Staggering Ph In Coco...

[dan1989]

Hello all, hoping this finds you well.

I'm sure this is standard practise and amateur stuff to a lot of you medical growers and the likes, but I'm struggling to work out how to apply this practically. I understand that the PH is adjusted to swing up and down between from what I can gather around 5.3 to 6ish. This is because different nutrients are unavailable at different levels, and it swings to keep all nutrients in supply. Bear in mind I've done only one coco grow before so I'm still obviously coming to terms with the hydro like nature of the medium. I've been studying cation exchange which sounds really hard, but the conclusion is keep everything consistent, like PH levels. So this is where I'm lost. How can I swing the PH in a medium where without experience I'm not really sure when the nutrients that I apply are actually going to be used by the plant, as it is my understanding that we feed the coco, and the coco feeds the plant. And messing with the consistency of the PH messes with the cation exchange.

Perhaps I'm right in saying you don't swing in coco? Amateur needs help :D I'm not set up yet but trying to prepare myself and want to avoid the mistakes of last time. I like to learn from my mistakes, had harsh tasting bud with the first coco run a few months ago. It cured off nicely eventually but took a long time. Given my upcoming living situation I really can't afford to make fuck ups like this. It's unfortunate that I learned that I needed to have as many yellowed fan leaves as possible at harvest (without yellowed sugar leaves), mine were dark dark green, and my flush with plain ph`d water for 10 days seemed to have no effect on leaf colour. I've heard that flushing does nothing and you need to decrease nutrients gradually instead, on the other hand, I've heard keep nutrient levels minimal at all times, always on the edge of hungry, to avoid overfeeding. Not knowing which one is true confuses me even more.

Any help is massively appreciated, unless you only suggest switching to supersoil or something like that :D I definitely want to grow in coco and I'm sure I'm making things more complicated than they are, but I hate getting things wrong twice. It's all an experience thing I know but this is the only place I would come to for advice on this and this is something I need to know if I'm gonna grow in coco. There's a lot to take in there I know lol but your help is massively appreciated whoever can guide me on this.

 

[TripC]

I'm no expert grower, but here's my simple advice. Sounds like you overfed a little too much if 10 days of plain water in coco didn't yellow leaves and help minimize harsh smoke - especially if you slowly dried and cured properly. Also, 5.3 pH is low for coco from what I know. 5.8-6.0 is fine. Big swings in pH are unnecessary in coco. I like the Keep It Simple way of growing in that regard. Lower nute ppm a little bit next grow to help with the leftover nutes causing harsh smoke, stick with a short flush (plain water for 7 days is plenty in coco if you're feeding on the edge of hungry each time), and you'll be good I think. If still not showing yellow leaves/ready to chop after a week of flush, go a few more days. Good luck!

 

[DrMcSkunkins]

Keep them watered every day when they get big in coco even if you dont think they need it. If you let it dry out one time it locks the salts to the coco and your roots turn woody and brown.
Water with runoff every time and go light on the nutes since you feed them every day.

 

[MidwestToker]

The natural pH of coir is around 6.2. No matter what you do the media will always try to return to it's natural pH. That's what make coir a good environment for plant roots. Closer to the natural pH that plants prefer over a peat based product that has a natural pH of around 4.9. Hence the reason we use lime in peat based soils.