The problem with maintaining PH in coconut

[OldOneEye]

Yes, I know it's good to keep the Ph throughout the range, but I'm dealing with the fact that either I don't get below Ph 6.3 and within a few hours I have Ph 7 there, or again now I have Ph 5.7 and even after pouring 20 liters of water with Ph 6-6.3 it didn't go up. And when I wrote that I wanted Ph 6 in there, I thought I would take that as the midpoint and move up and down from there, give or take two or three decimal places.

Yes, that's also what I thought I was going to do, I was going to mix it to 5.5 and it would go up to Ph 6.5 by the next day and go all the way through the range, but as I write above, I can't get to a Ph lower than 6.2 even after say 15 liters of water. And I don't want to over pour that amount every day, that's not normal.

It's your water causing your problem. R/O is your best fix.

 

[hoo]

Thank you so much for confirming that this is problematic tap water. I'll try putting phosphoric acid in today as AI or other sites state it's best for Ph stability until I sort out osmosis or maybe bottled water. Now I've been putting in terra aquatica, which says it's a mixture of citric, phosphoric and nitric acids, or I've been putting in just nitric acid. Thank you all.

 

[FloridaMike]

Hey man, How are your plants? is something wrong with them?
& why haven't you posted any pics? They would be helpful.

 

[OldOneEye]

Hey man, How are your plants? is something wrong with them?
& why haven't you posted any pics? They would be helpful.

I asked the same. My thought was he is over thinking his drainage growing in coco. But he said he has signs of deficiencys in a earlier post. So difficult at best to diagnos

 

[hoo]

This is bad. I poured 15 liters of water with phosphoric acid into the pot to adjust the Ph and it came out at the beginning Ph 5.3 and at the end Ph 5.5-5.6. It keeps dropping. I'll see what it does tomorrow. I've had enough. I should have grown it normally in soil...

I'm sending pictures of what the leaves and the plant in general look like. Can I let it sprout and let it bloom?

 

[hoo]

 

[OldOneEye]

Are you hand watering?
Growing in coco?

 

[hoo]

Yes, by hand. Yes, in a coconut. I just topped off the last 4 liters of water and the PH is 5.4... It started dropping after I used the crystalline PH- Terra Aquatics. Before that, it went back up to PH 7.5 with nitric acid... Now I'm putting phosphoric acid in for the first time, so I'll see how it goes. But for the last three days I've been running it through 15 litres of water every day with PH 6-6.4 and the result is a Ph on the drain of 5.4... So I've already drenched a 20 litre pot with 45 litres of water and Ph 5.4.

 

[LaMotaBruja]

Had similar issues in the past. Especially with re-used coco and synthetics. Especially mid flower, causing deficiencies.

I’ve since figured it out on my end. Switched to Rooted Leaf Agritech CalMag from Remo. Plants seem to like it better.

Now I flush for a few waterings mid-flower with only cal mag, low dose sugars, and kelp. Fixed the nutrient build-up. I also do it if I see burnt tips.

Also, never let the coco get bone dry. Messes up the coco over time. Water till runoff, then only feed lightly daily to keep the topsoil moist until the next week. The plants don’t like being constantly soaked. For example, 5 gallons of nutes should feed 6 plants of most varieties through flower for over a week @ 75degrees with 55% humidity under LED.

Sort of unrelated but canna also likes gassed-off aerated water. If you use tap and aren’t letting your water sit and aerate with a stone for a day before adding nutes, I’d give it a try. Made a noticeable difference in my grows.

 

[hoo]

On the leaves it is visible again. The tips and edges of the leaves are starting to yellow. Oh, shit! I'm tempted to stop, there's no point. I've been extending the growing season for three weeks now because of this and it's back to the beginning of the problems. There's so many problems with it, there's no point in growing it like this...

There are no such ph problems in clay?

 

[OldOneEye]

My advice...
Flush each container with unphed water. 1 gallon container to 1 gallon of water.
Let them drain for 24 hours
Make fresh veg nutrients.
Phed to 5.8 to 5.9
Water each container until you have about 20% runoff
Throw this water out DO NOT CHECK the ph. You will only run in a circle.

 

[FloridaMike]

Plants look like they are rocking to me.
Can you point out the naughty leaves?
If they continue to look good, I'd
recommend that you stop looking @
your run off water and quit stressing
so much. Growing should be fun &
relaxing, not so stressful. I've never
checked my runoff water in recirculating
rockwool, which is a bit different I am
aware, but still, ca'mon man.

