Spontaneous reveg at 6 weeks into flower?

[Major PITA]

I've been running PH close to 6.4 all grow.
Lately I have replaced PHDown with lime juice.
However,
In the last water before this happened, I accidentally measured 3.5ml orange juice into each 5 gal bucket instead of lime juice.

These leaves may be the result of a sugar high

For now, I'm doing well. The leaves aren't changing much and the buds are thickening .

I like thickening buds

I do have a little experience in this, but also from what I've read, citric acid from fruit and acetic acid from vinegar don't work worth a damn for acidifying a nutrient mix in soil. It is very short-lived and causes PH swings. Maybe try measuring the PH of your runoff and see what it tells you.

 

[B A R]

I've been using lemon juice for PH down for over a year now without any ill effects. As a matter of fact I find the health of my plants have been better since making the switch but do believe other factors are involved. I've never tested run off.

 

[Major PITA]

I've been using lemon juice for PH down for over a year now without any ill effects. As a matter of fact I find the health of my plants have been better since making the switch but do believe other factors are involved. I've never tested run off.

I tried vinegar and it was true to the things I've read. Less than 24 hours and the PH was right back where it started. Never used lemon juice - too spendy for me.

 

[B A R]

Don't go all out buying name brand lemon or lime juice, get the store brand of whatever supermarket you shop at. Most big chain stores sell theirs for around $1 and that's way cheaper than PH down. What a lot of people don't realize is that a lot of store brand and off brand packaged goods are produced by the same company that makes the name brand package at a fraction of the cost. These food manufacturers aren't stupid, they're making money on both ends of the price spectrum, been going on for years. Think about it; would it even be economical for a store such as say Pathmark to produce all the different items on their shelves with their store name on it right next to the other brands?

I've heard about a lot of growers having problems with vinegar but have only heard of reasons not to do it with lemon juice. As far as testimony I've yet to hear anyone say they've had a bad experience with it.

 

[Major PITA]

I hesitate to offer too much advice since I'm still fairly new to this, but...
My previous/first grow was difficult. Measuring the PH runoff helped me turn it around and saved the day. I find it much more valuable than measuring what goes into the soil. For example, I could measure 6.2 PH going in but find 5.0 coming out. That 5.0 is what the plant and nutrients were actually dealing with. This was a soil-less grow. I know soil has a lot more buffering capability but I still think measuring what comes out gives a more accurate picture of what the plant roots are experiencing.

 

[B A R]

B A R Pita

 

[Radogast]

I don't have any runoff. Iwater from the bottom and let things soak up.

Using the lime juice (there was no lemon juice in the house,) I have the same PH after my water has been sitting overnight as when I added the juice 24 hrs earlier.

 

[B A R]

Using the lime juice (there was no lemon juice in the house,) I have the same PH after my water has been sitting overnight as when I added the juice 24 hrs earlier.

As does ours Radogast. Since we buy the same lemon juice all the time we rarely even check it anymore. There's only about four different feeds we mix & our tap is stable at 7.1 - 7.3 PH so for instance; When we're doing a Cal/Mag feed it's 5ml of Cal/Mag & 2ml of lemon juice per gal, always will be 6.6, 6.5, or 6.4

 

[Radogast]

As does ours Radogast. Since we buy the same lemon juice all the time we rarely even check it anymore. There's only about four different feeds we mix & our tap is stable at 7.1 - 7.3 PH so for instance; When we're doing a Cal/Mag feed it's 5ml of Cal/Mag & 2ml of lemon juice per gal, always will be 6.6, 6.5, or 6.4

To make double sure, I tested PH immeditely after adding lime juice tonight. I plan to check again tomorrow.
My previous test was with juice fresh out of the refrigerator.
This test is with a 1/4 cup of juice that has been at room temperature a few days.

