The smell is in my air

[Pyrokill]

Another attempt at it. Franklin Autos, 4 are CBD Red x ak47 and two are what I think are seedsman Autos called ROC Pappy's. I buried the labels thinking they would be noticably different but only 1 expressed the red genes. One just this week is turning color but only off of a green to a purple color in the buds. Two plants are behind in growth so I think I know who is who.

I don't know if it's possible but my water mains locally were changed last summer from steel to plastic. My pH was way off now. I was at 30 drops now to 4 per gallon of down. Anyway. They are picking up speed and only one seems to have residual pH issues still. It changed recently again but I'm correcting it I hope. To me it matches a copper lock out from the pH? I didn't fully flush them but as I said ...anyway. Happy Fryday.

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[12HourPower]

I am curious what the pH of your tap water is if you're adding over a ml of pH down to a gallon. That's a lot of phosphoric acid. Typically 1-2 drops is enough for adjusting a gallon. I try to get data at three points in the process, so it tells a story:

1) plain tap
2) after nutes added before adjusting and after
3) container run off

Make sure your meter is calibrated. If you're not getting much run off that acid is slowly accumulating in the media. Don't know about copper lock specifically, but if your media pH is way off there could be multiple lock outs. This has happened to me, using FFHF that I didn't check before using. I was adjusting to pH 6.0 and the soil was pH 4.9 out of the bag.

 

[Bluey]

Treated tap water does not need a ml/gal to bring it down. Something very wrong there. Get an Apera pH60 or similar.

Link to an excellent article if you missed it

https://forum.growweedeasy.com/forum/growing-community/587080-the-tale-of-two-ph-pens

 

[Pyrokill]

I use litmus paper and it was way dark green to where I'm guessing 10+. My water is very hard up here. I had about 3 grows with 25+ drops per gallon and they had a little hard time at the end but things seemed good. These grows were with photos in living super soil and just water. I use molasses at the end but checked the pH after mixing it and no real changes to note.

These autos now are in the same batch of super soil as the last grow but from new sealed bags I've kept in the basement. They changed my water pipes after the last grow so I'm just assuming that's what was up. Pipes in my area are original to the area and are rusting out. Hopefully that also stops the mineral creep I was getting on faucets.

I've since bought a junk meter and proved that my tap is now a little over 7. It matched what my paper looks like so for me it's in the park. May be off but still close enough for soil growing up to this point.

I had that new meter on the list now that I returned the junk one so I'll get it and check. Since cutting the down back the plants have thickened tremendously and the spots are only seeming to be residual issues. I check them each day and they are responding better now.

Super happy with the purple one. She fought off my errors and is producing well. The other ones I feel are his CBD red are changing color more each day. Even some leaves are getting shoots of purple coming through.

I'll check the runoff on the next watering. I have them on drip trays and I just water to absorption and barely any runoff.

I'm here for any a learnin I can get so take me to class. I've studied and feel confident I can pass.

 

[Pyrokill]

Treated tap water does not need a ml/gal to bring it down. Something very wrong there. Get an Apera pH60 or similar.

Link to an excellent article if you missed it

https://forum.growweedeasy.com/forum/growing-community/587080-the-tale-of-two-ph-pens

Good thread. I know it's just being cheap but I don't get how many cheap parts are made and sold anymore. Well I bought a cheap one but I didn't know how cheap it was. I have car hobbies and I always tried to get good parts since I saw cheap ones break. I guess I should have crossed that to grow tools also .

 

[Gingerbeard]

Do you know if your water supplier changed from chlorine to chloramines or vice versa in the pipe switch?

 

[12HourPower]

...I have car hobbies and I always tried to get good parts since I saw cheap ones break. I guess I should have crossed that to grow tools also .

100% correct.

If you're adding pH down and watering with little to no run off, I would bet your soil is way too low. I get that you don't want to wash out the good stuff and microorganisms, but you could definitely ease the pH of your water/nutes up. I have doubts about your tap being pH 10. That's super out of bounds alkaline.

Keep us posted on your meter upgrade and measurements.

 

[Bluey]

With hard water in some areas it may be very difficult to impossible to do good grows without reverse osmosis.

