Sunshinemix4 getting sketchy

I know the coco vs soilless peat is a topic that has been around a lot lately... I've always done really well with sunshine.. Today I went to transplant and I decided to test ppms and ph and I'm going to do a side by side run.. I was shocked as hell to see the results of the sunshine runoff.. Total ppm of my feed was 210, ph was 6.7. I added a little cal mag, some great white, some voodoo juice, and sensi zyme all at very light strength .. The sunshine runoff was 5.6ph and 1810 ppm. Yeah wtff.

The nutrifield coco with perlite #3, same feed.. Run off 610ppm 6.2ph

Mix of nutrifield coco and sunshine mix#4.. Run off ph 5.9 ppm 1350.
My last batch I didn't get my normal numbers, and was having some deficiency issues.. I blamed it on the sunshine.. Is anyone else having bad results lately with mix4? Wtf is going on with that Canadian peat unreal ppms. I feel I get a better root system with peat than with coco, this is the only reason I haven't got rid of it completely. I heard that they are coming out with a new sunshine mix.. Has anyone heard about it?

i have never tested the ppm of my runoff. But i have used a mix of 2 parts ss4 1 part ffof for 50+ cycles and never had an issue, my runoff's PH is always right around 6.

For years i used the "aggregate" mix ss4 but my local shop didnt have it so i have been using the normal ss4 i notice absolutely no difference. The New ss4 the non aggragate stuff is actually not soil-less and contains some base nutrients, i find it very hard to believe that it is intended to have the sort of EC your runnoff is testing at though. Since i mix in soil with my ss4 it doesnt bother me that it has some base nutes, but u may want the aggregate ss4 if u are looking for a pure soil-less peet and perlite mix.

now that u have me thinking about it im gunna run some RO water through some of my SS4 and check it out:

Input: 6.8 PH 13 PPM RO Water
Filled a 16 oz solo cup with ss4. Mixed with water until saturated. Poked a hole and let some water drain from saturated ss4.

Runoff: PPM 219 PH 6.2


You got a bad batch of SS4, id take it back to the store and complain.

purplehays1 said:

now that u have me thinking about it im gunna run some RO water through some of my SS4 and check it out:

Input: 6.8 PH 13 PPM RO Water
Filled a 16 oz solo cup with ss4. Mixed with water until saturated. Poked a hole and let some water drain from saturated ss4.

Runoff: PPM 219 PH 6.2


You got a bad batch of SS4, id take it back to the store and complain.

Click to expand...

And that run off was from a brand new bale? Ya I think I got some nasty shit

Not brand new, but unused straight from the bag that's been open for a few weeks in a sealed plastic container.