J
jpm418
- 3
- 3
I'm gonna give a FULL rundown, to leave certain answers you may have questioned, so you have a better insight as to maybe helping me with my problem.
Just completed my first week of veg, on my first grow in a UC4 system. The whole week my Bluelab meter has read the pH at "steadily" 7.0 sometimes teetering between 6.8 - 7.1.
Specs:
4x DHN Purple Kush clones (rockwool)
UC4 (8 Gal) System
3x 2ft T5 Lights (for vegging)
Water Chiller with water temps reading between 66F - 70F
Environment Temps HI 80F Lo 72F
Humidity HI 35% Lo 26% (growing at very dry climate)
Cultured Solutions lineup (UC Roots, Veg A&B, CoCo Cal right now)
RO Water comes out at pH 7.0 ppm (x500) 10
Lights 18/6
Clones we're placed in the system on Oct. 20 @ midnight (Friday). I didn't soak the rockwool in a lower pH water nor were the hydrostones rinsed in a lower pH water. Didn't read about these precautionaries until this week, after the clones were planted and was having the pH problem. The hydrostones were rinsed in the RO water and the clones were planted in the pots. Water level in system set at top of second netting in pots. Clones were well rooted & water was hitting the roots without over saturating the rockwool cube, so I didn't worry about top feeding.
Once planted, I feed the nutrients thru the epicenter at the following,
UC Roots - 80 ml (2ml per Gal)
Veg A - 10 ml (.25ml per Gal)
Veg B - 10 ml
CoCo Cal - 20 ml (.5ml per Gal)
After 12 hrs the Bluelab readings were,
EC 0.1
PPM 50
TDS 70
TEMP 68F
pH 7.2
I freaked when I saw 7.2 so I busted out the pH down. I diluted 1oz. of pH down to 1 gal of my RO water (as recommended by Current Culture). I added 400mL of the diluted pH down to my epicenter. After 5 hrs. the Bluelab readings were,
PPM 60
TDS 80
pH 6.7
I was reading online over the 5 hrs. and on the CC website it stated that there's no need to mess with the pH if it reads between 5.5 - 6.5, so I still wasn't satisfied. So I added another 250mL of the diluted pH down. After a half hour it brought the pH down to 6.3. It only lasted about an hour though. It slowly raised the next 12 hrs, .1, till it settled at the 7.0 with teetering between 6.8 - 7.1 as mentioned above.
At this point I felt I had done too much tinkering with the pH as the plants were growing but the leaves were showing some signs of stress. The new growth looked okay, but some of the leaves were curling, some twisting. Pic of example at this point
(As you can see the top and bottom leaf in the photo are starting to twist, there's discoloration on the new growth and is drooping down.)
The next day I filled my reservoir with 40 gal of RO water and added nutes at double of what I first put in the epicenter, with a little extra UC Roots and a little less CoCo Cal, as following
UC Roots - 125 ml
Veg A - 20 ml
Veg B - 20 ml
CoCo Cal - 30 ml
The Bluelab readings on my reservoir were really encouraging,
EC 0.2
PPM 100
TDS 140
TEMP 65F
pH 5.8!!!
The plants still weren't huge, so I knew they wouldn't take too much water from the reservoir, but I was encouraged by the readings. So I let the system run at the teetering pH in hopes the next 24 hours the plants would have drank some of the water and started to leach off of the reservoir. Pics of plant growth from last photo over the next 48 hrs.
(Same plant from the photo above, as you can see the curling/twisting is still there but it started to straighten itself out, even with the pH all over the place and the EC/PPM staying almost exactly the same.)
Unfortunately, my reservoir was still pretty much full after the 24 hours so I went to some drastic measures. I shop vacced 8 gals outta the epicenter, to allow some of the pH'ed water from the reservoir to flow in. The readings on the reservoir after the 24 hours were still great, with the only rise being in the water temp. After it took the 8 gal from the reservoir, the Bluelab in the epicenter only went down to 6.8, which it had already been teetering on and it only held it there very shortly before eventually rising to 6.9
So basically at this point my EC/PPM has been staying steady, barely lowering, if any at all, and the pH is all outta whack. I was reading around all this time and found a lot about the more nutes, the lower the pH because of the pH buffers each nute has. Which proved to be true in my reservoir. So I decided to add the nutes again directly to the epicenter. It raised the EC/PPM to proper levels but the pH barely budged. It went down to 6.7, with the same level of nutes added to epicenter, as was added to the reservoir. At this point I was irritated so I took 1000mL of the diluted pH down I still had and added it to the epicenter. Four hours later the pH read at 5.8, so I finally went to bed. When I woke up, 7 hrs. later, the pH had rose to 6.3 and within that hour being up, rose to 6.4 which it still reads now. Which leads me to this post.
The growth from the last photos is significant and the it's still trying to straighten out the curling/twisting leafs. Some of the new growth is showing the curling/twisting though and I'm not sure if this is being caused from any lockout of nutrients because of the high pH. I've read about rising pH and the possibility of root algae being the cause but the roots look nice as do the fishbones growing off the roots (at least I think). Photos within the last hour
(Same plant as photo above)
(Leafs that were twisting that are now straightened out)
(The new growth on same plant starting to curl/twist)
(Roots)
Any input or advice you may have on everything I've stated would be greatly appreciated, any other questions not answered please post and I'll answer to my best abilities.
