My ph in coco perlite is at 6.5 !?! Help??

[Jhinnovations918]

I have been doing over all good on my ph /ec and now two days ago I watered like usual I’m in ten gallon coco perlite 70/30 and yes I know to big for most. Anyway I did my normal nutrient solution ph to 5.8 and ec1050 , these are huge plants and I noticed my run off a little high it was at like 6.3 so I was concerned and ec was a little high it was like 1280 so I decided to flush. I give 3 gallons of water a day and get half to qtr gallon between the two every time. Anyway I have been flushing for two days and have flushed over 30 gallons through and it willl not go down it has actually went up. Ec went down then to make sure I wasn’t crazy I tried half strength nutes and took a little bit but finally ec went down again to input but the ph has stayed at now 6.5 6.6 idk how or wtf is going on I have tried half strength I have tried 5.5 ph with just cal mag extra b-52, and sensizym idk wtf is going on plz help. And yes I have ph burns on leaves…. The other plant getting same.exact thing same ratios tame size , strain and age is fine btw and I give same batch of nutes, mostly and I have 4.0, 7.0, and 10.01 calibration fluid and got a new ph meter just to check even though everything seemed right and it’s not that… plz help first time in coco idk what I did but it isn’t good….

 

[Illbill]

Everything looks good. Did you buffer the coco? Usually when you have a little buildup the ph will drop so flushing out the build up would raise it a little. It seems like my ph will be off for the first 4-5 weeks but I’ve never had any plant issues from it. My runoff has been in the 4s this whole grow and everything is great. The runoff test can be inaccurate.

 

[Bobcat.Branch]

There's a recent post here where someone had to flush 80 gallons through to get the runoff pH they desired.

Going by your pictures, they look pretty good to me. Can you get a close up pic of your "pH burns?"

 

[OldOneEye]

When hand watering in coco
Ph of water going in is important. EC or PPMs are important going in.
As long as you have good run off, exit ph and ec/ppm are not really important.
As a long term coco grower, I have yet once to check my drainage for ph or ec/ppms. Never do I have a nutrient problem.
The key to successful feeding in coco is 20% of Run Off...

 

[Bobcat.Branch]

The key to successful feeding in coco is 20% of Run Off...

This! Remember, you are replacing what's in the pots currently with your next feed. Having enough runoff is key! 50% is just as good, but wasteful... Unless it gives you peace of mind, and we are then defining such measures in terms of value.

 

[Jhinnovations918]

There's a recent post here where someone had to flush 80 gallons through to get the runoff pH they desired.

Going by your pictures, they look pretty good to me. Can you get a close up pic of your "pH burns?"

Yeah I’ll go grab a pic thanks. From steady ph to this idk what happened but going up instead of down seems odd to me after 30 g plus gallons flush …

 

[Jhinnovations918]

When hand watering in coco
Ph of water going in is important. EC or PPMs are important going in.
As long as you have good run off, exit ph and ec/ppm are not really important.
As a long term coco grower, I have yet once to check my drainage for ph or ec/ppms. Never do I have a nutrient problem.
The key to successful feeding in coco is 20% of Run Off...

yeah I usually get .5 gallons run off every time some times a little more some time a little less but pretty even .6 is 20 percent run off, and I over flush once a week! But it’s going up instead of down … idk why it’s weirding me out. Thanks!

 

[Jhinnovations918]

This! Remember, you are replacing what's in the pots currently with your next feed. Having enough runoff is key! 50% is just as good, but wasteful... Unless it gives you peace of mind, and we are then defining such measures in terms of value.

Yeah, I do 20 percent with an extra flush a week. But it’s going up instead of down and has always been close to input with in a point or two mostly…

 

[OldOneEye]

yeah I usually get .5 gallons run off every time some times a little more some time a little less but pretty even .6 is 20 percent run off, and I over flush once a week! But it’s going up instead of down … idk why it’s weirding me out. Thanks!

It's got you running down the proverbial rabbit hole.
The answer has to do with the coco drying, leaving residue nutrients behind, this builds up, even with flushing, as long as your water passes through coco, leaving behind fresh nutrients, this is what the roots will take in.

 

[Jhinnovations918]

Thanks t

Everything looks good. Did you buffer the coco? Usually when you have a little buildup the ph will drop so flushing out the build up would raise it a little. It seems like my ph will be off for the first 4-5 weeks but I’ve never had any plant issues from it. My runoff has been in the 4s this whole grow and everything is great. The runoff test can be inaccurate.

