when can i use ph up and down

I have some seedlings at 14 days old,i have just potted the jiffy pellets there in,i understand they dont need nutes for the first few weeks but not too sure when i can start adjusting the ph with the plus and minus can anyone help me out

I would start adjusting PH right away. Try to use only 1 type of PH product (most likely PH down). If you go under your desired PH, get rid of half your water and restart. Mixing both PH up and down is not recommended. Good luck!

Bounc3r said:

get rid of half your water and restart. Mixing both PH up and down is not recommended. Good luck!

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not true. if you go below your desired PH add PH up. you can use as much of either as you want.

pH must be in a proper range from the very beginning. Also, total salt concentration, the PPM. Part Per Million. Some try to start with tap water at 350 ppm and wonder why they fail.

We cannot grow the plant, the environment grows the plant. We can only adjust the environment. And we always begin at the beginning.

You're adding ppm every time you make an adjustment. If you make too many adjustments it can quickly build to toxic levels. I'm not saying you cant do it, just try not too.

That's right, it used to drive me crazy. Now I grow in an inert media. I measure it all in and what comes out. The media cannot contribute so I have more control.

But, I use a stable organic, plant food, called Sea Grow, and the way I mix it with Silica and Cal/Mag, it comes out at 6.3 pH in RO. No worries.

Bounc3r said:

You're adding ppm every time you make an adjustment. If you make too many adjustments it can quickly build to toxic levels. I'm not saying you cant do it, just try not too.

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it barley messes with the PPM s, you have to messure pretty shitty if you put so much PH down and Up that it fucks with the ppms to were it would effect the plant. LoL .....

This is my second grow,for the first i didnt bother with ppm or even ph i had loadsa deficiancys and toxic build ups which where treated succesfully as soon as noticed but got what i was expecting of them and it was nice bud.so i invested in a ph pen and the nutrient meter,wasnt gonna bother with theppm as it seems complicated all i know about it is the more fert you use the higher the ppm and it needs to be between 800 and1200 acvording to thebook im reading.can anyone shed any light on having the right ppm contributes as simple as possible

I didn't even bother to realize my home water conditioner was making it worse though less PPM. It was adding Sodium Chloride. But, that does make it easier on the RO unit.

cheddercheese said:

This is my second grow,for the first i didnt bother with ppm or even ph i had loadsa deficiancys and toxic build ups which where treated succesfully as soon as noticed but got what i was expecting of them and it was nice bud.so i invested in a ph pen and the nutrient meter,wasnt gonna bother with theppm as it seems complicated all i know about it is the more fert you use the higher the ppm and it needs to be between 800 and1200 acvording to thebook im reading.can anyone shed any light on having the right ppm contributes as simple as possible

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growing by PPMs is better then following a feed chart. when you go by a feed chart you really have no idea how much food the plants are eating. when you read the ppm's through out the grow you know when they are not eating and when you have hit the sweet spot and they are eating all of the food. read about it. its far to much for me to explain right now. i am stoned.....

Tag team...on fresh hit. ")

I think that s right. I struggled with it. I had really no idea. I thought at first, it could all just add up. 10ml of this, 5ml of that, then add some thisn'that. 30ml. Oh and molasses!

The plant will grow amazing, if we can control it's environment. I get 2" a week, no sweat, but I don't push them.

There is a rule of thumb that goes a bit like this. These are, move to targets, if all goes well, t is not a formula or chart, it is what I do, as a RoT. But, when the girl says, SDSTFU, give me some time, baby....I do that. Girls don't like pushy.

Seeds, 100 -> 150 till clone size = 7 inches
Clones 150ppm -> 250 end of first month
250 -> 450 PPM end of month 2 (time for bloom) Growth is increasing, so I am feeding it.
450 -> 600 end of month 3, Bloom Set, purrrdy
600 -> 400 end of month 4. Harvest time is near, are you checking the trichomes and the tiny hairs?

But, if I don't spend those first weeks building a root ball without overfeeding and over watering, the rest doesn't matter. And I found out for myself.

I think people get confused with pH and feed. I never adjust pH, I found my own mix over time that is stable. I used to chase it back and forth and still own a half gallon of nitric acid and potassium hydroxide. I don't change the food either, just the PPM.

I think a couple of things are essential. A PPM pen. $40 I have wasted hundreds on Pen for pH.

A RO setup or water below 120 ppm. Total PPM is all that matters.

Then a pH test kit and note book. Create a recipe. Some of this and some of that.
I know how much Cal/Mag adds what pH and how much Silica will change it.

So, depend on yourself. I know that my 16-16-16 plant food, ++, works just fine for me. Uncle Ben's time release fert, outdoors in soil works just fine for him.

pH for soil needs to be low 6 something pH. Once you get your feed recipe to be a good pH, then when you add, more or less 7 pH RO water it won't change much. My RO comes out closer to 6 pH so I make good use of that.

Then you have abstracted pH to your recipe. Now, you don't need to measure pH anymore.....for soil.

Just read about ppm and ec and still is very confusing i think il maybe try another book or see if i can get anything offline,thanks for the advice anyway guys

cheddercheese said:

This is my second grow,for the first i didnt bother with ppm or even ph i had loadsa deficiancys and toxic build ups which where treated succesfully as soon as noticed but got what i was expecting of them and it was nice bud.so i invested in a ph pen and the nutrient meter,wasnt gonna bother with theppm as it seems complicated all i know about it is the more fert you use the higher the ppm and it needs to be between 800 and1200 acvording to thebook im reading.can anyone shed any light on having the right ppm contributes as simple as possible

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My advice would be to stop reading books as it sounds like you are confusing yourself!

With regards to what and when you feed them you need to know what nutrients are in your medium (soil) to start with, once you know this then you can start a feeding plan. If there are no nutrients in your soil then after 10-14 days you can start feeding them, very gently to start i.e at 1/8 of full strength grow nutrients.

The ppm meter is there to help guide you and stop you making mistakes, rather than a tool to be followed. If you pour some water into a glass and use your ppm meter you'll get a reading, let's say 200 ppm. This is the base level of your water, now if you add some nutrients your ppm will rise and will continue rising the more you add.

So when you've mixed a batch of nutrient up to feed your plant you can check it first with your ppm meter to make sure that you haven't made any mistakes, before you give it to your plants!! Always go with what your plants are telling you rather than adjusting your ppm's to what other people or books are telling you they should be, your plants will tell you if you are under or over feeding them!

I used it right off the get go. Filled up an 18 gallon tub about a quarter of the way. Used the shower for water, and used a VERY Little dose of ph down in the approx 4 gallons and it went from 7.4 to 5.2 -.- so I was forced to use ph up haha. To get it to 6.5 ph. I didnt have enough water for my 6 pots so then I tried to make just a small half gallon batch at 6.5 but it was tough because literally 2 drops affected the ph by almost 2. So I'd say just do a few gallons a water at a time to take the stress level down lol.

But im also growing In soiless mix with approx 35 percent purlite. (Not sure what youre using)

It's not a good idea to add PH up and down together so it's best to get it right to start with.

An easy way to do it if you're making up small batches is to add a few drops of up or down to 1lt of water, and use that water to adjust your PH levels so that you're using a dilute version of up or down.

neo12345 said:

It's not a good idea to add PH up and down together so it's best to get it right to start with.

An easy way to do it if you're making up small batches is to add a few drops of up or down to 1lt of water, and use that water to adjust your PH levels so that you're using a dilute version of up or down.

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Haha you're the man neo!