Question about ph feeding levels

I am a Fox Farm soil user.

My RO water reads 7 ph. After putting in my Cal/Mag and Fox Farm nutes I get a reading of 3.5 ph.

Do I need to use a PH up to get a 6.5 before I feed my girls? I've been having trouble during flowering every single time after I'm 2 weeks in. Leaves start to necros and quickly die.

Have I been screwing up all this time?

thx for help

No..

PH should be about 6.5 before you add anything.
Fox farm figures all of that out for you.
Their nutes are specially balanced to go with the proper starting level of ph.

7.0 is the highest end of th ph scale and 6.8 is the lowest for soil growers.
Most of my circle ph to 6.3.

Once again that is our starting level.
None of us have ever phed our soil or nute run off as we have read many times here.

I'm not sure you read my post right. I use RO water, which has a PH of 7. That's what RO water always is. Not sure what you read.

When I put my nutes in, stir them up, then check with my meter, I get a 3.5 PH reading. Fox farm brings my PH levels very low. So Fox Farm is not balancing anything. It is making my PH levels lower.

I want to make my water read 6.5 again so I don't hurt my girls with this acidic mixture of nutes and RO water.

I think you are a bit confused about what I asked.

Got ya. I know you got me

I think I know what my problem is just from reading your post. I've been feeding them once a week, with a regular plain old RO watering in between, since they start from clones. I never checked my PH readings before because my plants always look good in veg. But then 2 weeks into flowering the leaves start to die very fast. I looked at all the various problems and I definitely have acid lock out.

So for the first time I go and get a PH meter and check my plain RO water. I got a 7 which is right on the money. Then I put in my normal nutes that I normally do once a week and checked the PH. My jaw dropped when I saw it was a 3.5

So basically I've been killing my girls all this time by giving them that 3.5 nute filled watering. I figured it happens 2 weeks into flower because of all the added salts blocking the potassium uptake. I'm starting to see a clearer picture now.

I will do that little experiment with the Cal/Mag you suggested. Thanks for that!

I'll post my results here shortly

I completly understood your post. Your RO water is always 7 which means it's always to high.. Get it ?
And nodoby I've even met ph's their water after they add anything other then up or down much less nutes!


But hey what the heck do I know, you're the one asking the questions and I'm the expierienced grower.
A grower that uses nothing but fox farm nutes and 6.3 PHed water and producing over 2 lbs a month.

Good luck with your grow.

Results are in................

1.5 gallons of RO water at 7.2 PH
1 tablespoon of FF Tiger Bloom took the PH down to 3.9
1/2 teaspoon of Cal/Mag took it down to 3.8
1 teaspoon of FF Grow Big stayed at 3.8

Results don't lie. Looks like I need a PH up to get the water back to a 6.5 before I feed my girls. All I need is a water soluble PH up solution to add to my feeding. I think this should solve my problem.

Hotwired said:

I'm not sure you read my post right. I use RO water, which has a PH of 7. That's what RO water always is. Not sure what you read.

When I put my nutes in, stir them up, then check with my meter, I get a 3.5 PH reading. Fox farm brings my PH levels very low. So Fox Farm is not balancing anything. It is making my PH levels lower.

I want to make my water read 6.5 again so I don't hurt my girls with this acidic mixture of nutes and RO water.

I think you are a bit confused about what I asked.

Click to expand...

If the runoff you are testing is what comes through after you water/feed or add Cal/Mag you will never get an accurate reading.

Next time your plants need water, just water, water them as usual .... wait about 20 minutes for them to drain, empty your drip trays, and then water again using distilled water ... wait about another 20 minutes or so and test that runoff.

i dont now about you guys but i mix all my AN is the reservoir with it filled up a quarter way with just water...then i mix it all up and add the rest of the water to fill it up and mix it...also put a airstone in it..so my final solution is 6.5...ph up bottle is only 10 bucks get yourself one youwill need it! also the water here in the nw is 7.0 ph

Buddy Ganga said:

7.0 is the highest end of th ph scale and 6.8 is the lowest for soil growers.
Most of my circle ph to 6.3.

Click to expand...

Are you a soil grower? If so you might be interested in the information below if you keep your pH level around 6.3

Magnesium gets locked out of soil growing at pH levels of 2.0-6.4
Calcium gets locked out of soil growing at pH levels of 2.0- 6.4
Molybdenum gets locked out of soil growing at pH levels of 2.0-6.5


If you grow in soil and keep your pH level around 6.3 you are continually in a lockout situation for the three elements listed above.

BT, I am NOT testing run-off nor did I ever say that.

I am testing my RO water without nutes, then testing it WITH nutes.

I'm good guys I found out what it is. You can all smack me in the head, I admit it, I fucked up. All I had to do was read the back of the fucking bottle of Tiger Bloom.

Right underneath where it says "Shake well before using" says: FOR BEST RESULTS: Raise the ph of the desired level of between 5.8 and 6.3
ADD A PH UP ADJUSTER.

Ok, now send those smacks my way. Sometimes I can be a total idiot.

Don't worry BT, I'll raise it to 6.5 and up

Let me explain why it happens after 2 weeks of flower guys. FF Grow Big does NOT have the same advice. It's ok to use that stand alone because it really doesn't change the PH.

FF Tiger Bloom itself brought the PH down by almost 3.5 points!!! That's why the advice is only on the Tiger Bloom bottle. And that's why my problems start 2 weeks into flowering.

THE END

i would ignore the bollocks on the bottles, manufacturers dosage rates are notoriously too high, every single pre mixed nute ive ever used can be used at less than half the manufacturers recomendations, just use a meter to get a reasonable ec on soil ec should not go above about 0.8 and you can get fantastic results with ec's that never go above 0.7, they just want your $ why do you need cal mag? you shouldnt need any feed at week 2 of flowering if you use decent soil to start with and use dolomite lime at a teaspoon per gallon of soil. and fancy soil is a waste of money as well £14.00 for batmix!!! B&Q MP about £3.00 ive run them side by side and there was no noticable difference in the results. dont fuck about with your plants, good water and good soil is all you need, sack the snake oil.

Hotwired said:

BT, I am NOT testing run-off nor did I ever say that.

Click to expand...

Sorry, my error.

One little tip about Fox Farms, and likely any liquid nutes, is if you end up with some that sit on a shelf long enough before being sold they can settle and at least partially solidify and shaking alone will not be enough to mix them.

It has only happened twice to me since I started using Fox Farms products, but it has happened twice. I always shook whatever product I was using but I didn't seem to be getting great results, the plants were slightly deficient. One day, when one of the jugs was down to about one third full, I shook it and it sounded a little like a can of spray paint. I got another container, funnel and a strainer and poured what was left in the jug into the empty jug. I found there was a fairly good sized piece of solidified nutes that were not breaking up no matter how much I had been shaking the jug.

Since then I always strain a new jug into an old empty one to check and it has only happened once but I did find another jug with solidified nutes in it.

You just break them up and remix and you're in business, but if you don't catch it you end up feeding light at first and later if they begin to break up from banging around when shaken you can end up feeding heavy.

I'm sure it is a rare thing, but it happened to me so it could happen to anyone and for what little time and effort it takes to check, I'd say it's worth it.

Do you use a ph up BT? If so what would you recommend?

Thx