The burns freaked me out a little since I have been on point in the run off mostly, if not flush a small flush has worked …. I had been using advanced connoisseur but ran out and my replacements were delayed so I got some cheap Dutch pro coco grow a b, I used it for the past week everything seemed good, then a couple days ago my lower canopy leafs got dark brown blotches and started getting a little lighter green and then started falling off…. So I added some Epsom salt to my mix even though I already run cal mag . This seemed fine but a few days later I get the ph burns and the ph is high staying at 6.5. I use tap water…. It comes out at 6.5/7.5 ph and ppm at 150 …. Then I use some ro/ dehumidifier water to get down to 100 ppm or under. Anyway thanks for the reply.

 

[Jhinnovations918]

It's got you running down the proverbial rabbit hole.
The answer has to do with the coco drying, leaving residue nutrients behind, this builds up, even with flushing, as long as your water passes through coco, leaving behind fresh nutrients, this is what the roots will take in.

So just ignore the run off ph for now watch ec? They have become completely root locked it’s a solid mass you can’t push a finger in under the top two cm of loose perlite. Could this be an issue? I have seen two different things said on this . Some people use auto water ten times a day in 1gallon coco pots and say no issue don’t worry and then others say it the lock up and root locked they will cause issues… I am thinking of up potting before I flip to a 15 or 20 and waiting a week. Idk

 

[OldOneEye]

So just ignore the run off ph for now watch ec? They have become completely root locked it’s a solid mass you can’t push a finger in under the top two cm of loose perlite. Could this be an issue? I have seen two different things said on this . Some people use auto water ten times a day in 1gallon coco pots and say no issue don’t worry and then others say it the lock up and root locked they will cause issues… I am thinking of up potting before I flip to a 15 or 20 and waiting a week. Idk

I repeat,
in the 15 plus years that I have been growing in passive hydro, (hand watering), I have never checked my run off for either PPMs or PH.
In active hydro, that is totally different.

 

[phxazcraig]

My two cents. I'm into my 4th coco grow now. The first one I tried hard to get my inputs right, by measuring outputs, at least in EC/PPM. Not sure I've checked ph in the output.

What I found over the first 3 grows was that the output EC was lower than the input, until flowering. Let's say I had 600ppm going in during veg. I'd see something like 400ppm coming out. I have a decent amount of runoff, adding up to 3 gallons or so per day, for four plants get few every 2 hours.

Once flowering starts, and particularly toward the end, I just couldn't get EC down to where the output was less than the input. I could get it to the point of around 200ppm more than input, but that was about it. If I had maybe 1 gallon of runoff per day, the outgoing EC was at least 400ppm higher than input. I tried a flush once, using just RO water, and I think it was just a waste of water.

But I've not see it make any difference to let it build up to 400 higher than input. I don't know what is going on there, but it seem totally normal for a coco grow, at least mine. I'm thinking that there is some sort of salt being released by the plants that boosts outgoing EC. But it seems much more useful to control the inputs and not pay a lot of attention to the runoff, other than making sure there is 'enough'.

One way I think I've got around the issue, if there even is one, is by watering more often. During lights on, I feed for 9 seconds every two hours. I get runoff from every watering. The plants are one month old (started count when germinated seeds were put into Jiffy pots, in red solo cups). When they get a lot bigger, I may need to add a second or two to the watering to make sure there is runoff. I'm using ph 6.0 through the grow, using GH nutes and chart. I'm using premade buffered coco coir in 3.5 gallon air pots. I never re-use coco from previous crop, but buy a new bag for each grow. (That is an effort to avoid pests.)

 

[Jhinnovations918]

Thanks everyone I’ll start ignoring run off ph for the most part or at least not worry about it unless I see an issue. I did see burns from ph that was my main concern just usually only see it when it’s low which was also weird.

 

[OldOneEye]

Thanks everyone I’ll start ignoring run off ph for the most part or at least not worry about it unless I see an issue. I did see burns from ph that was my main concern just usually only see it when it’s low which was also weird.

Pro Tip: Less is more, it is al.ost always easier to recover from "not enough" than it is from "to much".

 

[Jhinnovations918]

Pro Tip: Less is more, it is al.ost always easier to recover from "not enough" than it is from "to much".

Unless it’s watering/ feeding in coco lol

 

[OldOneEye]

Unless it’s watering/ feeding in coco lol

Watering, okay, I'll give you that. But feeding, nope, less is more.
You just feed lighter

 

[Jhinnovations918]

Watering, okay, I'll give you that. But feeding, nope, less is more.
You just feed lighter

Huh?