The ULTIMATE noob question! Should I start over?

So I've posted a few questions on here considering my current grow, it has looked sad almost from the start. First it seemed like overwatering then burn and they just seem overall stunted. I picked up a ppm and ph meter today and while the ppm of my tap water wasn't crazy at 140 the ph is 8.5 which by looking at a ph scale effectively locks out almost every nutrient and I believe this may have been the problem from the get go

These girls are 2 1/2 weeks

no just flush the shit with PH'd water to drop the PH. imo idk if this would be advised but what i would do in your case is PH your water, add PH down and drop that shit to like 5.5 and water. PH in the run off will likely drop over time i would ASSUME. 8.5 PH is pretty fucking crazy so yea likely nutrient lock out for sure that is way too high.

i think they can be saved though. harvest won't be as amazing but no point in starting over yet. try to save them and if nothing fuck um and start over. idk how drastic a PH drop would affect the plants at a fast rate but at this point to me FUCK UM might as well experiment.

Juiceifer said:

So I've posted a few questions on here considering my current grow, it has looked sad almost from the start. First it seemed like overwatering then burn and they just seem overall stunted. I picked up a ppm and ph meter today and while the ppm of my tap water wasn't crazy at 140 the ph is 8.5 which by looking at a ph scale effectively locks out almost every nutrient and I believe this may have been the problem from the get go

These girls are 2 1/2 weeks

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What medium?

They really aren’t that bad ,I’ve seen a lot not doin as well ,there is no noob questions that’s how you learn , keep at it don’t give up on those girls good luck

The best thing you could do with those is change your soil, the root structure is still undeveloped just pull em rinse the roots and transplant into new containers new soil water in lightly with kelp solution ph your water and your good to go theyll pull through.

cannabineer said:

What medium?

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Straight coco/perlite washed and buffered some had suggested my coco was dirty and still had high salt and I'm not sure I did this right but I took about a gallon of my tap water and soaked about half a gallon of my coco in it for a couple hours strained it and checked ppm. My starting ppm of the tap water was 140 and after the coco soak was 185

That's not bad. I would flush and start adjusting your water on down

Lethidox said:

no just flush the shit with PH'd water to drop the PH. imo idk if this would be advised but what i would do in your case is PH your water, add PH down and drop that shit to like 5.5 and water. PH in the run off will likely drop over time i would ASSUME. 8.5 PH is pretty fucking crazy so yea likely nutrient lock out for sure that is way too high.

i think they can be saved though. harvest won't be as amazing but no point in starting over yet. try to save them and if nothing fuck um and start over. idk how drastic a PH drop would affect the plants at a fast rate but at this point to me FUCK UM might as well experiment.

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Being that they are in coco this may be the best course of action since it's middle ground to soil and hydro
And as far as experiments go after they were droopy for about a week I thought I'd check one for root rot (I had no meters to check anything else) I had seen some trim off the affected roots in garden plants to help bring back from overwatering but all the roots I saw were still white with no browning and that made me really start looking into other problems

I know I'm still learning and while I can do all the reading and studying it will ultimately come down to experience. We are still dealing with living organisms I suppose. That being said I really really dont want to give up on these $30 in just seed alone hurts. But this is a medical grow and time is money not only the electricity but dispensary bud is expensive! my state only just legalized medical, so prices are not competitive yet. owners are paying premiums just to get product on the shelves.

I was really thinking of starting over now that I believe I found my problem but maybe put these three to the side on the back burner let them correct and grow some and then cut them down piece by piece and try my hand at cloning BUT that's if these will take forever to bounce back if not just stick with them

Don't flush the plants with excessive amounts of water and thereby drowning the roots. You will shock the plants, and if you don't kill them, you will be left with stunted growth.

If you measure the runoff and its high pH, then just use a lower pH water - and NORMALLY water them as you would until you see the correct pH in the drain-off. For instance, if you see a pH that's like 7.5 or higher, mix up some lower pH water around 4.0 and water normally but don't 'flush the shit' out of them. I speak from experience.. you can correct the problem but drowning the roots will likely do more damage. You don't want to shock the plants anymore than you need.

Serpentz said:

Don't flush the plants with excessive amounts of water and thereby drowning the roots. You will shock the plants, and if you don't kill them, you will be left with stunted growth.

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I felt compelled to respond. First...you will not drowned roots via flushing. But if you flush with straight RO water...you'll mess up the CEC and all the coco buffering will be gone.

You can't change the basic ph of a medium though watering ph manipulation.

Flush with low dose nutes or some calmag...then just go back to coco routines. Maybe ph 5.8 or thereabouts.
JD

Its coco and the plants are young, nothing that can't be fixed has happened. Just get to watering with nutrients and ph to 5.8-6.2

JohnDee said:

I felt compelled to respond. First...you will not drowned roots via flushing. But if you flush with straight RO water...you'll mess up the CEC and all the coco buffering will be gone.