 

[JBUptown]

Don't go all out buying name brand lemon or lime juice, get the store brand of whatever supermarket you shop at. Most big chain stores sell theirs for around $1 and that's way cheaper than PH down. What a lot of people don't realize is that a lot of store brand and off brand packaged goods are produced by the same company that makes the name brand package at a fraction of the cost. These food manufacturers aren't stupid, they're making money on both ends of the price spectrum, been going on for years. Think about it; would it even be economical for a store such as say Pathmark to produce all the different items on their shelves with their store name on it right next to the other brands?

I've heard about a lot of growers having problems with vinegar but have only heard of reasons not to do it with lemon juice. As far as testimony I've yet to hear anyone say they've had a bad experience with it.

Indeed, I have used Lemon Juice with no ill effects and stable pH for 48 hours. I agree, it is one of the cheapest food store solutions for pH down. I happened across a cheap big ole bottle of Phosphoric Acid and have been using that for a long time, but my tap water comes out at 6.8 so other than when I grow hydro (I like about 5.7 for Hydro), not much acid is usually needed. If I'm mixing nute water for soil, usually the nutes reduce the pH a few tenths as well. Sorry if the pH suggestion wasn't the solution, but glad it's corrected. I had just experienced a similar scenario a year or so ago and in my case it was a pH problem, but it looks like yours was not. Best of Luck!
JB

 

[Major PITA]

Sorry guys! I think my previous post about using vinegar was misleading and probably not even relevant.

When I said the PH reverted to the original value, I meant my runoff water - not the water/nutrient solution. Until I started using phosphoric acid, I was not able to keep it at my desired PH.

There were other factors involved as well. My TDS went too high. The ultimate solution to my grow problem was stable PH combined with more runoff to rinse out built-up nutrients/salts. Anywho, I would definitely use the least expensive effective acid to adjust. I have a feeling this reveg is more light-related, but that is pure conjecture.

 

[Radogast]

Sorry guys! I think my previous post about using vinegar was misleading and probably not even relevant.

When I said the PH reverted to the original value, I meant my runoff water - not the water/nutrient solution. Until I started using phosphoric acid, I was not able to keep it at my desired PH.

There were other factors involved as well. My TDS went too high. The ultimate solution to my grow problem was stable PH combined with more runoff to rinse out built-up nutrients/salts. Anywho, I would definitely use the least expensive effective acid to adjust. I have a feeling this reveg is more light-related, but that is pure conjecture.

Let us see: Short light day, orange juice instead of lemon juice to adjust PH, Let the soil dry out a little for the first time in weeks - I'd say I did enough potential stressors - HOWEVER, the buds are swelling, so time for a happy dance

 

[B A R]

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[Major PITA]

 

[Radogast]

Lime Juice PH results - a surprise to me.


These are my PH readings about 20 minutes after adding lime juice

This is the same water PH tested 48 hours later

These are not the results I expected. I'm trying the same pair of tests against water PH adjusted wih PH down.

 

[Radogast]

Sorry guys! I think my previous post about using vinegar was misleading and probably not even relevant.

When I said the PH reverted to the original value, I meant my runoff water - not the water/nutrient solution. Until I started using phosphoric acid, I was not able to keep it at my desired PH.

There were other factors involved as well. My TDS went too high. The ultimate solution to my grow problem was stable PH combined with more runoff to rinse out built-up nutrients/salts. Anywho, I would definitely use the least expensive effective acid to adjust. I have a feeling this reveg is more light-related, but that is pure conjecture.

I'm actually finding merit in your statement

I did a 48 hour PH change test using PHdown.
There was a slight PH change, but not the total return to original PH as when using the lime juice.

I'm wondering is I may be doing my initial treatment and test wrong. I'm going to do some testing at 15 min, 1 hour , 4 hour, etc and see what I can learn.
I probably won't post it here ..... It may take awhile, as I'd like to confirm results, contrast with lemon juice, etc to get a good feel for what is going on.

PHdown after water adjust (from arond 7.0)

PH Down 48 hours later