SOIL Same issue, Different attempt

[DeadlyFruit]

When I mix up some water with GH trio and calmag I don’t have problems with it being too acidic. My last step is almost always to add a few ml of ph down because it isn’t acidic enough. What is your plain water pH?

Assuming your plain water isn’t really acidic to start, do you calibrate you pH tester pen on a relatively regular basis? I speak from unfortunate experience when I say that it will slip out of calibration. Even calibrating once a month would be helpful.

 

[No3odiesShad0w]

DeadlyFruit I'm not sure if it's supposed to be acidic like that. I never used this fertilizer so I'm not sure if it's supposed to be acidic like that. The picture below is the water after i mixed the nutrients. It dropped down to 4. My water is pretty good. When i test just the water, i get roughly 7. The tap water in my area is some of the best. No hard or soft water, pH is neutral so the water isn't a concern.

I don't have a pH pen. SONKIR Soil pH Meter https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BR52P26/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_glt_fabc_309XFNK2KBSJ825ZRG3K

I use that and i use the drops that came with the pH up and down. I'm planning on getting a better one in the near future.

 

[DeadlyFruit]

No, mine certainly isn’t acidic. I’d say it is the opposite effect - with everything mixed in the water tends to become slightly more alkaline. I always need to add a little pH down for indoor coco based grows.

I don’t have great colour vision but you certainly look close to 4 in the pic. If you haven’t added any pH down and it is that acidic then something is off. I personally find drops hard to read (especially given nutes mostly have dyes in them already) and my experience with a soil tester like that one wasn’t great. I would recommend getting a digital pen and calibrate it occasionally to ensure you are on target. If budget is a problem just get a cheap one (I think they are under $20) and a small bottle of a fixed pH testing solution so you know if it is out and by how much).

Sorry, I can’t think of anything that would skew your nute water that much without using some type of pH down. I’ve never noticed a variance between nute bottles of the same type so if that is the problem you could probably return it due to defect. To be sure I think you could have tested the pH of the nutes if you had a digital pen but the concentrated nutes with dye in them would probably make it very difficult to read with drops.

 

[No3odiesShad0w]

Well did a bunch of homework today. Borrowed my friends pH pen.100% my issue was high pH in the soil. There's hope yet for one of the 2 plants in bloom. The SP with nitrogen toxicity might be hopeless but the hybrid might be savable. I adjusted the pH to a comfy 6.5. Makes sense since it looked like i had copper, magnesium and zinc deficiencies. The soil pH was around 7.8 which is my fault thinking it was too acidic and tried to raise the pH.

I tested the nutrients and they're fine. Tested my tap water and it's at 7.6. That could have been the issue that caused the pH to raise in the soil. I agree the drops are a bit hard to read at times especially when you're slightly color blind. The soil pH probe i have works fairly well in comparison to my friends pH pen. So I'm rely on that a bit more since it's fairly accurate. I was using it wrong. Didn't leave it in the soil long enough.

 

[No3odiesShad0w]

Put these under the bloom light. Not sure if they're male or female so i need to check. If they're females then attempt #6 begins. If not in 2 weeks in throwing the other 4 cuttings i have in the other room under the bloom light. Those are females 100%