PH drop in Hydro sys. HELP pls

MaineWeed

MaineWeed

Active Member
Strain is Serious Seeds AK-47 and I'm running GH's FloraNova line of nutes in top drip.. gravity return.. 6 - 5gal buckets plus res. system and I just passed week 5 of bloom... I start out with PH at 5.7 to 5.9 then within 24hrs my ph drops down to 4.5 to 5.0..so I change out and flush the whole systems fluid and start out again at 5.7 to 5.9 and it did it all over again so now I'm getting frustrated and think maybe my nutes are old..I go out and buy fresh nutes and figure let me try Dyna-Gro..I buy the bloom and the pro-tek...same thing again within 24hrs PH is right back below 5.0. Can anyone put some input as to why?...If the grow wasn't already past week 5 working toward 6 I'm so pissed I'd just rip them out and start over but there has to be a reason...anyone please help. Thanks for reading my pissed off ranting and any help will be greatly appreciated.
MaineWeed
 
B

bseeds

Well-Known Member
water and temp play a big role in hydro and if you cant get them were there need to be put plants in soil thats why most people grow in soil hydro is touchy but when mastered the plant produce fast
 
hotrodharley

hotrodharley

Well-Known Member
MaineWeed said:
Strain is Serious Seeds AK-47 and I'm running GH's FloraNova line of nutes in top drip.. gravity return.. 6 - 5gal buckets plus res. system and I just passed week 5 of bloom... I start out with PH at 5.7 to 5.9 then within 24hrs my ph drops down to 4.5 to 5.0..so I change out and flush the whole systems fluid and start out again at 5.7 to 5.9 and it did it all over again so now I'm getting frustrated and think maybe my nutes are old..I go out and buy fresh nutes and figure let me try Dyna-Gro..I buy the bloom and the pro-tek...same thing again within 24hrs PH is right back below 5.0. Can anyone put some input as to why?...If the grow wasn't already past week 5 working toward 6 I'm so pissed I'd just rip them out and start over but there has to be a reason...anyone please help. Thanks for reading my pissed off ranting and any help will be greatly appreciated.
MaineWeed
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Lay off the nutrients! I'm guessing your PPM/EC is steady or rising when I say this. This is the usual culprit. Drain part of res to lower the PPM and use straight tap water as your pH Up when you add back.
 
hydrocropper420

hydrocropper420

Active Member
What kind of soil?????? Ive used complete rockwool and had this problem as it does not hold a ph level well, i switchedto coco and hydroton only and never had this problem again, keeping the ph around 5.7-5.9 now, and the nutes temp about 75 degrees
 
MaineWeed

MaineWeed

Active Member
needlesnpins said:
Low Ph like that is definitely the start of some root rot.
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^^This could be a possibility....
Guys I'm not Joe grow but since I've started growing hydro I have over a dozen successful grows under my belt and have a tri-meter and all the other bells and whistles...I just have never encountered this problem before, I have changed nothing but the strain.Below is a picture of my set-up taken a while back just to give you a idea I do know how to grow but am and always will be still learning...if it is the above "root-rot" would that be a genetic thing or...??
Thanks for any help...

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GreenThumbSucker

GreenThumbSucker

Well-Known Member
When you have PH drops like that you are having root rot problems. Get some 35% hydrogen peroxide and give them three ml per gallon for about five days then 2 ml per gallon til you are finished.

Next crop use hydrogen peroxide from the start to prevent it.
 
hotrodharley

hotrodharley

Well-Known Member
OK what do your roots look like before you assume root rot? And what was/is your PPM? Steady, rising or falling? I ask because I have only had this happen once. First, an inspection of roots revealed they had literally pulled the air lines up in to the root mass and entwined in a cable tie I used to pair them. Fixed that and waited. pH drop was less but still there, the PPM just slightly higher than the night before. Heavy into flowering so I let the pH stay around 5.8-5.9 and supplemented cal/mag as well as H2O2. No root rot but H2O2 is a good regular add in small amounts.
 
MaineWeed

MaineWeed

Active Member
hotrodharley said:
OK what do your roots look like before you assume root rot? And what was/is your PPM? Steady, rising or falling? I ask because I have only had this happen once. First, an inspection of roots revealed they had literally pulled the air lines up in to the root mass and entwined in a cable tie I used to pair them. Fixed that and waited. pH drop was less but still there, the PPM just slightly higher than the night before. Heavy into flowering so I let the pH stay around 5.8-5.9 and supplemented cal/mag as well as H2O2. No root rot but H2O2 is a good regular add in small amounts.
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Its week 5 plus a couple of days of bloom.
PPM's I been running between 1000 to 1200 as always.
Cal-Mag...I've tried 2 different kinds to no success and am still getting some yellow to leaves.
Changed fluids out completely 2x's in last 4 days trying to get PH to stay 5.5 to 6.0 because it drops to lower then 5.0 and even changed nutes just to be sure they were well within use-by-date.
Water temp is kept 66 to 68 degrees always.
Roots have no odors or signs of slime, I have however since reading the above comment have looked and noticed that my air stones are entangled in the root ball and have untangled them and have yet to see a difference BUT its only been 2hrs.
 
