Flowering nutes/ ph up

AndromedaM31

AndromedaM31

Active Member
So I'm a couple days into and haven't been able to feed my plants any flower nutes yet, because the nutes drop my ph way down to about 4.
I attempt to adjust it with ph up. (NaoH) but after adding well over 10ml per gallon the ph did not even rise above 6..
Does this sound like an issue with my flower nutes, or the ph up?
Its "alaska naturals bloom" btw. Yes I'm aware that it's not top quality stuff, but that's why I'm here asking.
Any help would be greatly appreciated
 
SoMe_EfFin_MasS_HoLe

SoMe_EfFin_MasS_HoLe

Well-Known Member
AndromedaM31 said:
So I'm a couple days into and haven't been able to feed my plants any flower nutes yet, because the nutes drop my ph way down to about 4.
I attempt to adjust it with ph up. (NaoH) but after adding well over 10ml per gallon the ph did not even rise above 6..
Does this sound like an issue with my flower nutes, or the ph up?
Its "alaska naturals bloom" btw. Yes I'm aware that it's not top quality stuff, but that's why I'm here asking.
Any help would be greatly appreciated
Click to expand...
What medium are you using?
 
Bernie420

Bernie420

Well-Known Member
AndromedaM31 said:
So I'm a couple days into and haven't been able to feed my plants any flower nutes yet, because the nutes drop my ph way down to about 4.
I attempt to adjust it with ph up. (NaoH) but after adding well over 10ml per gallon the ph did not even rise above 6..
Does this sound like an issue with my flower nutes, or the ph up?
Its "alaska naturals bloom" btw. Yes I'm aware that it's not top quality stuff, but that's why I'm here asking.
Any help would be greatly appreciated
Click to expand...
without adding ph up or down to it. get a gallon of water.

What is the water source, the ppm of that water, the ph of that water, before nutes are added. Write all that down. Using that one gallon make a batch of nuted water, how much nutes you added, the ppm of water after adding nutes the ph after adding nutes.

When was the last time you calibrated your ph probe, ppm probe? You should have liquid ph drops to check the ph, use the liquid drops to check to see if the ph probe is accurate. I guess im putting the cart in front of the horse ===what are you using to check ph with???

I use a probe if it doesnt look right I use the drops to double check the probe.

What ph up product you using?
 
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AndromedaM31

AndromedaM31

Active Member
Tap water here is normally about 150, but I don't have anyway to check ppm anymore:/
I'm using a pen to check ph, and I just calibrated it 2 days ago, and again yesterday just to be sure.
I just ran out of my liquid ph test kit, so I cant use that anymore.
Ph before nutes averages out about 7.7. After nutes at half dose it drops to about 4, and it required almost 20ml per gallon of ph up to adjust it to about 6.
I know I need to get a new meter for ppm, I'm just running really broke right now.
I ran a nute test last night, everything came up right about where I typically would want it, but then again I'm not sure how reliable the test kit is. And even if its accurate, nutes dont last forever lol
 
Bernie420

Bernie420

Well-Known Member
There could be tons going on here. When you calibrate your pen do you do it like a sterile environment and have everything super clean and do it as to not cross contaminate the calibration solution. You discard used solution right? Your solution to calibrate could be bad/old. The ph pen could just be bad in general. You need to get the ph drops to check the ph of your nutes and to see if that is in par with your pen. If your drops are yellow and the pen reads 6.0 then you can assume the pen is accurate.

Do you mix the nute up hell of wicked like and let it sit then check ph? My water starts at about 7ph then I add my stuff and it ends up about 6. I use r/o water and do hydro so the ph is more important if you do dirt and use microbes the ph isnt that important but you should water in at 6.5 no need to give the plant a ph shocker.

but yeah it dropping to 4 is an issue imo. It might be the nutes you use. You use these nutes before has this ph drop always been an issue?
 
SoMe_EfFin_MasS_HoLe

SoMe_EfFin_MasS_HoLe

Well-Known Member
All that ph up & down is killing your nutes if you're using organic. You're in soil any way, I would not worry about ph. Soil is going to buffer everything any how and do what it wants, you really have no control over the buffer that the soil has buffed too. Get your self a good ppm meter, if you're admitting your nutes are not "the good stuff" then try something else out. Go with a program that others have used that way you can reference what has been used & what works. What brand of soil are you using or did you mix it your self?
 
hotrodharley

hotrodharley

Well-Known Member
AndromedaM31 said:
Tap water here is normally about 150, but I don't have anyway to check ppm anymore:/
I'm using a pen to check ph, and I just calibrated it 2 days ago, and again yesterday just to be sure.
I just ran out of my liquid ph test kit, so I cant use that anymore.
Ph before nutes averages out about 7.7. After nutes at half dose it drops to about 4, and it required almost 20ml per gallon of ph up to adjust it to about 6.
I know I need to get a new meter for ppm, I'm just running really broke right now.
I ran a nute test last night, everything came up right about where I typically would want it, but then again I'm not sure how reliable the test kit is. And even if its accurate, nutes dont last forever lol
Click to expand...
Buy cheap litmus paper instead of meters for pH. More than adequate for our purposes. Buy a decent EC meter.
 
