pH out of control. No idea why its climbing so hi so fast.

[Mike20132]

Finally, a good update The pH is FINALLY back into reasonable territory. Both ladies are perking up, but are also heavily damaged. I want to thank everyone who helped me with this. If the plants make it to the end, i doubt the yield will be very high. Losing two weeks of flower time is huge... That said, the lessons learned will hopefully improve things moving forward.

I'll be babysitting it over the weekend, and will post another update in a couple days unless things change dramatically.

Thanks, again.

 

[Mike20132]

pH is still a fight to keep within limits. I am pretty sure the larger of the two plants is close to a total loss. It's already lost most of its larger fan leaves, and has not started flowering. The smaller plant seems to be recovering and is at least producing flowers.

As it turns out, I was done in by a faulty pH pen. I have been calibrating my pen to 7.0 reference solution every few days. What I only did recently was add a 4.0 reference solution to the process. Something I wish I had done weeks ago. One dip in the 4.0, and it read 7.0, then counted very slowly down. Like -.01/second. The meter is broken, and probably has been since day 1. No matter what I dip it into, it reads 7 and then starts counting down. It never stabilizes.

So I have been adding teeny amounts of pH down which never came close to correcting the problem. It got bad enough that half of the larger plants leaves have died as a result. I guess on a positive note, I have great light penetration for the bud sites that survived.

For the rest of the grow, which is only for a few more weeks before the plants just die of old age, I'll just nurse it along and hope for the best. I am thinking removing the larger plant will do more harm than good, giving that it is growing in the same tank, and the roots are surely well interweaved with the more healthy plant. I don't want to cause the other plant any stress I don't have to at this point. On the other hand, having a dying plants roots in the same res as the healthy plant sounds problematic to me. The larger, dying plant is showing no signs of flowering at all at this point.

Thoughts on taking it out?

 

[MedGrower]

pH is still a fight to keep within limits. I am pretty sure the larger of the two plants is close to a total loss. It's already lost most of its larger fan leaves, and has not started flowering. The smaller plant seems to be recovering and is at least producing flowers.

As it turns out, I was done in by a faulty pH pen. I have been calibrating my pen to 7.0 reference solution every few days. What I only did recently was add a 4.0 reference solution to the process. Something I wish I had done weeks ago. One dip in the 4.0, and it read 7.0, then counted very slowly down. Like -.01/second. The meter is broken, and probably has been since day 1. No matter what I dip it into, it reads 7 and then starts counting down. It never stabilizes.

So I have been adding teeny amounts of pH down which never came close to correcting the problem. It got bad enough that half of the larger plants leaves have died as a result. I guess on a positive note, I have great light penetration for the bud sites that survived.

For the rest of the grow, which is only for a few more weeks before the plants just die of old age, I'll just nurse it along and hope for the best. I am thinking removing the larger plant will do more harm than good, giving that it is growing in the same tank, and the roots are surely well interweaved with the more healthy plant. I don't want to cause the other plant any stress I don't have to at this point. On the other hand, having a dying plants roots in the same res as the healthy plant sounds problematic to me. The larger, dying plant is showing no signs of flowering at all at this point.

Thoughts on taking it out?

I think investing in a good pH pen is really worth it. I have one that you can have storage solution to the lid and screw it to seal the probe. It has worked really well for me for years. 5 years by now. I hear that Bluelab is very reliable manufacturer so I'd advice to look from their selection. And always with the measuring pH, it is a good idea to have chemical test kit along with the pH pens and such. When you are getting out of ordinary readings, simply run a test with that method to see if you are in the ball park or do you have a faulty pH pen on your hands.

Just take a picture of the plant so we can see what's going.

 

[woody]

Bluelab is expensive but money worth spending. Ive had mine for 3 years and teat i regularly and it hasnt even drifted of by 0.1 yet

 

[Rev. Green Genes]

I was thinking about this conversation again. I went and found my notes on the subject from college. Here are the interactions that effect pH, etc.

Feel free to read (if they came out), or ignore.

forms of Soil phosphorous: shows influence of pH on P within soil.

 

[Mike20132]

I was thinking about this conversation again. I went and found my notes on the subject from college. Here are the interactions that effect pH, etc.

Feel free to read (if they came out), or ignore.

View attachment 838954 View attachment 838955 View attachment 838956 View attachment 838957 View attachment 838958 View attachment 838959 View attachment 838960

forms of Soil phosphorous: shows influence of pH on P within soil.
View attachment 838977

That's a lot of info Thanks a ton for posting it.

 

[Mike20132]

I was thinking about this conversation again. I went and found my notes on the subject from college. Here are the interactions that effect pH, etc.

Feel free to read (if they came out), or ignore.

View attachment 838954 View attachment 838955 View attachment 838956 View attachment 838957 View attachment 838958 View attachment 838959 View attachment 838960

forms of Soil phosphorous: shows influence of pH on P within soil.
View attachment 838977

Can you tell me how you are embedding images? I am getting paranoid posting links to my dropbox. I tried uploading images to an album (if this is even the right way) but the upload fails every time.

 

[MedGrower]

Can you tell me how you are embedding images? I am getting paranoid posting links to my dropbox. I tried uploading images to an album (if this is even the right way) but the upload fails every time.

I just click "Upload a File" and go from there. Remember to always delete your EXIF data and dont expose your fingerprints for a high res image. Seen some guys holding buds while you can get a good look at their fingers and I can imagine with todays biometric ID databases it is not too hard to ID people that way.

 

[Mike20132]

I just click "Upload a File" and go from there. Remember to always delete your EXIF data and dont expose your fingerprints for a high res image. Seen some guys holding buds while you can get a good look at their fingers and I can imagine with todays biometric ID databases it is not too hard to ID people that way.

Thanks. I'll try that tonight when I put together an update. Figures the answer was right in front of me. I was trying to get it done with the icon toolbar in the editor. Thanks again.

 

[EvilScotsman]

hey buddy sorry to hear of your misfortunes. a decent ph pen is definately a must. i think ph perfect is really only for soil. (you did get hydro specific nutes eh?) given how a hydro res works i dont really see how it can be possible for a solution to intelligently control its ph through such drastic swings in its concentration.
also i havent seen hydroguard or sm90 mentioned anywhere are you using something like that? really helps keep the res healthy