Canna Connoiseur

Canna Connoiseur

Active Member
I am growing that strain out in an flood and drain table. Not having any ph drops on my rez and I do not even aerate it. I keep rez temps at 69 and ph never drops. Look at my journal in my signature. Root rot makes your roots slimy.

Also, if you are just that early into flowering your ppms shouldn't be that high. I just threw mine into flowering the other day and they are eating at 600 ppms with a little nitrogen toxicity.
 
hotrodharley

hotrodharley

Well-Known Member
Canna Connoiseur said:
I am growing that strain out in an flood and drain table. Not having any ph drops on my rez and I do not even aerate it. I keep rez temps at 69 and ph never drops. Look at my journal in my signature. Root rot makes your roots slimy.

Also, if you are just that early into flowering your ppms shouldn't be that high. I just threw mine into flowering the other day and they are eating at 600 ppms with a little nitrogen toxicity.
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Agree with the PPM. I have never exceeded 1000 PPM with any strain and that one time I did caused a big nitrogen burn quickly. I don't understand how so many run these PPM in excess of 1000. When I read that I begin thinking lockout and/or other problems associated with high salts contents.
 
Canna Connoiseur

Canna Connoiseur

Active Member
hotrodharley said:
Canna Connoiseur said:
I am growing that strain out in an flood and drain table. Not having any ph drops on my rez and I do not even aerate it. I keep rez temps at 69 and ph never drops. Look at my journal in my signature. Root rot makes your roots slimy.

Also, if you are just that early into flowering your ppms shouldn't be that high. I just threw mine into flowering the other day and they are eating at 600 ppms with a little nitrogen toxicity.
Click to expand...
Agree with the PPM. I have never exceeded 1000 PPM with any strain and that one time I did caused a big nitrogen burn quickly. I don't understand how so many run these PPM in excess of 1000. When I read that I begin thinking lockout and/or other problems associated with high salts contents.
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Very true. Serious seeds ak 47 is a very forgiving strain but if you give them less they will really take to it. My ec is at 1.1 right now and they were smelling like crazy before I even threw it into flowering.
 
MaineWeed

MaineWeed

Active Member
I know for a fact it is not a lockout problem.Out of all the indoor runs doing hydro this is the first strain that I have ever had problems like this, even the seeds were poor growing stock. Lights are on now so a picture would look crappy but tonight when lights are off I'll snap a few pictures and maybe that'll help as I really would like the roughly 3 to 4 weeks left to pack on the bud weight and density. Not only is the PH dropping but some leaves are yellowing and getting brown spots on some of them.These are clones taken from my last run which were seed that I ordered through Attitude and I ran the seed run at 1200 to 1500 ppms but ran Co2. They do say that SS's AK is supposedly a very easy keeper..grow & clone wise but even when I ran the seed run I had 1 sick plant thats why I asked if something could of been wrong genetically and passed onto the clone/clones and then into the system and hit them all.
 
Canna Connoiseur

Canna Connoiseur

Active Member
MaineWeed said:
I know for a fact it is not a lockout problem.Out of all the indoor runs doing hydro this is the first strain that I have ever had problems like this, even the seeds were poor growing stock. Lights are on now so a picture would look crappy but tonight when lights are off I'll snap a few pictures and maybe that'll help as I really would like the roughly 3 to 4 weeks left to pack on the bud weight and density. Not only is the PH dropping but some leaves are yellowing and getting brown spots on some of them.These are clones taken from my last run which were seed that I ordered through Attitude and I ran the seed run at 1200 to 1500 ppms but ran Co2. They do say that SS's AK is supposedly a very easy keeper..grow & clone wise but even when I ran the seed run I had 1 sick plant thats why I asked if something could of been wrong genetically and passed onto the clone/clones and then into the system and hit them all.
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Possibly something wrong with genetics. Serious Seeds will give you replacement seeds if that is the case. I personally bought two 6 packs of feminized seeds from them. All 12 sprouted and grew consistently the same. Never any hermies and not a single problem with genetics. Serious Seeds is a major company that always has consistent genetics. One of the oldest and their AK-47 is the best version out as well as the original.
 
MaineWeed

MaineWeed

Active Member
Canna Connoiseur said:
Possibly something wrong with genetics. Serious Seeds will give you replacement seeds if that is the case. I personally bought two 6 packs of feminized seeds from them. All 12 sprouted and grew consistently the same. Never any hermies and not a single problem with genetics. Serious Seeds is a major company that always has consistent genetics. One of the oldest and their AK-47 is the best version out as well as the original.
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Thanks for reminding me....I bought a pack of Bomb Seeds THC Bomb last year and a few seeds were real white..imature, and Bomb replaced them no problem so I imagine so will SS..BUT I still already have over 5 weeks into bloom invested on these. Plus these are second generation..clones, so I think they'll say "well they worked the first time".
OK, the first picture is of the current sick crop. The 2nd photo which is my 1st run with the seeds, look in the back at sick plant and thats how the first pictures plants are all starting to look like and what makes me wonder if it was genetics and got passed on.
Today I'm going to grab some commercial strength peroxide and try it..I'm at my wits end with this.


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