2x UC12xl13 and 12K watts.....Sealed

[hogan400]

Did my water swap and raised my ppm120 for a total of 640. I flipped to 12/12 and my ph dropped from 6-5.3 in two days. It seems the plants are eating since my ppm is dropping as well...all my roots look perfect. I still have the one plant battling a little stem damage but coming along ok.

Is this normal when you switch to bloom nutes at first? DUTCHMASTER A/B
Do you think I should back off my food a little? raise ph or let it swing?
Am I in for some drastic dealings? I called cch2o but seems they are closed today?

 

[Shady]

Not sure why your pH and PPM's would drop... :thinking

Current Culture recommends a slightly higher pH in veg and a slightly lower pH in bloom. I read their FAQ's many times and followed them for the most part. I generally kept my ph in veg between 6.0 and 6.2... In bloom I kept the pH between 5.5 to 5.9.

One way to understand the correlation of pH to PPM's is when you mix your res starting with RO and then add nutrients, the pH of the resultant mix is lower. As a plant uptakes nutrients from a weak nutrient mix more than drinking the water, the PPM's will drop and more water will be left in the mix resulting in a diluted mix with a higher pH. On the otherhand, if the mix is too strong, the plant will drink more water and not uptake as much nutrients, resulting in a stronger mix at a lower pH.

The goal is to have the plants drinking water and uptaking the nutrients so that the pH is slightly rising and PPM's are slightly dropping... Then you set your topoff res with a slightly stronger nutrient mix at a slightly lower pH to keep the girls dialed-in... :cool

 

[hogan400]

shady,
Thats exactly what I read too, and how I also understood it. It makes sense to me and I realize the correlation between the two.

When I mixed my nutes for bloom in my main rez they were at 640ppm ph 6.0. After draining my uc, and adding in my bloom nutes in, including minor left over veg nutes, (@480 at 6.1.) they were at 540ppm ph 6.0.
They ate up roughly 60 ppm in two days and look good but my ph is falling. I tested my meter and calibrated it, then used my dropper ph tester, and sure as shit my ph WAS falling. I have since added in pure r.o top off water to raise ph naturally and dilute my nute strength but it still seems to be falling? wtf.....

Im confused, not at the understanding, but why ph is actually falling? Seems to me if I was over feeding they would be showing some signs? what conditions could exist that might cause my ph to fall?
maybe bad nutes or nutes mixed wrong? i think it would be noticable?!

 

[Shady]

:wait How much is your pH falling from the starting 6.0? If it's only down to 5.8 or so, I wouldn't worry just yet as the plants are in the transition phase during this first week of the flip. Also they just got a large increase in the nutrient mix from veg to bloom. If there is a drastic drop in the pH and PPM's, I would suspect some potential lockout and/or root issues...

 

[hogan400]

shady it fell about a from 6.0-5.3 in 2 days even after diluting it a little.

woodsmaneh said "I noticed my plants appear to take a breath for a few days when I put them in the DM Gold but come back quick, I also don't go over 500ppm for the first week, unless they ask for more." Is this also the same thing you experience? have you ever noticed your ph fall after mixing up nutes? even though the ladies ate a lil grub?

I also posted this in "Post UC Questions and Concerns Here" hoping to get some additional perspectives.

 

[Shady]

I saw his post... I agree to a certain point that the girls take a breather during the transition week after you flip to 12/12. I think patience is the key and you're girls are also bouncing back from some recent adverse root conditions... IMO, I wouldn't push the PPM's too much, but I would topoff with a slightly higher pH to get the system to at least 5.6... :nod

 

[hogan400]

DAY 3

cool shady,
The uc is so reactive to every little thing I do, I think maybe im seriously over thinking and worrying myself a lil much. However, when I had root and stem troubles early I been playing catchup since.. and Im worried about losing this crop.

I read DS said somewhere, once you have rot or stem issues you seem to battle it the entire crop and thats what I feel might be happening here but its still early.

TODAY, ladies are all looking bonus, ph rising and ppm being gobbled up again. Did a little defoliating and pruning. Mixed topoff to 525 ph 5.8. and ima let em ride.

Thank you farmers for your insight and help again. Ill post new pics either tonight or monday.

 

[hogan400]

X-Mas update day 4 bloom

plants a blowing up and i pruned lower branches and defoliated some but it really didnt show.

Things I feel, are looking good finally and here are some photos and a thank you to those who have helped me straighten this learning curvea bit.:sun

 

[hogan400]

The lady that was giving me so many stem issues is now one of the 3 largest in my room. Here she is now.

photo 1, top shot
photo 2, middle row plant on the left.

Still has some healing to do but I feel good she is blowin' up!

ALSO screens go in tomo. gonna be a nightmare!

 

[hogan400]

some more overall garden shots...

 

[hogan400]

and more along with some bottoms I cleaned a little

 

[hogan400]

32g top off res is on point so far, its filled by a 3/8 j.g. ball valve from my main triple 44 gal res that I plumbed together and control manually. Top off has its own float from uc to keep "me" in check. (flood safety)

 

[hiboy]

Youve done an awesome job so far .
Nice work.
Are you ready to finish the race?
h

 

[hogan400]

Ready as always..
Need to screen em and get a couple large floor fans..got all my other goods except maybe an emergency second dehuy and carbon scrubber. 4 days in and 56+ left.

 

[DreaminBig1207]

Lookin good, if u just flipped those things are goin to get huge. How long of a veg?

 

[hogan400]

I had several setbacks during veg. Bout 45 days. Really shoulda been 3 weeks only but I made some choices I was forced ta do and it bit me in the ass.

 

[GeneticFreak]

Beautiful plants hogan! Your killin it! Tomorrow is back to work for me and your pics are my inspiration!

 

[hogan400]

GF
Thanks man but its been hectic. I appreciate the compliment.

for example my lady w the stem problem keeps sweating and wont heal completely. ima call cch20 for water level pointers if thats even the pronblem? Im @ 2" below net @ week 1 in bloom. Is this good/bad/?

second. my ppm and ph is off the fuckin wall.....seriously it does what it wants.
overnight it barely will raise and my uc is only at 350pp/.67ec in week 1 of bloom?!!
My top off res is at 600ppm/1.2ec and gets almost emptied in a day, my topoff drives the ph down however the ppm is still lowering so I must have a nute imbalance? haha

If someone blows up my pics you will see tiny tip burns and a little bit of pale leaves and splotches here and there. I think I may be adding too much cal-mag? 2-2.5ml to my r.o water which is a 7 stage ro/de-I. Is that good for uc, both the r.o de-I system and the fact im adding 2-2.5 ml cal mag?

 

[St3ve]

they are going to get fricken huge man. If it was me I would strip off every fan leaf to be had to hope to stunt some vertical growth and get some more bud sites.

 

[Shady]

Starting to look like a lush jungle in there hogan! If you are starting with nearly close to 0 PPM of RO and add 2 ml/gal of CalMag, then you should be around 80 PPM @ 0.5 conversion to EC. That's the max strength of CalMag that I run with the DM Gold line in the Under Current. If you are getting much higher than 80 PPM of CalMag when using 2 ml/gal, then your volume of RO is off...

Also, now that it's been almost a week into the flip and the girls are established and blowing up... I'd consider raising the PPM's of the nutrient mix in the UC to at least 500 PPM. That's just my feelings based on how things look, but some lights out shots would really help show those girls' true colors to be sure. BTW, I would never defoliate the majority of the fan leaves to reduce stretch, but I would try to keep the day time and night time temps nearly the same to control stretch. In any event those girls are looking sexy with the shaved legs... :cool