AndromedaM31

AndromedaM31

Active Member
SoMe_EfFin_MasS_HoLe said:
All that ph up & down is killing your nutes if you're using organic. You're in soil any way, I would not worry about ph. Soil is going to buffer everything any how and do what it wants, you really have no control over the buffer that the soil has buffed too. Get your self a good ppm meter, if you're admitting your nutes are not "the good stuff" then try something else out. Go with a program that others have used that way you can reference what has been used & what works. What brand of soil are you using or did you mix it your self?
Click to expand...
Fox farm ocean forest 70% coco 30%, then added 30% perlite to that mix.
And thanks for the advice man. I dont have a ton of knowledge on nutes and stuff, but I need to start learning more about em.
My last grow I had lockout from ph being way off, and I'm scared for that to happen again so I've been trying to get my ph dead on
 
AndromedaM31

AndromedaM31

Active Member
hotrodharley said:
Buy cheap litmus paper instead of meters for pH. More than adequate for our purposes. Buy a decent EC meter.
Click to expand...
What are they?
I dont really like the color strips too much because I feel like the color variations aren't enough to accurately read the ph. But that's just my experience with one kit I have. I'm open to trying others though
 
hotrodharley

hotrodharley

Well-Known Member
AndromedaM31 said:
What are they?
I dont really like the color strips too much because I feel like the color variations aren't enough to accurately read the ph. But that's just my experience with one kit I have. I'm open to trying others though
Click to expand...
Any grow shop or swimming pool supply place has litmus paper. This is not THAT critical. Even in hydro. Trust me. I was a dialysis nurse. Water is everything. Everything. It has to be first and right before you even turn the machines on. We used pH meters on each machine that was a combo meter. But the entire water system pre-RO and post carbon tank post RO was litmus paper.
 
shushubandora

shushubandora

Well-Known Member
pH 4 on the way out? Did you try to flush it? if it's the soil you should see the pH slowly goes up while flushing.
If pH is OK when you only add water then try to change the nuts.
Do you see dark/black color on the leafs?
 
AndromedaM31

AndromedaM31

Active Member
Ph is about 4 in the mix of water, and flower feed.
I haven't given them any flower nutes yet because of this.
I ph to 6.5, and my runoff is between 6.4-6.5. And no discoloration, all a nice solid green

Like everything with the soil and plants are fine. I just cant get my flowering feed to ph out at a reasonable amount. Maybe I could buy alkaline water from the store and try to use that to mix it with?
 
SoMe_EfFin_MasS_HoLe

SoMe_EfFin_MasS_HoLe

Well-Known Member
AndromedaM31 said:
Ph is about 4 in the mix of water, and flower feed.
I haven't given them any flower nutes yet because of this.
I ph to 6.5, and my runoff is between 6.4-6.5. And no discoloration, all a nice solid green

Like everything with the soil and plants are fine. I just cant get my flowering feed to ph out at a reasonable amount. Maybe I could buy alkaline water from the store and try to use that to mix it with?
Click to expand...
The reason why is because you're using inorganic ph up & down to ph organic nutrients. There is no point in phing organic nutrients. I'm using the same nute line as you. Just mix the nutes up and check the ppm'.

Stop using ph up & down, you're killing all the organic matter in the nutrients & soil. There is no need to ph your nutes in soil. again, the soil is going to buffer the nutrients to what it likes. You have no control of that.

Fuck wasting your time phing the nutrients brother. You're chasing something that you shouldn't in the first place and stressing your self out. Get a soil test kit and check the ph of the soil. Run off means shit as well.

Do not feed nutrients every feeding either, alternate between feed and plain h20. You're going to get salt build up in the soil and then you're going to definitely lock your self out. Also ff soil is extremely hot to begin with.

If you're using tap water let it sit out for 24 hours & throw an airstone in the water. I bet you have chlorine & chloramine. Chlorine will also kill all organic matter, even your plant. That's why you should let water stand for at least 24 hours. chloramine will also kill all organic matter. That is a bit tricky to remove from water as boiling h20 will not get rid of it. You need to filter the water very , very, very slowly with a charcoal filter for at least 48 hours. Get your self a water report from your local water & sewer dept. You will be able to see everything that is in your water. Or you can take a sample and send it to a lab via snail mail. Most labs charge 12$ for a test and then you can see what's really in your h20 & at what %. You can also get a soil test done for about the same amount as the water test.

Also what is solid green?
 
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