Requesting help diagnosing plant problems
- Thread starter butter_bean
- Start date
butter_bean
Member
Yeah its a very small amount of runoff for half a gal. I will try 1 gal like the other comment suggested i just need to find a big enough tray lol
butter_bean
Member
I did some tests and figured id share the results. I have a proper ppm meter but unfortunately only have ph strips for the ph test. Im aware color is subjective and the strips arent always as reliable so I uploaded the pics if you wanna look
*Plant no.1 which had the more blackish/grayish discoloration the ph and ppm came out as
PPM 1209
PH 5.0-5.5 range?
*Plant no.2 which had the more orangeish discoloration came out as
PPM 1490
PH 5.0-5.5 range?
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butter_bean
Member
Thats just how my ppm meter displays the results. Do I have to convert the number or something
Treesomewanted77
Well-Known Member
Exactly what I was going to say. Most times it’s grower error though and in this case seems to be the grower error strikes again.
As mentioned from Bam use tap water and don’t use full strength feed. Start with 1/4 and work up from there. Some bags of fox farm are high in food and some are very low in food but I would flush them with some PH’d water and on the last bit of flush use a low dose feed PH’d of coarse to 6.5-7.0 is what I would do.
Phytoplankton
Well-Known Member
Flush you plants with water, 3X the volume of the pot, then resume feeding. When preparing the water for feeding, add the calmag, wait 15 minutes, then add your nutes, wait another 15 minutes, then ph to 6.2, that should re-set the soil and start you down a good path. I also agree they are underwatered, and flushing will fix that too, by totally wetting your entire media.
Jjgrow420
Well-Known Member
Useless to be reading your runoff ppms in foxfarm. How's your roots? Tug on the stem feel loose? Or tight. Temps are running pretty low. Even at 77 your leaf surface temp is a good few degrees cooler, and that's what matters more then ambient temp. I wouldn't trust a runoff ph reading. If you want a soil ph reading get a bluelab soil ph pen. Without proper equipt you're shooting blanks in the dark.....
Pointless.
Pointless.
butter_bean
Member
May I ask your recommendations for any other soil alternatives or even coco?
My tap water comes out at near 500ppm and I havent gotten a sample of the water quality report Im unsure what my city puts in the water
3x the volume.. so theyre in 7 gal pots. Does that mean flush with 21gal of water? Holy shit thats a lot
The stem feels pretty tight. I think my ppm meter is using the 500 scale. Converted to EC leaves me at 2.4 EC for plant #1 and 2.9 EC for plant #2
Jjgrow420
Well-Known Member
Well that depends how you want to grow. I'm not going to say one thing is better than the other. I can tell you what works for me, but that might be diff for you.
Personally, I dont touch fox farms. I'd rather blend my own soil, or use kis blend/stepwell/black swallow...if I'm using soil.
Reg old promix hp or bx, sunshine mix#4 are common peat based soilless mediums for growing cannabis.
Coco should be treated more like hydroponics.
Phytoplankton
Well-Known Member
There's nothing wrong with FFOF soil, I've used it for many years, and I get it "dirt cheap", I'm close to where they make it in Humboldt Co. If using synthetic nutes, plan on flushing just before flip and possibly one more time. Yes, 20 gallons of water, anything less and you won't clear the salts from the soil. Put them in your bathtub or take them outside for flushing.
Treesomewanted77
Well-Known Member
You can cut your tap water with distilled and that way you shouldn’t need any cal/mag
I grow coco DTW and I find it much easier for my setup and I won’t bring soils into my house they all seem to have bugs and more issues than not so I just use sunshine advanced mix#4 with only maxi bloom in a bucket company 3g kit.
It really depends what your goals are and most people just want to grow good quality budz. I couldn’t grow in soil to save my life it was just to boring for me but once I got my coco grows dialed in it’s just as boring lol.
They say it’s best to get some soil grows under your belt before tackling any hydro but I started backwards and did DWC as my first grow had a lot of fun with it and learned so much on that first grow.
butter_bean
Member
Alright will do. Is it ok to flush with tap water?
I may try coco coir for my next run tbh. Is it better to go with coco over soil when using bottled nutrients?
bam0813
Well-Known Member
I don’t grow in coco but ive read up on it for a bit considering using it. Its my understanding that coco needs to be fed daily possibly multiple times a day. This is the only thing stopping me from trying coco.
not sure i can get into my room multiple times daily without fail
not sure i can get into my room multiple times daily without fail
sh0wtime
Well-Known Member
If I were doin that, I'd prolly end up in the rotten and moldy section.
Careful with suggesting that to soil growers imo.
bam0813
Well-Known Member
Not a flusher either but im thinking theres only so much water holding capacity of the soil . If you water to runoff you water to runoff. My logic could be wrong but tells me if your soul is soaked its soaked. Let it dry out and should be no different than any other heavy watering imo