Boy, do I need help. I have been feeding my 12 photoperiod clones, planted in FFOF, with Fox Farm nutes, precisely as directed on their feed brochure. No deviations. I just received my TDS monitor and started to record PH In & Out and PPM's in and out. They were way out of wack. My PH In was 6.3 and my PH out was measuring in the range of 4.2. My PPM's in was 1190, but my out measurements were in the range of 4600 - 5020. I recognise I probably need to flush these immediately, but wondered if someone could explain how this got so out of wack and how to avoid it in the future. One thought from this new grower - Does this mean that my PH has been off and the plants could not uptake the nutes and they just built up? Why, if I have been good at using H2O PH'd at 6.0-6.6, can I have such a low PH? Very confused in Vermont.
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LOL....yes, I have been watching videos and am awaiting arrival of you book this weekend.
I knew not to add nutrients for the first 40 days growing in FFOF and began adding nutes after the 6th week. I think therein lies the problem. I started giving the amounts of nutes listed in the FoxFarm brochure religously, instead of taking the advice to start with 1/2 or even 1/4 doses.
And yes, I was PH'ing my H2O and nutes after adding them for the proper reading. The 4.2 ph was a faulty reading I got by using runoff in dirty catch trays with dried salts on them. I learned the lesson to use clean trays to measure PH and TDS runoff. After doing so, my runoff readings were a much more respectable 6.1 and 1630.
So I think the lesson learned is to ease up on the nutes and listen better to you guys who told me to use less. Too anxious to force things. More is better, right. Wrong! I now know that is not true.
Providing a couple pictures.....this was my first attempt at a SCROG. Any comments, critiques are appreciated. (I also have several clones in the humidity tent that are beginning to show roots so I am excited about them)
When growing in FFOF soil, the plant doesn’t need any bottled nutrients for the first 20-40 days of the plant’s life. That will depend on what size container you are in and size container you transplant into. So if you fed prior to that, you overfed the plant which makes sense to why the PPM is so high.
Also, The feeding chart is for a wide variety of plants. Most cannabis growers start with a half dose or a quarter dose. A full dose is too much for cannabis plants. If your water pH is 6.3 and then you add in nutrients, it will lower the pH significantly. Which makes sense to why you're seeing a pH of 4.2
I’m curious, have you been reading any books or watching any videos on how to grow or did you just plant and are trying to figure things out? Got any pics of the plants? We may be able to give better tips with a visual.
Got to thinking and wonder if the dried salts in the runoff tray added to the large increase. Think I'll get a clean tray and see if I get the same reading of runoff. Stay tuned....lol
Thanks, dgreen. Will definitely take that advice. Plants seem healthy - no sign of deficencies or nute burn, as I know them. May be this device.
Did you calibrate it cause when I got mine I had to order fluid to calibrate it with it was reading crazy and I grow in ffof