Is this something to be alarmed about or I'm overreacting again?

Hi guys, I'm just few days away from my first time ever flowering AK47's and everything has been going great so far.
It's a soil based grow, fed them twice with 1/4 straight 20 - 20 - 20 mix over 30 days vegging, under 2 x 150W HPS lights, temp at constant 27 - 28.5C during lights on and 24 - 26C during lights off, humidity is jumping up and down depending how long I keep the fans running, but it's usually within the 30%'s but at night time when i have my windows opened it goes up to 50%. I water them every 3rd or 4th day depending how dry it is by feeling the weight of the pot.
I do not have a PH meter so I do not know if its off balance or not.
I noticed these purple branches of some of the bigger leaves in the middle and I'm worried that my PH might be wacky, the growth isn't stunted, I notice how they grow each day.
Here are some pictures I took, hopefully some of you guys will know what the deal is. I circled the branches which have purple stems and took closeups of.

Without knowing the pH it's hard to say, but it COULD POSSIBLY be a potassium def. I kinda doubt it tho.... The last pic the girl looks great. Lots of girls exhibit red/purple stems. Good job so far. I'd probably wait for another couple of nodes before I flipped her.

Jack Harer said:

Without knowing the pH it's hard to say, but it COULD POSSIBLY be a potassium def. I kinda doubt it tho.... The last pic the girl looks great. Lots of girls exhibit red/purple stems. Good job so far. I'd probably wait for another couple of nodes before I flipped her.

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I was thinking it might be some kind of nut lockout, curtsey of the last feeding I did two waterings ago. I will try to make arrangements to obtain a PH meter on Monday and see what the dealio is. In your humble opinion, do you think this is an issue which can be left unaddressed for few days until I get all my ducks in a row?

I wouldnt worry too much until things begin to wilt/curl/crisp/discolor.

RawBudzski said:

I wouldnt worry too much until things begin to wilt/curl/crisp/discolor.

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I'm a worrier, I got attached to these girls ever since they sprouted. I would have bought a PH meter, but the only place I found that's selling them is way overpriced, the cheapest one was $110 so I thought I could go without one and I'm regretting that decision now.
Thank you for the reassurance guys, very much appreciated.
On a side note, is flushing the best way to bring the PH level to normal or there are other methods that work better and do not overwater the plant?

What kinda water.

RawBudzski said:

What kinda water.

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I've never flushed my plants before, I'm just a newbie as this is my first grow, but from what I've read I'd need to flush with distilled bottled water that should have neutral PH and use twice the amount of my pot, or have I misunderstood something?

What kinda water do you currently use. and yes if you can afford it, the bottled water in the 2.5gal containers is the way to go. can get expensive if you grow multiple plants tho. the PH meter is worth it, you want a $110 water proof one. >.< sucks but it'll help when mixing solutions. just to make sure. but i got through 1 whole grow with no meter

RawBudzski said:

What kinda water do you currently use. and yes if you can afford it, the bottled water in the 2.5gal containers is the way to go. can get expensive if you grow multiple plants tho. the PH meter is worth it, you want a $110 water proof one. >.< sucks but it'll help when mixing solutions. just to make sure. but i got through 1 whole grow with no meter

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I use bottled mineral water with some (little) NPK in it, not sure what its PH value is. I only grow 2 plants for personal use and I do not plan to grow more than that in future.

ditch the mineral water and use pure drinking water. unless its the same thing

RawBudzski said:

ditch the mineral water and use pure drinking water. unless its the same thing

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I have very little faith in the tap water here. It has metallic taste and smell, I do not even drink it so why should my girls?
I will most definitely obtain a PH meter by tomorrow and take measures of the soil PH, the bottled water I use and the tap water. I'll report back to let you know.

