Need some Opinions!!! I messed up when they were young and added too much peat moss to my happy frog ocean forest mix. On top of that my ph pen was not calibrated right, and I believe the water i was giving them was in the acidic side. Once I got a new pen, my readings from the run off was Chem dawg- 5.3 and Dosidos 5.2…and both had high ppm readings of 1600. So I flushed them real good, got the ppms down within range but I’ve had a time with the ph. I just ordered some nectar of the gods ph up, hoping that will help raise my ph in the soil. So I’m having some deficiency for sure, like.maybe iron and potassium, maybe even magnesium. But for all that they dont look too bad, they are on day 47. Just put them in flower 2 days ago.
8 Likes
They seem in a good shape. Maybe a tidy bit overfed, but nothing too worrying. There does not seem to be deficiencies anyway.
Controlling the PH and ppm in run offs is important in hydro, when growing in soil you don’t really need to check that. Plant health and growth is your best indication. And you should avoid having too much run offs in fact. If you do, chances are that you’ll overwater your plants, and then cause some problems.
I’d be you I’ll go on feeding and watering them as usual and check how the plants behave.
Oh, and welcome here btw!
7 Likes
They look good from here.
A few questions. How are you reading ppm after feeding?
I also see the saucers. Do you water until you see water draining into the saucers?
If so, you shouldn’t.
@funkyfunk said it best
Good luck
4 Likes
i got pretty good results running those AWI lights at an angle as supplementary lighting. got super big/hard rock nugs with older blurple lights.
1 Like
Thanks bro, I appreciate your response back !!! I guess they are doing alot better than before. I been nursing the hell out of them haha.I did want to know how much I should check the run off. I was worried about over water. But it seems to do fine when I was flushing and waiting 30 minutes before I flushed again. They responded well. I purchased some.nectar of the gods ph up since it has calcium carbonate in it bs my general hydroponics one. So hopefully they helps them alot. And thank you again for your response !!! Appreciate you!!!
1 Like
Hey, so yes I have saucers underneath to catch run off. I thought i needed to water and have like 10% run off so I can test the ph and ppms. Its a 7 gallon pot, so it usually takes 2 gallons of water to have a little left over to test. I’ve needed to test because my soil has been really acidic, so I’m trying to dial the ph back to around 6.3/6.5 area. Once its dialed back, then I’m sure I don’t need to check the run off. Back in the seedling stage the ph was around 5.19, so I had nutrient lock out and all type of deficiency. My original ph pen was crap and giving bad readings. I have a new one now that works great. So hopefully everything will be good!!! I appreciate your help and care!!! Thank you
Its a little hard to see them to give you any real input but here it goes, when you say you added too much peat are you talking about straight peat no lime added? if the peat you added has no lime and if the percentage of peat is more then 50% to the foxfarm, the medium I definitely could see it lean acidic without anymore info but 5.2 aint that bad and totally workable to finish the round… it takes more then pH up/ a hydroxide to correct a truly acidic mostly unamended peat medium think lime think carbonates
in future if u run into this what you think is over feeding you can feed just plain pH’ed water or very low ec and watch leaf color going forward and keep monitoring, only time you want to emergency flush is if your seeing really dark dark green coming on, leaf curling, leaf tip burning coming down margin of the leaf, possible necrosis spotting if its caught late ;( and if you get to that point there’s always next round hehe…, else you risk water logging them and you will see lockout of Fe,K,Mg and Nitrogen most notably plus calcium has a hell of a time propery moving through the plant. the over watering can make the burning worse IMHO too
what is the pH of your tap water? feed water pH has little to do with adjusting/buffering soil/root zone or runoff pH, how much/ppm carbonates are in your water will
1 Like
2 gallons of water regularly in a 7 gallon pot is too much.
6 Likes
It’s usually in the span of 5 days. But I was only doing that to get the run off readings. I’m thinking about backing to just 1 gallon. I tried that before but the water seemed like it never reached the bottom of the pot. So I don’t know if I just didn’t wait long enough, or they were really thirsty and soaked it all up.
The water i was using before was reverse osmosis, but it tested around 5.5 to 6 ph. I think that was a issue too, that plus my old ph pen that was off. Those 2 together made an issue. Now I’m using water that is phd at 7.0. I’m going off the foxfarm nute schedule. The mix came out around 600 ppm + I added some of the calcium ph up, and less than a teaspoon of epsom salt. That brought my ppm up to 824. I plan on feeding them tommorow morning. I think they should be fine, I’m thinking they are pretty hungry, the last run off was reading like 150-200 ppm. I do appreciate you helping me with your knowledge 
. Truly humble my guy. Ima take some better pictures for ya so you can see the issues.
1 Like
Also, I think when I flushed them when the ppm was 1600. I used tap water which I think had alot of chlorine in it which made them have this funky yellowish green color?. Also, so I shouldn’t water until you see water in the pans?, am I not suppose to be testing the runoff each time?
They look good. Don’t overthink it.
These potential issues you mention may or may not be issues but for now just keep it up.
It does sound like a lot of water, but again, they look fine.
4 Likes
awesome you sound like you got it handled
dont listen to the pro grows when they talk about runoff every time, they are growing larger plants small pots/rockwool or good coco mostly co2 their plants fill their pots quickly with lots of dry backs happening often basically perfect conditions. if they don’t flush consistently they will get salt build up quicker then you or i because they feed so much.
I had to learn the hard way more then once not to water where roots aren’t that heavy with peat mediums, you have to let them dry a lot in-between watering’s with small medium plants large pots, or your plants get mad at you hehe
1 Like
Yeah for sure can’t see those in the original pics.
I’m not sure I can help so specifically but, peat is around 5.5 or so, which is inline with what you’re getting.
I use promix, which is peat mostly, and my water is around 7 so mix the two and you get 6.X which is about right. It’s got a buffer in it but ignore that for now.
Perhaps adjust your input water high to compensate until you get runoff pH you want.
I find too that if I let my pots dry off too hard I end up with issues, likely pH related.
Did you mention what you’re feeding them? I didn’t see.
1 Like
What I see in the pics you posted is a Magnesium deficiency, like this example:
I suppose it’s pH related, you should check your runoff pH as suggested and see if it is in the correct range for the plant to process it … 
2 Likes
True that bro, thats exactly what I’m doing, waiting until the pots feel kinda light which usually take 4 to 5 days after watering with 2 gallons. I think what I will do is water one gallon in and wait about 30 minutes to see if I get any run off, and if I don’t I will add another half gallon and wait . That way I get less run off. I think I was getting more than I should with 2 gallons plus for each plant. Hopefully my ph goes up in the soil with this calcium carbonate ph up I added to the feed.
Your definitely right, my ph has been hovering around 5.8 to 6.1 on one, and 5.6 to 5.8on the other. I just got some nectar of the gods ph up that has calcium carbonate in the ph up, which is suppose to help the soil get raised. Fingers crossed 
.
1 Like