I would at the very least, get a Tough
Stuff garbage can to aerate the h2o
in for 24hrs, prior to use. If your water
company say, switched from chlorine
to cloramine, which they normally do
seasonally, it could be affecting your
water, thus making it incompatible
with your nutes. Chlorine evaporates,
whereas chloramine doesn't. Something
like that could explain the change
from the water working good to it
abruptly not working good. Something
changed that's causing this, that you're
neglecting to tell us about (not on
purpose mind you, I'm not accusing
you of anything).

In rapididly growing mj, it's normal
for the newer growth to look very
lime green or quite yellow when it
1st emerges, then slowly turn dark
green over time. If you're tips are
burning, it's prolly too much N imo.

Dude, don't get frustrated and give
up, we will find a solution to your
problem.

 

[FloridaMike]

Another question; how much water
are you mixing or ph'ing at a time and
are you letting it buffer for a good 5-10
minutes before using it?

I find that it's much easier to mix larger
amounts rather than small amounts
like under 5 gallons.

My RO water comes out normally at
7.8-8.4, however In one gallon, only 1
drop of GH ph down will tank it at like
4.8, then takes about 5 drops of ph up,
to get it back up to 5.8

 

[hoo]

I think I know where the problem is. When I was watering with Terra akvatika before, I watered once every 2-3 days until the top layer of about 1cm dried out. Now, since I started checking the PH every day and therefore pouring water with fertilizer, the last few days I've been getting overfertilized water, so I have to reduce it to the optimal PH and EC. And I noticed that in the last three days the lower limit has dropped by one or two tenths, and today I got to 5.4. It probably didn't do that before, it didn't settle there from daily watering and the plant consumed it in those 2-3 days. And that's why it held up quite well when watering once every 2 days. But now it seems that something accumulates there with each watering and the pH drops by one or two tenths. So I won't water or fertilize it now, I'll wait until it dries out and then water it and see. I thought that if I had an EC of 1.8 at the outlet, everything was fine with the nutrients.

I let the water sit for 24 hours, then mix in the PH- plus fertilizer, measure it again in a while, and then I water it. I'm paying more attention to the measurements. I've found that I can measure something, but in a few minutes there's a different value. But I don't wait ten minutes.

 

[FloridaMike]

Now we're getting somewhere.
Always mix the ferts 1st, let sit
5-10 minutes, then ph it.

If using silica or calmag, always
mix silica 1st very well, then (or)
calmag, then nutes, then ph

 

[hoo]

First I mix the Ph to the desired value, then I add the fertilizers, then the calmag, measure it and then I go to water. I mix it by pouring water into the bottle and then when I add everything, I shake it to mix it and then I measure it.

 

[Bobcat.Branch]

First I mix the Ph to the desired value, then I add the fertilizers, then the calmag, measure it and then I go to water. I mix it by pouring water into the bottle and then when I add everything, I shake it to mix it and then I measure it.

@FloridaMike has it right... Spot on.

 

[FloridaMike]

First I mix the Ph to the desired value, then I add the fertilizers, then the calmag, measure it and then I go to water. I mix it by pouring water into the bottle and then when I add everything, I shake it to mix it and then I measure it.

Your mixing order is prolly contributing to your problems.
Try mixing a 5gal bucket at a time in the order I gave
above and use out of that as needed. Dont worry, it'll
keep plenty long enough until it's used (pro tip, mix 4 gal
to leave room in case more water is needed if mixed to
hot. This also makes it easier to mix and aerate with a
cordles drill and a paddle paint stirrer)

 

[hoo]

Your mixing order is prolly contributing to your problems.

It didn't even occur to me that there might be a problem with my mixing the solution. I'll do it according to your instructions. Should I wait until the coconut dries in 2 days after watering yesterday, or should I mix the solution today according to your advice and water again

 

[hoo]

I thought, because it says everywhere, that you are supposed to check the PH at the drain every time you water, and if it's outside the recommended range, then you are supposed to top up the water until the correct PH comes out of the bottom. As you wrote to water when 20% comes out, 20% of what? Of the volume of the pot or the volume of the watering can? If I pour four litres into a pot, about one litre will come out.