 

[Pyrokill]

I'll check on the chlorine idea. Good point. I know a guy in the water department and I can just text him so that's an easy one. Thanks for the idea.

Actually just had another thought. After the pipe change out I flushed my water heater out. I did see lots of debris and mineral deposits so that may be something also that could add hardness. I put the heater in 3 years ago and forgot to flush it till now so it was getting full.

It probably wasn't 10 then but I remember way dark. I had a rainbow of colored test strips I lined up when I was done. Also a correction on my end, I was using 24 drops for the grows. I was doing 30 when it was a gallon and a half or so when I used a larger container for the last grow.

My water may be the issue of why I was expecting more product out of my grows. I bet they are being limited. I still was getting 1 to 1.5 ounces on an average plant of what I grew but they looked like they had more potential than what came.

​​​​​​ I try not to let my home life cross over to work but I'm letting my morals slide a little. I work in a lab and I asked our chemist if he had good strips. I wanted to validate my test strips. He said just bring a sample in and we can use his desktop meter. So I'll have a couple samples made up and have accurate reading soon.

I'm on the mechanical side of the lab by the way. I'm not at the top smarts level by any means. Thanks for the help again. The girls are still getting thick and I hope this fixes my hump I'm stuck in.

 

[Gingerbeard]

I started a thread about water after a heater exchange or maintenance. I don't think people took me seriously.
Your water supplier/county/city should tell you about the chloramines/chlorine on their website.

 

[Pyrokill]

I'd agree to a water heater flush changing the pH. It has to since it acts as a sediment tank hold also. I'll check your thread out thanks.

Well the $1000 calibrated meter said my tap water is now 7.35 and I'm feeding them 6.78. They all are treated equally with love and respect and they are different plants since I've adjusted the down but the one plant is having a hard time. I'll flush that one a bit and it should help I'm guessing.

I'll take another reading of what I am feeding them again later to be on it. I'd say my test strips are good but I feel less confident in reading it. I still will get my own meter to have on hand.

The grows I did before this issue liked the water supply until the end. I have a couple more seeds left so I'll do them next and redeem myself I hope.

 

[Pyrokill]

All down and tasty. Out of 6 plants it was a little over 10 oz dry. The seeds turned into different plants than I was expecting. One was purple and not red and I assumed it was a CBD red cross. It was a ROC purple berry and another was called a ROC Pappy's. Franklins CBDs had a purple hue in the buds but not predominant. 3 plants dried darker and one was a lime green. Odd smells like Bluey noted but good and it's relaxing for me.

The pH issues were rough but never made it into the buds. I adjusted more on waterings and flushed a bit at a time. They responded and picked up after the posts.

The new grow is Blue Dreams, a gorilla cookie, and gifted Hogg Orange Barb x Kush. Either the 2 Barbs had pH shock or something or they have a bit of variation genes in the leaves, very mosaic. All other plants are good and green so hoping they continue to show. All in living soil and water again. I feel more confident now so another shot on its way for me.

 

[Pyrokill]

[No message]

 

[Bluey]

They look good. I did get a little purple in one of them but not the other 3. I think mine was more nute problems though. Mine are very strong smelling right now in the room. Slow to finish but once again I gave them all too much N

 

[SoOrbudgal]

Congratulations on the harvest you deserve a big kudo for all the effort you put into it. Yep that's the best way to learn is back to back growing and a good way to fill the pantry that's what i'm doing also LOL. I had some HVAC guys in my house on Monday putting in a new whole house system. Anyway they saw my clone station and smelled my stinky tent throughout the house. " WoW " one said she starts early LOL it was 0745 they thought i was smoking it . No i said it's my tent flowers. So yes i know the issues with venting the smell, for me i just don't try.

 

[Pyrokill]

It was good effort but it's a great hobby and worth it for me. Now I feel confident to grow less plants and can focus on a few vs too many.

I reached out to the water department and they said I'll have higher levels of chlorine but they aren't adding more. It's just because now more is getting out of my tap since the pipe changes. He said it probably did affect the pH but wasn't positive. I check the pH now and it's good and I just let my water supply sit out a few days longer now. All of my adjustments seem to be showing in the new grow. Half of my tent is to flower and I have half still in veg for outdoors this year.