Week 8 flowering resolving ph issues.

[NAKEDGARDENER]

Had a great start to flowering over the last several weeks until recently when some minor leaf discoloration began to get worse, the two w.w. which had always had a couple of albino leaves, now began developing what at first looked like a copper defiency, but then also looked on other leaves as more of a magnesium deficiency. After much thinking, and going over my records or all my watering practices, I realized it was time for a good ppm reading and ph reading to be taken of the run off, so I recalibrated my ph pens and started at flushing them enough to get a good run off..

i took the first run run off I got from all three plants and found to my horror that my soil root ph was actually at something like 5.5 to 5.0.
I began straightaway with making up six gallons of phed water to a ph of 6.85 to to flush the pots thouroughly. Hoping now that the soil ph will have increased in alchalinity, but will retest in a couple of days to allow plants to recover from their flooding. I did not put any more nutes in just water with the regular hydroguard.

Here are a few pics of them an hour after their flush.

[9fingerleafs]

that will not have very much effect, flushing does not change the ph in the soil, you have to water with high ppm and high ph to raise it

[NAKEDGARDENER]

9fingerleafs. As I don’t use any ph up and down other than bicarbonate and vinegar, and I haven’t used much of these substances over the grow, I can’t say I have noticed apart from the obvious amount you need of bicarbonate to raise the water ph to basic or keep it near. The ppm is something I need to understand a lot more, now I am into final two weeks, as others say to not worry about the ph too much, what would be the best way to increase the ppm of my water? Since I am not using anything other than molasses now in tap well water which as a ppm of 260 and a ph of 6.30. Oh and what ppm should I be aiming for, since we are now into final two weeks.

[9fingerleafs]

being the final two weeks i guess youre right, nothing much left to do but flush. the thing with ph is that is not the water itself that has a ph value on its own, its a balance between positive and negative particles in the water, positive are acid and negative are basic. so to reach ph 7 every single positive has a negative counter part. makes sense? other than ph up and down i only know silica to be basic

[NAKEDGARDENER]

9fingerleafs thank you, a I say it’s something I know of but know little of when it. Ones to gardening, but learning ec/ppm is fundamental I realize to be a canny gardener. Certainly having a decent meter helps.

[GreenhouseEffect]

Man, those buds are looking awesome Nakedgardener!!
You can always use a little Baking soda if your Ph needs to go up a bit more.

The only advice I can really give, is think about switching to full organic next grow, you can skip that whole ph and ppm measuring if you do, pretty much. For the most part, those FF nutes are stuff like bat guano, and earth worm castings, with a little bit of chemical fertilizer salts in the Tiger bloom and probly beastie blooms. Just enough salts to kill off the microbes, and if you cut out the salts, skip to the guano and earth worm castings, the microbes will pretty much do the ph reg for you. Used worn out super soil, and mostly castings and guano with molasses this grow, and got great results, never had to worry about ph once.

Looking great though, wishing you a happy harvest coming up soon!

[NAKEDGARDENER]

Yeh I totally agree with you, the beastie bloomz I used only one time and I have been using the tiger bloom more, I recently thought of adding a layer of fresh soil on top for the final couple of weeks. I was actually thinking talking to my fiend @ crow about using worms in the soil next time and as you say just use Organics completely. It was an experiment, this grow, and so step by step I have brought them along, but they have also done the same for me, and to only have this small problem at this point, is quite encouraging for me. Although I know it’s also the most crucial part..

Thank you for your kind comments, and all your help. It’s been priceless. I just hope that what I did with the phed flush will help and then To water at a higher to basic ph for the rest of the grow.

[Cali]

GreenhouseEffect Any chance of you sharing your soil recipe? I’m doing hydro because for me it was a lot more work to ph in soil than hydro. I just couldn’t get it right. Would love to go back but only if it’s organic soil no nutrients in bottles.

[Chefbjy]

Cali I have a recipe available. You can see my results in my dark harvest grow challenge thread using the same mix for autos and it's doing well. However I'd recommend adding a 12 qt bag of roots organics big worm to the recipe to decrease compaction. I have 3 different grows going with it and a recycled version featured in my shop grow. Nothing easier then good soil and water 😉. There's some other products I use by roots organics for top dressing but it's all in the journals. My IPM is going to change a bit too real soon. 🍻

[kingfish]

You're in the 8th week of flowering. Why do you care about PH this late in flowering. Your plants look awesome. Just give them water and molasses and screw the PH. You prolly will be harvesting in a week or so.

[NAKEDGARDENER]

Yeh I know I’m being a control freak but I wanted to make sure they were getting all they can get in the last week or two. So was trying to avoid a high acid soil right now. Thanks kingfish for your compliments on the girls. Meansa lot. Cheers mate.

