First time dwc grower trying to correct ph problems.

[Tez710]

So I’m in the middle of my first grow, going pretty smoothly. I flipped to flower about 2 weeks ago and since I can’t figure out how to control my ph and I’m getting some deficiencies. I’m growing in 3 gallons of water and around 600 ppm. I usually Ph to 6 but my plants are drinking 400 ppm and the majority of the water in 2-3 days causing a huge spike or drop in ph. It seems in one day the ph will shoot from 6 either to 7 or 4. I’m not dechlorinating my water because out of the tap the ppm is less than 20, and I haven’t been my entire grow. Does anyone have a way to balance this without moving to a larger reservoir or changing my actual setup or is that my only option. I’m almost positive the deficiencies I’m seeing is because of the ph but I’ll post pictures for y’all to see.

 

[Cashmeh]

Do you monitor the ph daily? How much nutrient/water do you add per day? I would suggest recoding ph and ppm every 8-12hrs. I imagine due to root mass and low res size, your going to be adjusting ph every 12hrs minimum. . and adding prolly a gallon a day of the same mix. . until you match ur res size. Just my thoughts im fairly new though.

 

[Tez710]

Do you monitor the ph daily? How much nutrient/water do you add per day? I would suggest recoding ph and ppm every 8-12hrs. I imagine due to root mass and low res size, your going to be adjusting ph every 12hrs minimum. . and adding prolly a gallon a day of the same mix. . until you match ur res size. Just my thoughts im fairly new though.

I check probably every other day. I don't add more water until its mostly gone 2-3 days. Should I keep my water about 2" under the netpot? I'm not sure if I should be feeding every 3 days but I am.

 

[Cashmeh]

I check probably every other day. I don't add more water until its mostly gone 2-3 days. Should I keep my water about 2" under the netpot? I'm not sure if I should be feeding every 3 days but I am.

That is good when its small, but its uptaking too fast I would assume. I would be topping off daily and adjusting ph daily. You have gone this far, just gotta increase your checks. If you had a larger res you could get away with what ur doing.

Just my thoughts, id wait for more experienced individuals to reply though.

 

[RealizedReal000]

That is good when its small, but its uptaking too fast I would assume. I would be topping off daily and adjusting ph daily. You have gone this far, just gotta increase your checks. If you had a larger res you could get away with what ur doing.

Just my thoughts, id wait for more experienced individuals to reply though.

I second this. The constant flux of the ph is likely what’s causing that. You got to check daily or even twice a day when flowering cause any little issue will likely effect yields in flower. That’s why dialing it in before hand and repetitive checks or crucial in flower.

 

[Oldguy71]

So your plants drinking so much water and having ph swings is most likely because they are underfed. When you don’t add make up water your ppms should be pretty stable maybe increasing slightly. When they eat more than they are drinking (ppms going down) it means they want more nutes. So they drink more water looking for them. Going down by 400 points in a few days is a lot. I would increase your ppms by100-150 and see if it stabilizes. If it’s still going down add more nutes. When plants are underfed the ph usually rises except near the end of the reservoirs life, then it tends to drop. When they are over fed the ph tends to drop too. If your not running some kind of bennies like southern ag gff of hydrogaurd I highly recommend it. I think upping your ppms will solve the leaf issues and most of your water consumption and ph problems. It’s still a big plant in a bucket. You could switch to a 10-20gal tote with little hassle and $. You do need to check ph every day and ppms too until you get that dialed.

 

[Tez710]

So your plants drinking so much water and having ph swings is most likely because they are underfed. When you don’t add make up water your ppms should be pretty stable maybe increasing slightly. When they eat more than they are drinking (ppms going down) it means they want more nutes. So they drink more water looking for them. Going down by 400 points in a few days is a lot. I would increase your ppms by100-150 and see if it stabilizes. If it’s still going down add more nutes. When plants are underfed the ph usually rises except near the end of the reservoirs life, then it tends to drop. When they are over fed the ph tends to drop too. If your not running some kind of bennies like southern ag gff of hydrogaurd I highly recommend it. I think upping your ppms will solve the leaf issues and most of your water consumption and ph problems. It’s still a big plant in a bucket. You could switch to a 10-20gal tote with little hassle and $. You do need to check ph every day and ppms too until you get that dialed.

okay I am using hydroguard. So understanding correctly, you would up the ppms and not let the water level drop as low. Would you add nute water with hydroguard to top off every few days or fresh water and feed like once a week? Im planning on eventually going with a recirculating system with a large res so I wouldnt have to check but this is my first grow so I want to harvest a few times with this setup before I switch.

