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How to stabilize PH

Grow4r

Grow4r

New member
I’m growing a new plant in an coir based organic mix. I am having a problem trying to keep the PH stabilized. I can get it adjusted when watering to an average of 6. I’f I go and check it the next day it will be back up to 7 and sometimes slightly higher. I can’t keep flushing because the soil will get too wet. Any suggestions to keep the PH from raising? The plant is a month old and only a few inches tall with very tight and small leaves. I was thinking maybe I was getting nute lockout because of yellowing along the edges of leaves and the ones on top are a lighter color with dark veins. I started foliage feeding and starting to see a slight improvement however the PH concerns me.
 
That’s what I’ve been doing. I guess to clarify my question is why does it keep going back up so quickly?
 
What is the brand of coir you use?
can you clarify your watering practices?
do you have any pictures of your plant and its setup?
 
first of all, coco undergoes an exchange reaction with the calmag in your nutrients until its "buffered" so thats something to consider as a cause of the ph drift. if you are watering at ph 6 and it goes all the way up to 7 try watering at 5.5 to see if it stays within 5.5 and 6.5. because of that reaction the drift will most likely decrease as time goes by. what are you feeding? how old are your plants? are they in perfect health? what EC do you water with? another possibility could be low ec but you would see deficiencies and over watering symptoms
 
I'm actually seeing an improvement over the last day. I flushed it yesterday and have been foliar feeding it. The leaves are starting to get darker with a more uniform green color, the main stem is sturdy. I'll just set my water PH even a little lower the next time I feed or water. My only concern now is the size. The plant after a month is only a few inches tall with small compact leaves. Maybe that's a good thing because eI need a small compact plant since I'm growing in a closet. This one may be an experiment for me since I didn't mention the seed came from my last plant that went hermie.
 

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Thanks for the picture. Grow4r Can you detail what you mean by " coir based organic mix"
Did you amend some soil with coir?
Or did you just buy it?
 
Mr. Furley, I started off with straight coir. I thought maybe the nutes were off (which I mix at 1/2 strength) so about a week ago I thought to repot it in fresh but I was out of straight coir and couldn't find it in the stores locally so I tried a commercial mix which is primarily coir and perlite but has some organic additives like worm casings, chicken droppings, etc. Anyhow I do think it's starting to turn around. It looked a lot worse than before I repotted it. Maybe I'm making too big of a deal out of this. So really the question is, is it normal for PH to go up a point or two between waterings or feedings or does it need to stay relatively constant? I don't want this plant to get too big and want to go 12/12/ soon but now more concerned about the stunted size.
 
just curious, how do you know ph has risen? i mean you check when you water and then how do you check again to get that 7?
 
If you have amended your Coco with soil I wouldn't see it been a problem to have a higher ph then what is recommended for straight coco grows, as long as you are in between 6.ph and 7.ph. and yes I would like to know how you come to the PH reading. Like 9fingerleafs is asking
Runoff?
Soil meter?
 
Thanks, A lot of good advice. I do always adjust my solution or water to the correct range. I usually water when the medium is dry and inch or two down in container I’m using. I have noticed improvement in the last 24 hours.
 
Yes. Indeed congrats.. I too have seen a great improvement with my own watering practices. Recently found the ph pen I had been using was off, good job I also use the gh test for a ball park figure. I think I will get a second ph pen however,just to cross check their readings against each other. Good luck and as MrFurley says, we all have our fingers crossed for ya.
 
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