Off To The Races
- Thread starter lassus
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lassus
New Member
about 5.5
SanibelGreen
New Member
With a Ph like that you might be in a deficiency like Mg, I will be looking but check the pictorial in my sig, does your plant look like any of the pictured?
SG
SG
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- #44
lassus
New Member
ph is supposed to be right at 5.5 and 6, which is where I have kept it. I'll look at your link, butdo you think I'm too acidic?
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lassus
New Member
Hey SG, did you ever see that Seinfeld episode where Elaine was bitten by a dog and when she looks into the symptoms of Rabies, she starts frothing at the mouth and is convinced she's rabid? Well, your link has me convinced that I have every known deficiency (of minerals and elements, anyway!). Maybe I should inch up my pH a little closer to 6.0. Whaddya think? Oh and did I mention, my wife is ready to dime me out or take hedge clippers to the tent and its contents. Love is a many splendored thing, you know. 
SanibelGreen
New Member
I ride the 6.0 -6.3 and works for me quite well! Worth a try though 
SG
SG
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- #47
lassus
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- #48
lassus
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Forgive me brothers, for I have sinned. SG, our recent exchange has opened my eyes to a rookie blunder so egregious, I feel like I should be pilloried in the virtual public square of our 420 village. Now I understand why things have been going a little cockeyed with my grow, why flowering is delayed, and why the plants have bit by bit started looking less healthy.
Although I've been doing res changes every 10 days or so, there are a couple of issues I've overlooked which, if there are any newbies reading this, you can save yourselves a lot of frustration by learning from my mistake. It comes down to two things. 1. While I carefully measure pH and ppm with every res change, I failed to appreciate how dramatically the water chemistry can change over 10 days. Especially with larger plants consuming and releasing compounds into the water. Even though I keep a bucket of pre-adjusted nute water for topping up the res during the week, I didn't realize how far out of whack my res water could become. My water this morning was at a pH of 4.0-3.9. ppm was also much higher than intended.
2. My routine with res changes has been to fill a bucket with about 10 gallons of water at a time, adjust the pH, and then add nutes to the desired ppm. What I've discovered is that the nutes themselves must include ingredients to balance pH and so the pH after adding the nutes is different than it was when I had it adjusted before adding nutes, making the mixture too acidic. I believe this problem becomes compounded as the plants nourish themselves and the contents of the res become more concentrated and imbalanced.
Although I thought I was following the general protocol that Roseman has spelled out so well in one of his many helpful posts, I know now that I need to follow his advice more closely. First of all, and especially as the plants are larger than seedlings, COMPLETE RES CHANGES EVERY WEEK. And taking very regular measurements of res chemistry throughout the week. I will check daily or no less than every other day from now on. Sheesh, I feel like a maroon.
I hope my plants rebound. It's been a long road and it would be really a pisser if I lost the crop and had to start from scratch. Especially since my wife has decreed this is going to be my only grow. But then again, it was her sense of humor that I fell in love with........
Although I've been doing res changes every 10 days or so, there are a couple of issues I've overlooked which, if there are any newbies reading this, you can save yourselves a lot of frustration by learning from my mistake. It comes down to two things. 1. While I carefully measure pH and ppm with every res change, I failed to appreciate how dramatically the water chemistry can change over 10 days. Especially with larger plants consuming and releasing compounds into the water. Even though I keep a bucket of pre-adjusted nute water for topping up the res during the week, I didn't realize how far out of whack my res water could become. My water this morning was at a pH of 4.0-3.9. ppm was also much higher than intended.
2. My routine with res changes has been to fill a bucket with about 10 gallons of water at a time, adjust the pH, and then add nutes to the desired ppm. What I've discovered is that the nutes themselves must include ingredients to balance pH and so the pH after adding the nutes is different than it was when I had it adjusted before adding nutes, making the mixture too acidic. I believe this problem becomes compounded as the plants nourish themselves and the contents of the res become more concentrated and imbalanced.
Although I thought I was following the general protocol that Roseman has spelled out so well in one of his many helpful posts, I know now that I need to follow his advice more closely. First of all, and especially as the plants are larger than seedlings, COMPLETE RES CHANGES EVERY WEEK. And taking very regular measurements of res chemistry throughout the week. I will check daily or no less than every other day from now on. Sheesh, I feel like a maroon.
I hope my plants rebound. It's been a long road and it would be really a pisser if I lost the crop and had to start from scratch. Especially since my wife has decreed this is going to be my only grow. But then again, it was her sense of humor that I fell in love with........
SanibelGreen
New Member
All make mistakes man, learning is first. Learning first hand is great however, once you start getting in the groove you will see better results. Doing good so far keep it up man!
SG
SG
StinkFinger
New Member
Live and Learn.
Sounds like you've identified the problem and you'll make the adjustments. All the different manufactures seem to have different swings in their chemistry. I found with the General Hydroponic 3 part, it had very little drift in PH over the course of a week to ten days.
Once corrected, you should know in a couple of days if your plants are liking the new "soup".
Back with your grow now man! Sorry about the absence.
Sf.
