Indoor Jean-O's Genetics Autoflower seed Run Finish

[Waira]

I finally broke down and ordered me a PH meter and PPM TDS meter from Vivosun. I was fairly surprised when I checked what I water the plants with. 9.8 PH and 235 ppm out the faucet and after leaving out overnight in a 5-gallon bucket... As long as its consistent with the PH the 9.8 isn't going to hurt anything but isn't ideal. No more curiosity as to why I don't see heavy fades on a lot of the cultivars only the super hungry ones don't get enough from the tap.
I just ordered new filters for the 3-stage water filter system I put in over the winter so I will see where this winds up after I replace the filters.

So I recalibrated the PH pen today again and rechecked the water and it was reading 8.2. I honestly have no plans on doing anything about this just mainly bought the instruments out of curiosity to see mainly where I was at with the water situation. The PPM reading was a bit more of a swing down to 120 today from 235 I think yesterday.

Possibly still the operator
I can definitely see how this could cause an issue for a new grower trying to use these things and going mad chasing your tail causing issues.

I'm of the opinion currently that it aint broke so I aint fixin it. I may have to do a side by side grow with my regular routine watering and feeding and a plant that I am trying to PH properly and see if it makes any difference and or if its worth the extra effort.

Jean-O my man, what's goooood? .....and what's up with the water/pH/ppm thing? Pick my brain....
You're on a well or spring fed source, right? In any case seasonal and even heavy rain/thaw events can have strong influences, day to day, week to week... And you say it's going through a 3 stage filter,...whole house? And what exactly are the filter types? I figure particulate, carbon, and a resin bed type for something else like Fe/other heavy metals that the C filter missed....
A new meter, calibration confirmed.... Something went down as described to cause those big swings, and the high pH and fairly high ppm reading is of interest in particular. A 9.8 pH reading is alarming, though the ppm's aren't that bad.... it's classified as hard, but not 400+ liquid rock hard!
Is your water general fairly soft normally? That it went down on both reading is good news, coz I guarantee that 9.8 pH over time is a shit-show ticket waiting to be cashed in ... That fortunately isn't the case here!
The ppm reading makes me feel better though, it's why I asked about your source, and typical ppm/softness reading... there are places around me that have brutal water, 350+ and the pH is high 8's-low 9's, and it's a horror show for plants because of the heavy CaCO3 content.
You can't even boil pasta in it or it tasted like it came from a quarry puddle!
Point is, cumulative mineral build up is a time bomb ticking away... Not just the pH/availability range issue, but the antagonistic uptake issues that comes with it.

It's the CaCO3 content that's of interest, but pH and TDS/EC aren't measuring just that; any and all dissolve ions will be part of the reading, no way to distinguish, it's just the general fact that usually CaCO3 is the main contributor.

About the softness thing... think about RO/Di water, with no buffering capacity... Add a little acid or base to that and the pH readings swing wildly, might even read quite high, but it's not the same thing as the pH of, say, a fairly strong lye or HCL solution... The whole pH, buffering, ppm, etc. thing is more complicated than it seems trust me! Add in nutes and unknowns about the water source, and it can be a mess to diagnose...
Anyway, just some stuff to ponder and keep an eye out for...

I never had either
Honestly though now that I have the information, don't think I really feel like I want or need to do anything about it

Now I know that getting stoned and being curious on Amazon can cost you like 30$. Now that is valuable information! LOL This is something that I should probably do something about.....

Can o' worms brudda, can o' worms! .... but we know ignorance ain't bliss in a grow, and anybody on a non-municipal water source (and even some who are!) need to keep some kind of eye on their water quality...
I agree right now, no harm (so far) no foul, but it warrants monitoring....

I read a study that showed as long as the PH is consistent the plants will adapt and react fine it's just when they get swings is when real issues appear.

I would qualify that as it being within a certain range! Be wary of such studies, their experiment model and testing is usually strongly specific and controlled to eliminate other variables so as to make their conclusion valid... perfectly normal, good science at it's core, but what their gig is is NOT what your gig is so far as a direct apples-to-apples comparison and any conclusions drawn from there of...

Duke#2, did you say this plant is a cross with RBF, or carrying seeds of it? That is serious trich' carpeting just like RBF has! ...drooling over the aroma, I want some berry too this year but conflicted on which culti' to run for it
Oh man, RBF is still the Champ in my book... She's locked in for round 2 this year, I want it warmer when I run her this time...

The AHz's look great Jean, wow, in 1gal only? They sure look like Bill's mama plant too, longer bones vs, mine...but then mine went OD's pretty quickly so harder to say with the Sun factor affecting morphology... I'm curious to see where the aromas end up; mine was definitely Haze dominant.