows for the medium to dry at a faster rate, which allows you to feed at a higher rate, which is ideal if you can afford the nutrients.

If you ARE doing a light mix, feeding every day is good but this is only if your rootmass has grown into your entire container or pot. When you first transplant and for approximately 2 weeks afterwards, I would allow your coco to dry in between waterings. This increases osmosis (oxygen exchange at roots) and encourages better root growth in your medium. After your roots have grown through the container, they will be drinking enough for you to water daily. It is difficult to overwater coco but it is possible. This is more a problem when you have other issues with you plant and it is weak, and most new growers will have numerous things wrong with their enviroments.

Also inoculate your root zone with an EWC Tea. A good recipe that is cheap and will help you gain knowledge about beneficial microbes is Heizenberg EWC Tea thread found on rollitup.com. This is one of the BIGGEST areas of growing that you will need to read up on to be where you want to be as a cultivator.

 

[glitterpig]

Thanks Mad Lab. I have been using 75% coco coir and 25% perlite. The pots have good drainage. I have some air pots on the way. I plan on using hydroton on the bottom of the air pots then the 75% coco and 25% perlite. I have some earth worm cast, mycorrhizae, and Molasses for inoculate tea. I have read up on ewc and have found so much confusing and missleading info. I have read and been told that the mycorrhizae beens will die if the ppms get to high in the feeding. Your take?

 

[Mad Lab]

75/25 is ok, but next time around I would use at least 60 coco and 40 perlite.

So here's the deal with the tea:

I'm assuming you dont have an RO filter and I also assume your tap source has chloramines instead of just chlorine. You'll want to go get some purified bottled water so the cholramines dont kill your microbes. If you find out your local watersource doesn't add chloramines and only adds chlorine, you can aerate a 5gallon buckets for 36-48 hours to release it.

Add airstones and start aerating your water.
pH to 6
Add handful of EWC
Add approx 20ml of molasses
Brew 48 hours (should have nice foam)
Add myco (they dont incubate until root impact)

Your ppm's will only be at 'high levels' during your 4+ week of flower. At this stage you will no longer be using the Tea.

 

[Mad Lab]

Also, you dont need to feed this tea every fed. After you add tea once, you can feed the microbes that colonize in your coco by adding molasses to your waterings to feed the them. I dont like adding molasses to my reservoir, so I prefer to just add tea every other feed with coco until week 3-4 flower.