First runoff reading (High pH?) . Now what?

[Frdmgrwr]

Aloha fellow plant nerds.
i needs help now

plants: photo day 35/36 veg
meduim: coco/ perlite 70/30 amended with Dr Earth all purpose, down to earth...? Biolive.
feed: supplemented some cal/mag twice now (both times in the past 7 days); once @ .5ml per gal, then again @ 1ml per gal pH @ 5.9...ph was incorrect before this...probably around 6.5-6.8 since day 1.
top fed once around week 3, 2/3ish recommended dose all purpose & biolive.

I did up pot these plants into “cool” coco/perlite in hopes to reduce some nutrient toxicity that I felt was happening.
so 1/2 amended coco and 1/2 plain coco is what they are in now. (Established root ball being in the amended and the new growth now going into plain coco/perlite)

1st runoff test was done tonight
i havent watered the plants in 40+ hours, the last watering was with 1ml of cal/mag in a gal of 5.9 pH water.
the ppm of the water tonight was 180, just 5.9 ph’d spring water.

plant #1 1.5 gal pot about 20% runoff, ppm @ 303, pH @ 7.58
plant #2 2.25 gal pot 30% runoff, ppm @ 450, pH @ 6.57
plant #3 2.25 gal pot 25% runoff, ppm @ 365, pH @ 6.36

not sure what my next move should be..?

 

[Frdmgrwr]

calling In the a-team, what you guys think? ^^^ @Beachwalker , @MIMedGrower , @Aqua Man , @basscaptain , @Enforcer , @justiceman

 

[Enforcer]

Are you going for a soil type grow or are you doing multiple daily feeds with a nutrient solution? It looks like you’re combining two different growing styles. If doing a water only soil type grow. You don’t want a lot of runoff as that washes the nutrients out of the medium. However, you up potted into plain coco/perlite. Which leads me to believe you’re going for multiple daily feeds. The problem is you’re now kind of stuck. You can’t really do multiple feeds as you added organics to the coco. With that much water, the Dr. Earth will just kinda rot in the pot. This will mess with your pH and cause nutrient lockout. And you can’t really do water only every few days as there is no nutrients in the coco you transplanted with. The plant only uptakes nutrients from the root tips. So the plant will want that nutrient solution several times a day to not become deficient in the plain coco. I recommend picking a style and going with it. For these plants, I would amend the top of the coco with more Dr. Earth and just do water only when the pot is light. Then go one way or the other on the next run.

 

[MIMedGrower]

I have never used coco or the dry ammendment dr. Earth stuff. But i agree with the above post by @Enforcer

 

[Frdmgrwr]

Are you going for a soil type grow or are you doing multiple daily feeds with a nutrient solution? It looks like you’re combining two different growing styles. If doing a water only soil type grow. You don’t want a lot of runoff as that washes the nutrients out of the medium. However, you up potted into plain coco/perlite. Which leads me to believe you’re going for multiple daily feeds. The problem is you’re now kind of stuck. You can’t really do multiple feeds as you added organics to the coco. With that much water, the Dr. Earth will just kinda rot in the pot. This will mess with your pH and cause nutrient lockout. And you can’t really do water only every few days as there is no nutrients in the coco you transplanted with. The plant only uptakes nutrients from the root tips. So the plant will want that nutrient solution several times a day to not become deficient in the plain coco. I recommend picking a style and going with it. For these plants, I would amend the top of the coco with more Dr. Earth and just do water only when the pot is light. Then go one way or the other on the next run.

you nailed it, I am feeling a little stuck with what to do. My plan was to do the whole organic dry amendment coco style grow. It seemed simple and I liked the idea of being organic. When I started I didn’t think of coco being similar to hydro in some aspects. I would of done things differently with what I know now. But it is what it is. I’ll probably stick with the dry amendments for this grow. I up potted into regular coco because I thought they were being Nute burned but I think it was actually light burn. I have only watered to run off 3 times. This last time (last night) I did just so I can get a reading on what’s coming out.
So what about the pH going up so much?

is There really anything I should adjust or focus on? Or just keep it simple, top feed in a while and water when feeling light?
thank you for your advice!