Sounds like you've identified the problem and you'll make the adjustments. All the different manufactures seem to have different swings in their chemistry. I found with the General Hydroponic 3 part, it had very little drift in PH over the course of a week to ten days.
Once corrected, you should know in a couple of days if your plants are liking the new "soup".
Back with your grow now man! Sorry about the absence.
Sf.
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- #51
lassus
New Member
Fink Stinger, it's good to see you coming up for air, homes. I'm still in limbo with the grow. Stalks are strong, but leaves show a lot of battle fatigue. Checking pH at least daily, and we'll see if things recover. And if they do, if I haven't stressed too many of the girls to boyhood. To be continued....
StinkFinger
New Member
What's doing bud? Any progress.
You stabilized at this point?
Sf
You stabilized at this point?
Sf
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- #53
lassus
New Member
Sort of, but not really. I did a res change on Sunday with the proper chemistry. When I checked on Tuesday, my pH was down from 6.0 to about 4.4 and my PPM had gone up about 200. Not a big deal with the PPM, but the pH drop is bad news. I added "pH UP" to bring it back to 6.0 and when I checked again today, my pH was back to 4.4. I just upped it back to 6.0. Perhaps I need to do another res change to get all the shit out of there and hope for a better result. This is starting to make dirt farming look more attractive........
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- #54
lassus
New Member
Well, I decided to do the res change, just to play it safe. I emptied the tub, filled it with plain water and emptied that, just to sort of rinse the tub clean, and then refilled with properly nuted, pH adjusted water. Since the nutes seem to concentrate, I left it slightly lower than before, and this time, after adding nutes, and checking pH, I was right on. No pH down needed, as I had been downing previously to get it closer and then adding nutes, which I believe are adjusted for lower pH and tended to drive the water to high acidity as the nutes were consumed and waste discharged. I'll continue to watch it closely.
The catch is, I'm leaving for 2 weeks in 5 days. I have a friend scheduled to come by and tend the garden, but since he's more of a novice than I am, I have some concerns. Hopefully, all will go well. I have faith, and I'll be sure to give him written instructions, as well as going over things in some detail with a tutorial.
The good news is that I'm finally seeing come colas beginning. Not enough to determine sex yet, but at least the transition has finally begun. I love agriculture.
The catch is, I'm leaving for 2 weeks in 5 days. I have a friend scheduled to come by and tend the garden, but since he's more of a novice than I am, I have some concerns. Hopefully, all will go well. I have faith, and I'll be sure to give him written instructions, as well as going over things in some detail with a tutorial.
The good news is that I'm finally seeing come colas beginning. Not enough to determine sex yet, but at least the transition has finally begun. I love agriculture.
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- #55
lassus
New Member
Folks, something seems not to be going well. For some reason, my pH keeps plunging. I check daily and it seems that in spite of adjusting to 6.0, the next day the pH is about 4.4 needing to be adjusted up, repeating the cycle daily.
I don't know why this happens. My best guess is that I have too many plants for the system. The resevoir only holds 17 gallons in the RainForest. I have 5 plants, 3 of which are quite large. Could it be that with so many roots swimming in the soup, the exchange of nutrients/waste overwhelms the system and drives down the pH? If so, maybe I should sacrifice some of the plants so that I can maintain a better equilibrium? As it is, the plants seem to be surviving, but not thriving. Leaves have all kinds of brown areas suggesting the inability to ingest certain elements due to pH swings that restrict absorption. At least that's what I'm wondering.
As I mentioned above, I'm preparing to be out of town for 2 weeks starting in the middle of next week, and have a friend checking in on things every other day. I'm trying to get things settled so that he doesn't have to be saddled with technical difficulties.
Suggestions please!
I don't know why this happens. My best guess is that I have too many plants for the system. The resevoir only holds 17 gallons in the RainForest. I have 5 plants, 3 of which are quite large. Could it be that with so many roots swimming in the soup, the exchange of nutrients/waste overwhelms the system and drives down the pH? If so, maybe I should sacrifice some of the plants so that I can maintain a better equilibrium? As it is, the plants seem to be surviving, but not thriving. Leaves have all kinds of brown areas suggesting the inability to ingest certain elements due to pH swings that restrict absorption. At least that's what I'm wondering.
As I mentioned above, I'm preparing to be out of town for 2 weeks starting in the middle of next week, and have a friend checking in on things every other day. I'm trying to get things settled so that he doesn't have to be saddled with technical difficulties.
Suggestions please!
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- #56
lassus
New Member
Well, I've taken my own suggestion. Looking more carefully at the jungle, it was clear that 2 plants are quite large and the other 3 are much smaller. I removed the 3 stunted plants, leaving the two big ones, which by the way, appear to be developing females. My concern now is whether the myriad roots from the plants removed, which are hoplessly entangled with the roots of the survivors will screw things up badly as they will be dying. I pruned a ton of leaves from the survivors to get rid of the brownies. The adventure continues.....comments always welcomed! 
FoF1985
Well-Known Member
lookforward to seeing how this turns out . this is the first RF66 post ive seen where the plants might have just outgrown the res of the rf66 lol . water changes every 3 days that would suck . how hare do u think it would be to put the system into a bigger container ? anyways look forward to seeing how this turns out!
