Low ph problem with athena

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zebracake

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Anyone else dealing with a low ph runoff with athena? I'm on my 3rd grow with this blend and I've had this issue before but now it's not going away. Growth is slightly stunted and plants have purple stripes and some have red woody stems, a few leaves showing calcium deficiency, and some leaves showing what looks like phosphorus deficiency. My guess is that when you feed too much with this nutrient blend you end up with excessive potassium, which leads to low ph, which then leads to locking out. Also too much potassium locks out cal, mag, and nitrogen but I'm not really seeing any nitrogen deficiency.

I'm feeding 700 ppm and getting the same runoff but after a day or 2 the runoff builds up to 750 and I flush it back down to 650ish. Lowest runoff ph was 5.4-5.5 but I got it back up to 5.8-6 range and the issue is still not going away.

Anyone else using athena have this problem? I might switch to something else. I think athena puts too much potassium in their mix.
 
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Backyard_Boogie

Backyard_Boogie

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I have never used this product however for me it seems like it would be a positive because our water here is super hard comes out 7.8 at the tap. I keep having PH creep up in flower and locking me out Im constantly mixing PH down all the time I go through jugs of that shit. Perhaps I should look into Athena lol
 
SmokinJo421

SmokinJo421

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Anyone else dealing with a low ph runoff with athena? I'm on my 3rd grow with this blend and I've had this issue before but now it's not going away. Growth is slightly stunted and plants have purple stripes and some have red woody stems, a few leaves showing calcium deficiency, and some leaves showing what looks like phosphorus deficiency. My guess is that when you feed too much with this nutrient blend you end up with excessive potassium, which leads to low ph, which then leads to locking out. Also too much potassium locks out cal, mag, and nitrogen but I'm not really seeing any nitrogen deficiency.

I'm feeding 700 ppm and getting the same runoff but after a day or 2 the runoff builds up to 750 and I flush it back down to 650ish. Lowest runoff ph was 5.4-5.5 but I got it back up to 5.8-6 range and the issue is still not going away.

Anyone else using athena have this problem? I might switch to something else. I think athena puts too much potassium in their mix.
What medium are you using?
 
SmokinJo421

SmokinJo421

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Testing the run off is Kool but ur not getting an accurate reading on the medium.
I thought Ethan had a ph regulator?
I've never used it
I knw of ppl running the whole line
Are u using the whole set up & following their schedule?
Sry 4 the 50questions
 
Z

zebracake

25
3
Testing the run off is Kool but ur not getting an accurate reading on the medium.
I thought Ethan had a ph regulator?
I've never used it
I knw of ppl running the whole line
Are u using the whole set up & following their schedule?
Sry 4 the 50questions
Coco perlite. I'm thinking about buying one of those ec meters that tests the ec of your medium if anyone has experience with those are they accurate? I'm not actually using athena but I'm copying the ratios and using a little less potassium sulfate during veg so I can add potassium silicate instead but other than that it's the same thing. I am following their feed schedule, their ratios come out to approximately 3.6-2.8-7 cal is 3.53 mag is 1.05 and sulfur 2.8. Athena has the highest potassium of any other blend so that's what I think the problem is but it's always been fine for me as long as the ec is dialed in which according to my runoff it is since it's staying in a steady range but the ph is still coming out about 0.4 lower than what I'm putting in.

I'm just going to flush my plants down to 2-300 ppm and start over.
 
tobh

tobh

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unfamiliar with this line, but I would say, based off what you've said, you should read the plants -- fuck a manufacturer's schedule. you obviously understand mulder's chart, so dial back your inputs a bit. instead of pushing 700ppm, pull it back to 650 and see if the symptoms resolve.

always consider a nutrient line's schedule as a guideline, kinda like a speed limit. genetics, environment, grower, the star configuration on a given day (if you're into that) all are variables unique to a grow and those schedules are unreliable most of the time. you've recognized lockout, drop the input, see if you have correction.

also, runoff is useless in coco. a slurry test is the only accurate measure outside of sensors within the medium itself.
 
Shayne010944

Shayne010944

1,002
113
unfamiliar with this line, but I would say, based off what you've said, you should read the plants -- fuck a manufacturer's schedule. you obviously understand mulder's chart, so dial back your inputs a bit. instead of pushing 700ppm, pull it back to 650 and see if the symptoms resolve.

always consider a nutrient line's schedule as a guideline, kinda like a speed limit. genetics, environment, grower, the star configuration on a given day (if you're into that) all are variables unique to a grow and those schedules are unreliable most of the time. you've recognized lockout, drop the input, see if you have correction.

also, runoff is useless in coco. a slurry test is the only accurate measure outside of sensors within the medium itself.
What do you mean run off is useless in coco.? That’s how I check if the plants are needing more or less
 
tobh

tobh

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What do you mean run off is useless in coco.? That’s how I check if the plants are needing more or less
runoff can be, and typically is, wildly off from what's actually going on in the medium. depending on how clean the collection basin is, what the plants are growing in, how long the runoff has sat, all kinds of variables can skew what the runoff actually indicates. at best it can be used to identify a problem -- pH isn't one I'd rely on runoff to dig into.

At most, I check runoff EC every great once in a while. if it's drastically higher than input then might do a correction, otherwise I rely on a slurry test for pH and EC measures to keep things smooth.

coco is a fickle bitch that will gaslight the grower, just saying.
 
Shayne010944

Shayne010944

1,002
113
runoff can be, and typically is, wildly off from what's actually going on in the medium. depending on how clean the collection basin is, what the plants are growing in, how long the runoff has sat, all kinds of variables can skew what the runoff actually indicates. at best it can be used to identify a problem -- pH isn't one I'd rely on runoff to dig into.

At most, I check runoff EC every great once in a while. if it's drastically higher than input then might do a correction, otherwise I rely on a slurry test for pH and EC measures to keep things smooth.

coco is a fickle bitch that will gaslight the grower, just saying.
what is a slurry test tobh ? and do you do it with coco ?
 
tobh

tobh

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what is a slurry test tobh ? and do you do it with coco ?
search can provide explicit instructions, but the basics are this:

you take a comprehensive sample of the media -- not just surface, or just from one area. take samples from multiple locations within the media. They don't need to be big samples, just need to be diverse -- think real survey type shit. a survey of ten people is not the same as a survey of 100,000 people.

mix those samples together, then add distilled water, and stur vigorously -- it needs to be almost a miso soup consistency.

take your pH and EC meters and take measurements of the resprective metrics. that will yield an accurate reading of what is happening in the media (at least for those measurements).

you can do this test with soil and soilless medias, excluding rockwool.
 
SmokinJo421

SmokinJo421

315
43
In regards to why I asked.
It looked like ph is/was ur issue.
You really do need to see what each strain/cultivar is doing & how they individually react.
Getting back to the basics is highly recommended. Your ph is so damn important & having a good ph pen as well as taking proper care of said pen is equally as important. Amazon has good care kits around 20.00usd
Using litmus paper is very cheap & easy to use. Doing medium tests will give you a better idea of what's going on "in the pot"
Using distilled water in the tests too is imperative. Keep in mind those schedules are only references. The ph "soil tests litmus" application should work in the coco.
Not positive tho
 
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