You can't change the basic ph of a medium though watering ph manipulation.

Flush with low dose nutes or some calmag...then just go back to coco routines. Maybe ph 5.8 or thereabouts.
JD

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I feel compelled to reply to you and tell you that you are wrong. I drowned a plant by flushing which put it into shock and killed its growth. You're going to tell me I am wrong? And you're saying you can't change the pH in a medium by watering with lower pH water? I've done that myself too and it works just fine. I used pure water and Plagron pH down to drop a plants 7.5 pH down to 6.4 where I wanted it. You're going to tell me I didn't do this either?

Besides...someone just said it's coco not soil. Something I missed. But don't tell me that I'm wrong when I've actually performed the things I've mentioned. I don't just spit out garbage especially to new growers.

i don't know how many times i've said this, or will have to say it again....put your feed in at the right ph, and it'll take care of itself.
i like to center at 6.1 for coco....drop down to 5.8 occasionally, let it rise to 6.3 occasionally, then back to 6.1......do that and you should never get lockouts due to ph.
water every day with ph'ed water, with enough nutes added to bring it up to about 100 ppm. you don't want to water coco with plain water.
feed on w/e schedule you've been using, otherwise. you also want to get a little run off each time you water, in coco. not a lot, maybe 10%...but it helps to both draw oxygen through the whole pot, and washes out depleted salts, so your roots stay nice and healthy

Serpentz said:

I feel compelled to reply to you and tell you that you are wrong. I drowned a plant by flushing which put it into shock and killed its growth. You're going to tell me I am wrong? And you're saying you can't change the pH in a medium by watering with lower pH water? I've done that myself too and it works just fine. I used pure water and Plagron pH down to drop a plants 7.5 pH down to 6.4 where I wanted it. You're going to tell me I didn't do this either?

Besides...someone just said it's coco not soil. Something I missed. But don't tell me that I'm wrong when I've actually performed the things I've mentioned. I don't just spit out garbage especially to new growers.

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Because you fucked up...and then drew the wrong conclusions does not male your conclusions correct.

Watering a plant...especially in coco, draws O2 into rootzone...you aren't going to drowned a plant flushing.
JD

Roger A. Shrubber said:

i don't know how many times i've said this, or will have to say it again....put your feed in at the right ph, and it'll take care of itself.
i like to center at 6.1 for coco....drop down to 5.8 occasionally, let it rise to 6.3 occasionally, then back to 6.1......do that and you should never get lockouts due to ph.
water every day with ph'ed water, with enough nutes added to bring it up to about 100 ppm. you don't want to water coco with plain water.
feed on w/e schedule you've been using, otherwise. you also want to get a little run off each time you water, in coco. not a lot, maybe 10%...but it helps to both draw oxygen through the whole pot, and washes out depleted salts, so your roots stay nice and healthy

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Curious to know what you mean exactly by 'put your feed in at the right ph'. I imagine that's going to be different depending on how you're growing. I'm pH balancing my water and then feeding the plant, and then checking the pH after to make sure the nutrients didn't change the pH in which case usually no. I'm on my first DWC plant right now. For soil or coco I am guessing you're very knowledgeable about that and its different. I'd like to learn more about coco and the pros or cons of it.

JohnDee said:

Because you fucked up...and then drew the wrong conclusions does not male your conclusions correct.

Watering a plant...especially in coco, draws O2 into rootzone...you aren't going to drowned a plant flushing.
JD

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There's always a guy like you around here...I also mentioned that I didn't realize it was coco. But please...be a jerk for all I care..which I care not.

Roger A. Shrubber said:

i don't know how many times i've said this, or will have to say it again....put your feed in at the right ph, and it'll take care of itself.
i like to center at 6.1 for coco....drop down to 5.8 occasionally, let it rise to 6.3 occasionally, then back to 6.1......do that and you should never get lockouts due to ph.
water every day with ph'ed water, with enough nutes added to bring it up to about 100 ppm. you don't want to water coco with plain water.
feed on w/e schedule you've been using, otherwise. you also want to get a little run off each time you water, in coco. not a lot, maybe 10%...but it helps to both draw oxygen through the whole pot, and washes out depleted salts, so your roots stay nice and healthy

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You've said this 42 times before...
JD

My two cents, if you're a newb, start with some good soil. It will buffer your high ph better than coco. Also just buy some ph down...

Serpentz said:

There's always a guy like you around here...I also mentioned that I didn't realize it was coco. But please...be a jerk for all I care..which I care not.

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I'm not the one posting incorrect info. On this plant that you killed by flushing...why did it need the flush?

All I suggested is that the reason for the flush was probably the reason your plant died...not the flush which was apparently an unsuccessful rescue attempt.
JD