 

[Aqua Man]

Marijuana pH Levels for Growing Weed: A Basic Explanation

In this article, we discuss proper pH levels for your weed plants; alkalinity, soil pH, tap water, and the effects of nutrients on pH when growing marijuana

www.thcfarmer.com

 

[Oldguy71]

I would add nutes daily until you find the spot where the ppms stay fairly flat. Adding make up water when it’s down 1/2-1/3, keeping you ppms up. If your bucket is half full and your ppms went from say 800 to 700. I would top off the res and add nutrients to 850 or so. If it was 1/2 full and stayed around 800 I would too it off and add nutrients to 800. After you get the ppms dialed you’ll probably add nutrient water a couple times a week.

 

[Oldguy71]

I only add hydrogaurd or similar at res changes, not for top ups

 

[Oldguy71]

You should be completely changing out your res every 5-7 days too if you’re not doing that already.

 

[Tez710]

You should be completely changing out your res every 5-7 days too if you’re not doing that already.

okay. Right now I'm completely changing my res every 2-3 days (as soon as my water is depleted) and bringing ppm up to 600 each time. Going forward I will try adding nute water every day for 7 days to keep it consistent and see if that helps with my swings.

 

[Aqua Man]

You should top up daily once they start drinking imo... test daily also. But that's just me and you can definitely get away with longer

 

[Tez710]

You should top up daily once they start drinking imo... test daily also. But that's just me and you can definitely get away with longer

I plan on topping off every day. What ppm would you top off with.

 

[Aqua Man]

I plan on topping off every day. What ppm would you top off with.

Well I do it a bit more complicated but if ya want a simpler way then I can explain. I also only do res changes once I add back the volume of water equal to the system... that way your not wasting nutes and still changing often enough. But also do that a bit differently

DWC, RDWC and RECIRCULATING SYSYEM TOP UP EXPLAINED.

Ok I'm going to explain a more complex way of maintaining our systems for those looking to use best practices (IMO only) There are many ways this can be done but I feel this gives the most stability for PH, PPM, NUTRIENT RATIOS (super important) especially is systems with a low water volume. So...

www.thcfarmer.com

 

[Oldguy71]

okay. Right now I'm completely changing my res every 2-3 days (as soon as my water is depleted) and bringing ppm up to 600 each time. Going forward I will try adding nute water every day for 7 days to keep it consistent and see if that helps with my swings.

Where did you get the 600 ppm number? You need to let your plants tell you where to set it.

 

[Tez710]

Where did you get the 600 ppm number? You need to let your plants tell you where to set it.

Thats just what I set my ppm to for flower, I didnt know how to measure by volume.

 

[Tez710]

At my next res change on Wednesday I’ll try @aquamans top up method. This morning I trimmed all of them and removed most of the undergrowth/blocking leaves.

 

[QuarterbackMo]

I didn’t read the responses but the problem is you are growing a bush in 3 gallons of water.

Next time hook up a rez and make it an rdwc system. If you look back through my posts there was some jack off who tried to argue that this was a better method then an rdwc and this is one of the problems I was talking about is not having enough solution to buffer the ph.

You can do whatever you want to those buckets to keep light out or whatever temp control or whatever that’s not the problem. Those roots are white your problem is the 3 gallons of water.

For plants as big as those you should have both of your buckets piped to at least a 10-15 gallon controller bucket or another 5 gallon bucket hooked up to a top off rez via a float valve.

 

[Aqua Man]

I didn’t read the responses but the problem is you are growing a bush in 3 gallons of water.

Next time hook up a rez and make it an rdwc system. If you look back through my posts there was some jack off who tried to argue that this was a better method then an rdwc and this is one of the problems I was talking about is not having enough solution to buffer the ph.

You can do whatever you want to those buckets to keep light out or whatever temp control or whatever that’s not the problem. Those roots are white your problem is the 3 gallons of water.

For plants as big as those you should have both of your buckets piped to at least a 10-15 gallon controller bucket or another 5 gallon bucket hooked up to a top off rez via a float valve.

I agree rdwc is much more stable and easier to look after. If you can pull off some big plants in DWC you will greatly appreciate rdwc for how much more stable and easy it us.