Fast Falling PH

fishdeth

Well-Known Member
Hey guys,
I am in the middle of my second grow.
All throughout my first run and the first part of this run, my PH has always been on the rise... like a lot of others I read about here and elsewhere.
But for a few weeks now it has been falling, and fairly fast too.
The Nutes are either being drank fast or there is a lot of evaporation.
I think it is more being drank/eaten than evaporation, as my system is pretty sealed up from the light.

So if they are eating like crazy, is that what is causing the PH to drop?
They have just recovered from some heat injury and have really taken off lately.

Thanks for any help or ideas,
FD
 

itsmehigh

Well-Known Member
Hey guys,
I am in the middle of my second grow.
All throughout my first run and the first part of this run, my PH has always been on the rise... like a lot of others I read about here and elsewhere.
But for a few weeks now it has been falling, and fairly fast too.
The Nutes are either being drank fast or there is a lot of evaporation.
I think it is more being drank/eaten than evaporation, as my system is pretty sealed up from the light.

So if they are eating like crazy, is that what is causing the PH to drop?
They have just recovered from some heat injury and have really taken off lately.

Thanks for any help or ideas,
FD

Falling PH can indicate a root issues, or a lack of nutrients. Are you going through a lot of water? Plants will compensate a lack of nutrients by drinking tons of water. By increasing your EC your PH should stablalize and they should drink less nutrient solution. How are your roots looking? Your in hydro right?

Itsme.
 

fishdeth

Well-Known Member
Thanks man!
Yea, RDWC.
They have been consuming mass quantities lately, it had been quite warm here.
The roots look good, I'll get a couple pics when the lights come on at 7.
 

fishdeth

Well-Known Member
I use Humbolts Secret, Golden Tree as a supplement and it is VERY dark brown.
When you first pull the plants out of the flood tray, tour forst reaction is ROOT ROT...
NOT
That stuff seems to build up on the roots so I took the 3 plants out and sprayed the roots off with a fine mist of tap water at a decent pressure in a bucket of water and it knocked most of that residue off.
The HS GT is 0-0-2.25
Maybe that was contributing?
I then added a gallon of 7PH water back and it was at 5.85.
Will monitor and report at noon.
First pic is before rinsing the Jack Herer
20150326_072310_resized.jpg 20150326_072520_resized.jpg 20150326_072515_resized.jpg 20150326_072205_resized.jpg 20150326_071910_resized.jpg
 

Atomizer

Well-Known Member
The ph will drop if the plants are pulling a lot of P and K from the res. PH rise comes from heavy uptake of nitrate (NO3) typical in veg. Some nutes contain both nitrate (NO3) and a percentage of ammonium (NH4) to control the PH. N uptake in the form of NH4 causes the PH to drop.
 

firsttimeARE

Well-Known Member
Those are somr brown looking roots.

What level feed are you giving? Usually its too much nutrients that cause a drop as the plant drinks up more water and leaves the acidic nutrients behind.

Mid to late flowering plants you sometimes see a drop as the plant is taking in more K which is a cation. When plants intake cations the ph drops. Anion i take raises the ph.
 

fishdeth

Well-Known Member
Thanks for all the chiming in guys, much appreciated!
I am using the General Hydroponics flora trio and try to keep my PPMs around 1000-1200
I add cal-mag and I use AquaShield for the roots (bennies)
PLUS the Golden Tree.
 

firsttimeARE

Well-Known Member
That sounds like a lot of feed for such small plants.

Which scale is that ppm in? Otherwise that number is useless.

Use EC
 

fishdeth

Well-Known Member
This AM. I set the PH at 6.
I checked it at lunch and it was 5.7.
Checked it at suppertime and it was at 5.7.
Seems to be stabilizing.
Looks like I learned something!
 

fishdeth

Well-Known Member
Did a complete res change and there was a lot of residue from the nutes.
Cleaned out the flood tray as well as the res and the filter on the pump was disgusting too.

NOW all is stable, PH is stable and dropping slowly as well as the PPMs AND the water.

Plants have really taken off too.
I MIGHT flip to flower on the first of the month... APRIL FOOLS girls.... LoL!
Maybe the end of the week/next res change ?

We shall see...
 
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