Nutrient Troubles!

BrINClHOF

New Member
My first post here, so let me give you some information up front. Taking care of my Fiancees plants, she was diagnosed with adenocarcinoma of the pancreas stage IIB back in 2007.

I have done several inside grows (but still consider myself a neophyte) in soil with limited success in my mind (3-3.6 Oz/Plant). At least some of my plants in soil are always deficient in some part of the grow. Mostly later in the grow because of pH issues. So I thought why not try ebb & flow should be easy to keep my pH adjusted. :confused:

This is my first attempt at ebb & flow with one common reservoir for all plants. (See theCapn How To: 10oz per plant perpetual indoors)

8 Plants are Agent Orange sativa dominant.
9 plants total (1 is L.A. Confidential, indica, very strong).
Room size is 8' x 21'-3" x 10' tall.
The weather has not been cooperating so my temps and RH are a bit high:
Ave. Temps from 1st day of Veg: 68-82F, hit 90F twice!
Ave. RH from 1st day of Veg: 42-62%. Hit 74% once, tons of rain.​
Reservoir temperature averages 73.5 F. A couple of days at 78 but roots look good and white!
The smaller plants are 3 weeks into veg, the bigger ones are 4 weeks.
Lighting is currently 4' T5 overs each pair of plants, soon to be 600 watt metal halides just got them today.
Half of these are 3 weeks into veg. and half are 4 weeks.
Had some aphids in the room about a week ago and some unknown super tiny crawlers (not mites) on the floor. Sprayed with Safer Insect Soap and they are all gone now.
My ec was 1.0 but with the heat I dropped it down to .9. My HannaPrimo meter (500 scale) says 490-550.
Nutrients are General Hydroponics Flora Series.
CaliMagic at 4 mL/gal
Flora Micro 2mL/gal
Flora Gro 3 mL/gal
Flora Bloom 1 mL/gal
Aqua Shield 4 mL/gal​
Here is where the trouble begins. I have a Bluelab Guardian Monitor in the reservoir (3 weeks old), but it started reading real high pH's 6.6-6.9, so I checked it with my Hanna hand held meter (2 years old) it consistently read .5 lower. Finally got the 4.0 calibration solution that I misplaced for the Blue Lab and re-calibrated it. Now the BL reads 6.0 and the Hanna reads 5.7, both re-calibrated today. So who knows, I am assuming I am somewhere between the two.

/edit:
I did this post early this morning, so be make sure it's clear both meters were reading wrong! Just the BLGM was ever further off (3 weeks from calibration), and the Hanna had been through calibration only a week prior.
/edit

I think most of my problem has been the fact that my pH was high for about a 3-4 days and I couldn't decide which meter was closer to correct. Here are some pictures for you Guru's to give me some advice. I think troubleshooting plant problems is the most difficult part of growing for sure!
forums



Any tips or advice welcome. Am I on the right track? Is this caused by my pH mishap?
I was also thinking about bumping up the CaliMagic to 5mL/gal it should only raise my ppm by about 30 points.

Thanks in Advance for your help and suggestions.

BrINClHOF.
 
So I have no idea what picture #1 is telling me. Any suggestions?

Is picture #2 phosphorus and potassium deficient?

Is picture #3 calcium deficient?

Is picture #4 and #5 potassium deficient?

I am using CaliMagic at 4ml/g because the 3:winkyface:1 flora series gives me 27 ppm of calcium, the CaliMagics adds about 258 ppm more Ca, I thought this would be enough.

I also thought in my readings that the P:K ratio should be 1:2, with this flora series 3:winkyface:1 ratio this is what I am supposed to be getting P:K= 1:5.3 isn't this wrong?

Here is a ppm breakdown without the extra Calimagic:

ppm-breakdown.759230




Any help is appreciated.
 
Where did my picture go?
ppm-breakdown.jpg


/edit:
P.S. I checked the pH with a simple vial of nutrient solution and a few drops of indicator all I can tell is that I am indeed somewhere between 5.0 and 6.0 and probably closer to 6.0. This is why I went with a digital meter I can never tell for sure where I am and the scales full 1 point range makes it very difficult.
 
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