Still having some PH issues. May switch to coco

I was thinking about getting a few bags of Mother Earth coco/perlite 70/30. It looks very similar to pro-mix but it's coco instead of peat moss.

Anyone ever use this stuff?
 
You are going to need to be more on top of your pH with coco than you would with ProMix. ProMox is treated more like soil but coco is treated as a hydro grow. Have you thought about just trying a nice soil? I haven’t gone back since I started in good soil. It’s just stupid simple to keep the plants happy.
I don't mind being a bit more vigilant. I'm hoping that the acidity issues will stop with the coco.

It seems to start every time @ 6 weeks in flower. It's the salt buildup and high acidity over time in the peat moss that's doing it I believe.
 
Ok.

Let me get this right.

My soil will become less acidic if I just use my acid filled water bucket to feed my plants?

Please explain to me how that would work because I don't understand it.
 

Old ST1R

Grow Yer Own Stone
Heisenbeans explained somewhere on this site that what happens when you pH in Promix, is that the pHing solution binds to and builds up in the Promix and fucks things up.

Id hate for you to kill your plants on my word though, so maybe try not pHing one plant if you are willing to take a risk.
 
Have you done a pH test on your run off?
Yes but I use the color system with the GH drops. It comes out red which usually is around a 4.0.

When I mix my nutes they are usually in the 5.0 or orange range when mixed. I then add a teaspoon of PH UP into the 3 gallons to get it to around 7.0.

I was hoping this would fix the issue but it seems it is not working. It's really giving me a hard time and forcing me to pull my plants a week early sometimes earlier if it's really bad.

The reason I wanted to switch to the coco/perlite mix is because the coco is more evenly ph'ed while the peat is more acidic. But that may not be the issue. I tried doing the runoff thing like we discussed several months ago but it only pushed the problems out a week or so further.

It has to be some kind of build-up issue like you are saying because it happens at almost the same time in every flower tent. Some plants handle it well while others, like my original Adub, hate it and die early if I don't catch it.
 
I wonder if I should just add more of the Protekt to get the PH back up instead of using the GH stuff?

That would take the ph solution out of the equation but would add a bit more silica. Can this hurt?
 

treefarmercharlie

🍆
Admin
Yes but I use the color system with the GH drops. It comes out red which usually is around a 4.0.

When I mix my nutes they are usually in the 5.0 or orange range when mixed. I then add a teaspoon of PH UP into the 3 gallons to get it to around 7.0.

I was hoping this would fix the issue but it seems it is not working. It's really giving me a hard time and forcing me to pull my plants a week early sometimes earlier if it's really bad.

The reason I wanted to switch to the coco/perlite mix is because the coco is more evenly ph'ed while the peat is more acidic. But that may not be the issue. I tried doing the runoff thing like we discussed several months ago but it only pushed the problems out a week or so further.

It has to be some kind of build-up issue like you are saying because it happens at almost the same time in every flower tent. Some plants handle it well while others, like my original Adub, hate it and die early if I don't catch it.
You need to be watering until you get a good amount of run-off and/or just use a different nutrient line that isn’t going to screw up your pH so much. One of the reasons I got off salt based nutrients was because of how much they seems to cause issues. I know they can be used in soil and peat based mediums but they just make things more difficult then they need to be when you grow in soil/peat mediums.
 

Old ST1R

Grow Yer Own Stone
What is the pH of your water pre-nutes?

Which nutes are you running and are you running them at 100% of label recommendations?
 
What is the pH of your water pre-nutes?

Which nutes are you running and are you running them at 100% of label recommendations?
My RO is around 6.5 and 0 ppm as far as I can tell by color. My tap is well above 8.0 and around 250 ppm.

I don't use labels. I go by ppm.

I'm running Dyna Gro Protekt, Grow and Foliage Pro from start to finish. I fill up my bucket with 3 gallons of water and use 1 tablespoon each of those 3 products. It comes out to around 800 ppm and the ph is around 5.0 to 5.5 by color code after mixing. I then use 1 teaspoon of the GH PH up to bring it up to around 7.0

I may be able to get away with using the Protekt to bring it up to 6 or 6.5 for final feeding with minimal increase to ppm.
 
Just mixed up 3 gallons and got a reading of 6.5 without using any PH up. I will use this method every time until I see problems.

I was wrong about it being 5 to 5.5. I have no idea why I thought it was that low. I was adding PH up because I thought my runoff was too acidic. I guess we will see what happens in my LED tent very soon.

Thanks for the ideas guys :geek:
 

Old ST1R

Grow Yer Own Stone
Just mixed up 3 gallons and got a reading of 6.5 without using any PH up. I will use this method every time until I see problems.

I was wrong about it being 5 to 5.5. I have no idea why I thought it was that low. I was adding PH up because I thought my runoff was too acidic. I guess we will see what happens in my LED tent very soon.

Thanks for the ideas guys :geek:
Keep us posted!
 

Justblazin

Member
When I used to use pro mix with st nutes I would always alternate feed then plain water. I found if I didn't do that they would get salt buildup and I would have to flush them,
Do you feed every watering?
 
Top