 

[Enforcer]

I think your pH is fine. I run plain coco/perlite w/ multiple daily feeds and pH between 6.0-6.5. In soil I do 6.4-6.8. I think the Dr. Earth may be buffering the pH a little. If your water in anywhere between 6.0-7.0 I wouldn’t add pH adjusters. The large coco component of the medium will also give you erroneous runoff pH readings. After a couple of wild goose chases when I first started I decided not to take runoff pH as gospel. If I want to know the pH of the medium, I do a slurry test.

Soil Ph Slurry Test - Step By Step With Photos

Knowing the pH of your growing medium is important from time to time. The soil pH slurry test is the easiest way of finding the true pH level of your soil based growing medium. For this you'll need: pH Meter - Cheap Amazon pH Pen - Blue Lab pH Pen - Blue Lab Soil pH Pen Cup or Container -...

www.thcfarmer.com

 

[oldskol4evr]

30 day veg,got a picture of plants? why the hell not transplant right into coco?break as much of old media away from root ball and transplant into fresh coco and start feeding for coco and done,im not familar with the dr earth you speek of ,but reading enforcer comment i asume it slow release,so transplant them bitchs,lets see a pic first

 

[Enforcer]

keep it simple, top feed in a while and water when feeling light?

Yes

 

[Enforcer]

30 day veg,got a picture of plants? why the hell not transplant right into coco?break as much of old media away from root ball and transplant into fresh coco and start feeding for coco and done,im not familar with the dr earth you speek of ,but reading enforcer comment i asume it slow release,so transplant them bitchs,lets see a pic first

Yeah, it’s slow release organic fertilizer. Fish meal, bone meal, feather meal, potassium sulfate...stuff like that.

 

[oldskol4evr]

Yeah, it’s slow release organic fertilizer. Fish meal, bone meal, feather meal, potassium sulfate...stuff like that.

why ,and been lot of folks doing this.
hell i love coco cause i can get some product curing,it so productive,a lot of work ,but product means work,id like to see how big plants are ,still might be able to save them if he wanted to keep in veg a bit longer

 

[Frdmgrwr]

30 day veg,got a picture of plants? why the hell not transplant right into coco?break as much of old media away from root ball and transplant into fresh coco and start feeding for coco and done,im not familar with the dr earth you speek of ,but reading enforcer comment i asume it slow release,so transplant them bitchs,lets see a pic first

I did transplanted into larger pots with plain coco and was waiting to see them look hungry before making my next decision, which was a choice between continuing the slow release amendments or to switch it all up and grab some bottled nutes and do coco like everyone else does it. I wasn’t sure if switching to bottled nutes this far in was smart or if I should just roll with what my plan was dry amendment, slow release style. The original root ball was really healthy, lots of good white fuzzy roots...I had a number of other leaf symptoms I was trying to diagnose, light damage, environment fluctuations..luckily I didn’t do TOO much and F things up. Also, the plants started looking way better after the transplant.something was for sure going on..But now I want to be confident on where to go from here.
Here’s a photo from today (each a different plant)

im also pretty sure I have no pest issue..so the splotches on the leaves is from.....? deficiencies? Light damage? It’s gotten better since raising the lights and re potting

I do have a journal on this grow as well so we can see what I’ve been up to.