Thanks!
Just completed my first week of veg, on my first grow in a UC4 system. The whole week my Bluelab meter has read the pH at "steadily" 7.0 sometimes teetering between 6.8 - 7.1.
Specs:
4x DHN Purple Kush clones (rockwool)
UC4 (8 Gal) System
3x 2ft T5 Lights (for vegging)
Water Chiller with water temps reading between 66F - 70F
Environment Temps HI 80F Lo 72F
Humidity HI 35% Lo 26% (growing at very dry climate)
Cultured Solutions lineup (UC Roots, Veg A&B, CoCo Cal right now)
RO Water comes out at pH 7.0 ppm (x500) 10
Lights 18/6
Clones we're placed in the system on Oct. 20 @ midnight (Friday). I didn't soak the rockwool in a lower pH water nor were the hydrostones rinsed in a lower pH water. Didn't read about these precautionaries until this week, after the clones were planted and was having the pH problem. The hydrostones were rinsed in the RO water and the clones were planted in the pots. Water level in system set at top of second netting in pots. Clones were well rooted & water was hitting the roots without over saturating the rockwool cube, so I didn't worry about top feeding.
Once planted, I feed the nutrients thru the epicenter at the following,
UC Roots - 80 ml (2ml per Gal)
Veg A - 10 ml (.25ml per Gal)
Veg B - 10 ml
CoCo Cal - 20 ml (.5ml per Gal)
After 12 hrs the Bluelab readings were,
EC 0.1
PPM 50
TDS 70
TEMP 68F
pH 7.2
I freaked when I saw 7.2 so I busted out the pH down. I diluted 1oz. of pH down to 1 gal of my RO water (as recommended by Current Culture). I added 400mL of the diluted pH down to my epicenter. After 5 hrs. the Bluelab readings were,
PPM 60
TDS 80
pH 6.7
I was reading online over the 5 hrs. and on the CC website it stated that there's no need to mess with the pH if it reads between 5.5 - 6.5, so I still wasn't satisfied. So I added another 250mL of the diluted pH down. After a half hour it brought the pH down to 6.3. It only lasted about an hour though. It slowly raised the next 12 hrs, .1, till it settled at the 7.0 with teetering between 6.8 - 7.1 as mentioned above.
At this point I felt I had done too much tinkering with the pH as the plants were growing but the leaves were showing some signs of stress. The new growth looked okay, but some of the leaves were curling, some twisting. Pic of example at this point
(As you can see the top and bottom leaf in the photo are starting to twist, there's discoloration on the new growth and is drooping down.)
The next day I filled my reservoir with 40 gal of RO water and added nutes at double of what I first put in the epicenter, with a little extra UC Roots and a little less CoCo Cal, as following
UC Roots - 125 ml
Veg A - 20 ml
Veg B - 20 ml
CoCo Cal - 30 ml
The Bluelab readings on my reservoir were really encouraging,
EC 0.2
PPM 100
TDS 140
TEMP 65F
pH 5.8!!!
The plants still weren't huge, so I knew they wouldn't take too much water from the reservoir, but I was encouraged by the readings. So I let the system run at the teetering pH in hopes the next 24 hours the plants would have drank some of the water and started to leach off of the reservoir. Pics of plant growth from last photo over the next 48 hrs.
(Same plant from the photo above, as you can see the curling/twisting is still there but it started to straighten itself out, even with the pH all over the place and the EC/PPM staying almost exactly the same.)
Unfortunately, my reservoir was still pretty much full after the 24 hours so I went to some drastic measures. I shop vacced 8 gals outta the epicenter, to allow some of the pH'ed water from the reservoir to flow in. The readings on the reservoir after the 24 hours were still great, with the only rise being in the water temp. After it took the 8 gal from the reservoir, the Bluelab in the epicenter only went down to 6.8, which it had already been teetering on and it only held it there very shortly before eventually rising to 6.9
So basically at this point my EC/PPM has been staying steady, barely lowering, if any at all, and the pH is all outta whack. I was reading around all this time and found a lot about the more nutes, the lower the pH because of the pH buffers each nute has. Which proved to be true in my reservoir. So I decided to add the nutes again directly to the epicenter. It raised the EC/PPM to proper levels but the pH barely budged. It went down to 6.7, with the same level of nutes added to epicenter, as was added to the reservoir. At this point I was irritated so I took 1000mL of the diluted pH down I still had and added it to the epicenter. Four hours later the pH read at 5.8, so I finally went to bed. When I woke up, 7 hrs. later, the pH had rose to 6.3 and within that hour being up, rose to 6.4 which it still reads now. Which leads me to this post.
The growth from the last photos is significant and the it's still trying to straighten out the curling/twisting leafs. Some of the new growth is showing the curling/twisting though and I'm not sure if this is being caused from any lockout of nutrients because of the high pH. I've read about rising pH and the possibility of root algae being the cause but the roots look nice as do the fishbones growing off the roots (at least I think). Photos within the last hour
(Same plant as photo above)
(Leafs that were twisting that are now straightened out)
(The new growth on same plant starting to curl/twist)
(Roots)
Any input or advice you may have on everything I've stated would be greatly appreciated, any other questions not answered please post and I'll answer to my best abilities.
Thanks!
