uncontrollable ph

I have issues keeping my ph low enough. I will adjust it and 1 hour later it is way to high again.I have read that rock wool has a high ph.I think it may bethe problem but if it was why would any one ever use it. My plants are not growing anymore, i believe this is becauseof the ph. I recently pruned them and as soon as they regrow i planned on flowering. How do i fix the problem.

wut kind of system are you using?

any time you cut a plant it can stall for upto a week

Ive read that the city water supply has pH adjusting chemicals in the water. When you add some pH + / - then the pH will be steady for a few hours. 24 hours later the pH is off the chart again because of this pH chemical in the water supply.

This is not necessarly what is happening in your case... but it might be... Ide ask the city for a water report to see what is inside of your water

greenearth5 said:

Ive read that the city water supply has pH adjusting chemicals in the water. When you add some pH + / - then the pH will be steady for a few hours. 24 hours later the pH is off the chart again because of this pH chemical in the water supply.

This is not necessarly what is happening in your case... but it might be... Ide ask the city for a water report to see what is inside of your water

Click to expand...

that is true a lot of times it takes a few days to stabalize

It was a pre designed set up. Now that i have read up on the subject i dont think it is standard at all. I have a resorvoir with a pump and bubble disc. The plants roots are always submerged in the water. I had issues with overwatering at first.I only turn the pumps on twice a day and the drooping has stopped. One plant looks healthy but wont grow. The other seems to have nutrient lock out or some form of it. I believe it is locking out do to my ph. I use distilled water not my well water. Thank you for replying.

I only use distilled water due to the problems i have heard with well water.

the air pump should always be on

yep.... i keep my air pumps on 24/7 reguardless of whats happening

Did you pre-soak your rockwool? If not that would explain your pH problem.

I did pre soak. The problem is getting out of hand today. I have had to lower the ph about .75 every hour all day long. I know they say not to dump that much ph adjuster but if i didnt the ph might leave the normal scale and become its own type of acid. I dont know what is going on. i am getting worried now the top of my good plant is looking bad now. I dont know how much longer it is going to make it.

What is your preferred mediums?

What is wrong with well water?

hannah said:

I only use distilled water due to the problems i have heard with well water.

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how long should i have soaked for. Is there anything i can do now. They are dieing should i try to get the rockwool off the plant. I assume that is going to destroy a lot of the roots but it may be my last shot.

I have heard that the minerals in the water are bad. I fyou have a softner it is even worse.I dont have a softner but i still try to avoid well water. You may do research to prove me wrong but i read it was bad.

the way i look at it is like this... plants root systems have taped into underwater resevors for hundreds of thousands of years and survived... why couldnt they survive from some well water

If the well water is bad then its probably because of a local thing... not just because its from a well...

just a theory

hannah said:

I have heard that the minerals in the water are bad. I fyou have a softner it is even worse.I dont have a softner but i still try to avoid well water. You may do research to prove me wrong but i read it was bad.

Click to expand...

you should soak your rockwool cubes in ph balanced water for 24 hours... then shake (do not squeeze or it will ruin the cube) some of the water out and plant... i heard that the rockwool cube should be a certain weight when you use them

I planted 4 plants upside down on my current grow.. so i took new rockwool cubes and torn the old ones apart and transplanted.... so far so good (2 died but 4 survived)

hannah said:

how long should i have soaked for. Is there anything i can do now. They are dieing should i try to get the rockwool off the plant. I assume that is going to destroy a lot of the roots but it may be my last shot.

Click to expand...

yours were seedlings i assume. Mine are almost two feet. Did you do it at that size. I am thinking i am going to try. I did not soak that long and it was not ph controlled water. That is my problem i believe.Do you continually adjust the water as you go, or do you just set in 4.5 to 5.0 and let it soak.

yah mine were only a cm tall or less... i have some litmus paper to test my pH ... its about 7.0 right now and is stunting the growth of my plants... ill be buyin a pH pocket meter next week

Check out my second grow journal... let me know if anything in there helps you out

The book i read said the difference is with not having soil to get any nutrients from makes much more fragile. The same book stated several times it is not hard to get the plants in nutrient lock. They stressed a strick nutrient control so i guess they scared me to follow their path. Nothing went wrong till now. I starting reading about 1 month in and now i am paying the price. Obviosly this is my first attempt. I have learned and hopefully i can pull these thru but if not i will be better next time. Thanks for your help. Any more tips are aopreciated.