This is my first grow in over 12 years. Plants seem to be doing okay. I bought a ph test kit so I can try and dial in a little more optimal conditions. My water has a ph of 7. My nutrients when mixed come up as 6 ph. When I test the run off it bottoms out my ph chart at 4. Should I be adding ph up to my feed and water? If so what sort of level am I looking for if the runoff is reading 4 ?
My soil is a mix of 10 percent coco 15 percent perlite and the rest organic pro mix.
Wow that seems really low wondering if added dolomite lime would help stabilize the ph drift? How long have the plants been in the media? Pics?
Plants are only a few weeks old. I work away from town 2 weeks at a time. The only issue they had when I was gone was maybe a little overwatering from the wife. I just feel like they should be growing quicker. I’ll go take some pics now
Last two were the ones that I feel were over watered. I am drying them put and just watering the rim of the pot.
They always seem to take a long time getting started and then take off like crazy. I think they’re looking great!
Looking like the lower leaves on a plant or two are starting to show a little N deficit however I haven’t seen a chart on how a ph might effect N? Are your growing temps decent , humidity?
Struggling with humidity. Have a humidifier in tent put never gets over 50% usually hovers around 40. Temps have been a little bit of an issue. 74 to 78 during the day but it has been slipping to 66 at night. I have installed a little heater in tent for when lights are out. Just afraid of cooking them at night. So I have been using lowest setting last 2 nights but it hasnt made a difference. Still trying to dial in lights off temp
I do like the short compact nature of their looks so it looks like their getting adequate light . Is your your Coco from a decent source ? Not familiar with coco enough but iv heard people of having issues with coco that’s not well rinsed.
I did rinse the coco because of a thread I read here. It came from a hardware store so maybe you have a valid point . Brand is natures coco organic coco coir
That’s not bad imo very much like my growing parameters in many ways . Others will pipe in here shortly to assist in this adventure!
the “proper” way to measure it (from what i’ve read but never actually done) is to use 0ppm/distilled/7.0pH water TWICE (not sure about wait time), the first runoff is ignored, & catch the very first drips of the second application’s runoff, and test THAT.
(if you are measuring runoff after feeding then it’s skewed).
can’t recall where i read that but it was pretty legit. like a soil science book. 
Yeah I was reading when I would feed. Haha I liked it better when I didnt care about ph
run through a bunch of water until what comes out the bottom is what you’re putting in the top … i don’t really check ph or ppm ever so i’m not even sure what mine is … and i re-use my coco i just run tap water through it in my bathtub for a couple minutes and re-plant in it
Do you till the soil and add in topsoil with time or just add nutrients as needed?
Once you get the pH fixed I’d recommend a cover crop or a companion in the soil that won’t compete fir root space.
I personally prefer the slow method of pH fixing using crops that can fix the soil.
Garlic in my experience brings pH up a good amount. When I combined it with cilantro in the same pot they evened out at 7.6 pH when it went in anywhere from 6-7 pH depending on my tap that day. Once the cilantro established itself the pH lowered to 7ph flat.
Overall it’s Just something to think about if you like to grow plants in general and not only cannabis. Plus Basil has a fun tendency to ward off fruit flies and fungus gnats. If you keep bananas open to grab as wanted in the house you likely have some fruit flies once in awhile to deal with.
That is a pretty acidic mix as is… Maybe remix with some dolomite lime. Should help the ph plus an added bonus of missing cal-mag from the soilless mix.
I have just been adding nutrients once after every 3 waterings or so.
Cal mag is part of my nutrients I feed. After rinsing the coco I added a little water with a little food grade Epsom salts. I grabbed the general organics 8 bottle pack from my garden center as I didn’t have a lot of confidence in the soil feeding the plants all they needed.
I’m not sure about Coco and cover crops. Definitely listen to @Meesh. They know what they’re saying