[Chefbjy]

I agree with kingfish you already started flushing so ph isn't going to matter. It won't make or break your grow now. Buds look great plants look great I wouldn't worry about a few leaves that might fall off anyway. I love doing organics now so I like what GreenhouseEffect had to say. But if you want to get the jist of ec and fertigation I recommend Campesino article to broaden your perspective. He also has a great guide to growing in coco on here somewhere. Think he should add these links on his signature 😆 😉. https://forum.growweedeasy.com/forum...u-need-to-know

[NAKEDGARDENER]

Chefbjy many thanks friend, much appreciated for the comment and info. Yeh next grow will make sure it stays organic. Prob begin second grow in early Jan. I do have dr coco web page for growing in coyer, very useful , Living n learning.

[GrowMeTrichomes]

Here is a ppm chart that I loosely follow

[GrowMeTrichomes]

Say what you will , but i did say loosely follow and even at that by following the chart i resolved all my over fertilizing problems. First by learning exactly how much ppm is in each and every nutrition additive per gallon and from there it was basic. So believe it or not it worked great for me and I grow fire.

[NAKEDGARDENER]

Campesino thank you and I am very interested in this way of coco and organics, it was my thought to use cal mag in such a grow, but I can see where you are talking of advantages and disadvantages, by now I think you now I am an avid reader of many of the information you produce both here and elsewhere, such as your website, and to be honest I find your writings as useful to me in soil growing as I would in coco, simply because you seem to put things in a way I can understand and then take crucial nuggets of science, and use them in my own soil grow, which I admit is not as organic was it started out.

My Guru, it is my aim to learn all aspects of growing cannabis, and is my ten year goal. This being true year one. Since I originally grew back in the early y2k years in the u.k.
So for my first two years I aim to learn organic growing from indoor to outdoor, and progress to each other discipline, and I think coco will be my second two year grow learn curve. But, I may be persuaded to amend that decision if I can be persuaded to try a method and principle as a beginner showing scientific results... I and others can see...

[NAKEDGARDENER]

Campesino certainly fertigation techniques are high on my agenda right now as I adapt and fertigate in different cycles and delivery intervals over a 36 hr watering schedule.

[Redwasp]

So far with my grows of white widows I find that by harvest time almost all of the leaves have faded. Many will have fallen off. And you will have some really nice buds. Not sure if this is true for all white widows. I also have found that white widows prefer less nutrients than almost every other strain I've grown.

And your plants look great to me. I wouldnt change anything.

[Potted]

Nice buds there N.G. Very pretty, I wouldn’t worry just water with mo and ph’ed water till the chop. Lol

[PRIMO]

Looks like you've done a good job N.G don't overthink it now. I agree with Potted and the king, just sweetwater from here on out.

[NAKEDGARDENER]

Redwasp Potted PRIMO Many thanks y’all, it’s really fantastic of you to take a look and check the progress for me.. wish I could repay everyone somehow for all their helpful and friendly advice, putting up with a novice like myself must be tedious at best and sometimes laughable, but I wouldn’t have made it without you all. I especially enjoy watching all your own progress and all your posts and am learning from them all of the time.

I have much to learn and the next grow I will be taking a leaf out of Red’s play book and asking opinions on which to grow next and especially if anyone has a good grow journal for that strain and what it likes curing its stages of growth.

I guess no no matter what a noob you can be at growing your own weed, it’s very reassuring that you have many there pushing you on and giving you time,y advice.
one of the largest things I have learned since being a member and contributor to this forum is for me to shut up more before I offer advice until I really know what I am talking about and not just spouting off.

Thank you friends.

[Redwasp]

Wonder Woman is a really easy grow and some very nice smoke. As is Nitro Lemon Haze and Aurora indica. All stress free grows if you are looking at photos. I almost always have at least 1 of each going.

[Toripony]

Way to go, N.G.! Happy to see you got a good looking result there! Have you tried a sample yet? The first couple of samples I took from my WW were a little heady/rushing. The third sample (about a week later) was noticeably better smoke, smoother and calmer.

[NAKEDGARDENER]

Thanks Redwasp. Some good options there my friend, and Toripony thank you very much, and no I haven’t taken a sample as yet, but I concuron the waiting a little bit with them, I would say around 50% of pistils are brown now, just waiting on delivery of a pocket microscope to get better views of the trichomes. I am looking for that smoother calmer effect you talk of.

[NAKEDGARDENER]

So did a good feed today after the flush and just added molasses and ph’d tap water of 6.80 after the previous run off reading of 5.30 and found due to the good ppm levels of 1000ppm on this feed I saw a run off 6.20 which to me is telling me that a flush with some ppm measure of around 260 in just water, then two days later a good feed and run off may have begun to raise my soil ph back into the 6.30 or 40 range. Will continue with molasses in a mix of hydrogaurd and regular tap water now with a ph of 6.70 and keep an eye on any change in soil acidity reduction over the next week. I plan on reducing molasses content after next Sunday from 1 tablespoon per gallon every two days to around a teaspoon pg every fertigation.