 

[Frdmgrwr]

Grow journal: https://www.thcfarmer.com/threads/growing-freedom-my-first-grow.108464/

 

[oldskol4evr]

I did transplanted into larger pots with plain coco and was waiting to see them look hungry before making my next decision, which was a choice between continuing the slow release amendments or to switch it all up and grab some bottled nutes and do coco like everyone else does it. I wasn’t sure if switching to bottled nutes this far in was smart or if I should just roll with what my plan was dry amendment, slow release style. The original root ball was really healthy, lots of good white fuzzy roots...I had a number of other leaf symptoms I was trying to diagnose, light damage, environment fluctuations..luckily I didn’t do TOO much and F things up. Also, the plants started looking way better after the transplant.something was for sure going on..But now I want to be confident on where to go from here.
Here’s a photo from today (each a different plant)

im also pretty sure I have no pest issue..so the splotches on the leaves is from.....? deficiencies? Light damage? It’s gotten better since raising the lights and re potting

I do have a journal on this grow as well so we can see what I’ve been up to.
View attachment 931659View attachment 931660View attachment 931661

there really dark green but other than that look good,when you water do plain water and check the ph and ppm,then if those numbers are good go back and feed them,be what id do,i would also just bottle feed them too,better chance of sucess in coco,if it was peat ,pro mix id go with the amends

 

[Frdmgrwr]

It’s been two weeks since I did a top feed on these plants, it was a very light feeding -1/2 the recommended dose. I’m thinking of feeding again, closer to full strength dose. I watered till runoff 30+ hours ago, coco is still moist for sure, should I wait for the coco to dry out more before I feed and water in the ferts? Oooor just feed and do a light watering to get the nutes into the plants?

OR wait for the plants to suck more out of those dark green leaves before I think of feeding? (Is that a thing? Will they back feed on those older leaves if I dont feed them)

 

[Enforcer]

I wouldn’t feed yet. They look healthy. Just water when light.

 

[Frdmgrwr]

@Enforcer right on, thats What I’ll do. Thanks for the input, much appreciated.

 

[Frdmgrwr]

I did a slurry test on the coco of the plant that I consider to be the Un-healthiest, slow pale new growth, not very vibrant. The the pH was 7.86 and the ppm was @ 275...
there is still really a dark green, almost a deep blue tint to the older leaves, a few burnt tips...
and a golden-bronze off color to the inner area of the leaves and newer growth..
the pics up above are pretty much how they look, it’s not just the led making them so deep and blueish.

any advice?

 

[Enforcer]

You can try pH correcting the feed water to 6.0 the next few time. This may bump the overall pH in the medium down a little.

 

[Frank129]

I think your pH is fine. I run plain coco/perlite w/ multiple daily feeds and pH between 6.0-6.5. In soil I do 6.4-6.8. I think the Dr. Earth may be buffering the pH a little. If your water in anywhere between 6.0-7.0 I wouldn’t add pH adjusters. The large coco component of the medium will also give you erroneous runoff pH readings. After a couple of wild goose chases when I first started I decided not to take runoff pH as gospel. If I want to know the pH of the medium, I do a slurry test.

Soil Ph Slurry Test - Step By Step With Photos

Knowing the pH of your growing medium is important from time to time. The soil pH slurry test is the easiest way of finding the true pH level of your soil based growing medium. For this you'll need: pH Meter - Cheap Amazon pH Pen - Blue Lab pH Pen - Blue Lab Soil pH Pen Cup or Container -...

www.thcfarmer.com

Whats the slurry test?
I thought the only way to check my coco ph is from the runoff, but everytime i do, It shows me the same ph and never changes

 

[Frank129]

I did a slurry test on the coco of the plant that I consider to be the Un-healthiest, slow pale new growth, not very vibrant. The the pH was 7.86 and the ppm was @ 275...
there is still really a dark green, almost a deep blue tint to the older leaves, a few burnt tips...
and a golden-bronze off color to the inner area of the leaves and newer growth..
the pics up above are pretty much how they look, it’s not just the led making them so deep and blueish.

any advice?

I have the same problem, but i kept flushing my plants for four days in a row, i got so pissed off on why the ph wont go down, one of my plant become healthy while the other one stayed the same, maybe flushing the plant with 5.8 or 5,9 ph will do the job if you are growing in coco, but what i have learned is in coco, the ph will always swing so you have to adjust it everytime