Don't fret over them. It's kinda like when your dogs nose is warm and dry. Could indicate something is wrong, but probably not. It looks fine to me for now. If things get worse, then post more pics. You really need to get a pH pen if you are that kind of worrier. Eliminate pH as a problem from the rip.
I worried myself to friggin' death at every little "hangnail" the girls developed. I ended up loving many a girl to death. Relax and enjoy the journey. Go real easy on the chemical nutes, and remember to flush out the salts every 30 days or so. I'd recommend going to organics as they are way more forgiving, but then I'm biased that way.

read this and look under the red stems.http://www.weedfarmer.com/cannabis/tables_guide.php
Had the same problem gave them epson salts and in 2 days stems green again. But since you are in veg NPK should not be 20-20-20.
But N lot higher then PK.

Jack Harer said:

Don't fret over them. It's kinda like when your dogs nose is warm and dry. Could indicate something is wrong, but probably not. It looks fine to me for now. If things get worse, then post more pics. You really need to get a pH pen if you are that kind of worrier. Eliminate pH as a problem from the rip.
I worried myself to friggin' death at every little "hangnail" the girls developed. I ended up loving many a girl to death. Relax and enjoy the journey. Go real easy on the chemical nutes, and remember to flush out the salts every 30 days or so. I'd recommend going to organics as they are way more forgiving, but then I'm biased that way.

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Things are looking good although the stem is still purple there is significant growth over the past 24 hours, more than an inch. The pinched tops are starting to grow on the side rather than up and new tops are slowly forming so the growth is most definitely not impaired.
I'm about to go buy a PH meter as soon as I finish my coffee, but I'm asking again, is there any *OTHER* way other than flushing to bring the PH levels to normal?
I'll try organics as well, hopefully its not too late now. Thinking about getting some sheep/cow manure and mix it with the very top soil, will that work? My dad is an amateur tomato and pepper farmer, he has a nice garden and gets very awesome results with nothing but animal manure and tap water, but he uses the manure before he plants and mixes it nicely with the soil.

Here's a picture of my two AK's I think since AK is a hybrid the one on the left is indica and the other is sativa or vise versa or I'm just tripping?

Jack Harer said:

Don't fret over them. It's kinda like when your dogs nose is warm and dry.

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When I come to think of it, I did spray fert on the leaves and I can see few drop marks on the leaves, could that explain the purple stems on just handful of branches? I did it under advice from something I've read somewhere just can't remember where, guess that was a bad advice.

Get bottled water at the store from those machines, its reverse osmosis (RO) water. Add cal-mag. Whenever I do this the PH is about perfect. If you add any other nutes you will need a PH meter.

As far as the plant in the pics, looks good to me. Branches can be purple and it doesn't mean anything. Depends on the time of day, strain, light, etc. To me, with what you are growing under, your plant looks like it is in good condition. But ditch the mineral water.

Having a bit of an issue with the PH meter I bought. The instructions say I need to calibrate it before 1st time use with a buffer solution that has known PH value. I'm not sure where and how I can obtain a solution that has already known PH value but without any calibration I measured tap water and it said 7.14 which makes sense I guess, does that sound right to you?

Tophead said:

Get bottled water at the store from those machines, its reverse osmosis (RO) water. Add cal-mag. Whenever I do this the PH is about perfect. If you add any other nutes you will need a PH meter.

As far as the plant in the pics, looks good to me. Branches can be purple and it doesn't mean anything. Depends on the time of day, strain, light, etc. To me, with what you are growing under, your plant looks like it is in good condition. But ditch the mineral water.

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I only managed to find "demirilized water" its application is for car batteries, refrigerators, steam irons etc, is that the same as RO water? It was bit expensive, around $0.5 per liter.

OK I measured the soil PH value, I dug a small hole with my finger at the edge of the pot poured normal tap water to fill it up and left the probe in for about 5 minutes, it said 7.10 dead does that sound ok?
I need some reassurance that these numbers are correct as I have my doubts cause of the calibration thingy.
I just took another reading at the same spot only the water that I put earlier got drained and in that moist spot I got a reading of 6.5

Thank you.