Yesterday and earlier today My plants looked wonderful, they had that praying to the lamp stance withthe leaves extended very nicely, I checked the pH, holy **** it was at 7. I ran around to find some pH down and withthe bottle that I was able to find I was able to get the pH back down to 6.1 but now they look sad and droppy the leaves are hanging to the side instead of erect and out. Is this something indicative of pH. I plan to get the correct pH daown tomorrow, today wasn't convenient because the hydro man is closed on sundays. Someone please ease my worries, and don't BS me (please).
Wish I could help you out but I never bother to check the PH. I would suggest flushing out your system with fresh water for a couple of hours and then reloading the nutes and setting up the ph the way you like then. With hydro better safe than loose the lot.
COuld just be PH fluctuation. Check your ph again and see if you get a lower reading. BTW, what nutes you using? What kind of ph down did you get? Are you sure you did't drop it too low? If all things check OK, nothing you can do but keep an eye on em for the next two days.
I got pics of my garden up, they are again standing out, nice and perky. but in the pictures you can see the tops are weeping, like I mentioned and the bottoms were beginning to refill. pH -6.1, res temp-76, FF grow Big nutes, and I bought something at Walmart called pH decreaser in the aquariums section to temp hold me over. I had to use the entire bottle. http://www.growkind.com/marijuanapictures.gk?id=1002&picid=8949&start=&limit=10 (Edited by Joint Effort at 10:44 am on June 16, 2003)
OK I did learn something today at the hydro store. I descibed the pH spike to my hydro dude and he asked the first right question "Do you use rockwool?" A-yes. Next right question "Do you treat it for 24 hours before you use it?" A- no, why the **** would I need to treat it when it's going into the solution anyway? I mean it does soak it up just fine. Answer to my answer, GET OUT YOU FOOL!! Actually it wasn't that bad but he did laugh (at me?). As it seems rockwool has a natural pH of 8.6 which does conteract the pH of the solution over the 24 hour period of flood and draining. So for those like me that didn't know, now you do.
JE, my friend,the first rule of using rockwool is to saok it in a ph 6 solution! You didn't soak the smaller cubes either?
NO...LOL... I feel like starman now. Hey somethings take longer than others to learn LOL. Never was a problem until now. I thought you pretreated it so that the cube had nutes ready to be used immediately or something. Anything else that is simple that I should know? I usually learn from others mistakes, I don't figure I'll live long enough to make them all myself. LMAO I thought I would share my ignorance with everyone else anyway.
No worries J.E., live and learn! As for simplicity, make sure everything is plugged in and switched to the "on" position! lol j/k
In addition to that, the power strips should be off the floor especially during a res change. Made that mistake once too.
I heard that rockwool was alkaline...but i didn't know it was THAT Alkaline. I have also had probz germinating in Rockwool at first J...and at first i thought becuz of the Alkalinity. I was wrong...it was the Humidity!!! Vegas don't have much humidity...so tha first time i tried rockwool... 1st attempnly 'bout 30% germinated!! And yes...i did boil the rockwool...and soaked it in PH of 6 jus like the instruction told me(mine came with instructions)... The 2nd attempt: 11 outta the 14 germinated! And get this...i skipped the ph6 for 24hrs part(yes.i'm lazy i know). The diffrence was that i merely stuck them in one of those Turkey Domes!! No joke!! My 3rd Attempt...9 outta 10 germinated. I did this one a little diffrent. First i soaked my seeds in plain water fer 24hrs(like herbs does)...then i stashed 'em inside a wet #2coffee filter(i drink lotz of coffee) and then inside a zip lock bag. Within 48hrs...9/10 germinated! Yes! Next..i stuck 'em in the rockwool(i skipped the PH6 step-outta laziness)...and placed them inside the turky/chicken dome for another 24hrs. Success! Most of them have already came outta their shells exposing leaves! Next&last step...hydrocorn and veggy chamber(only when the rootz have poked out from da bottom of da rockwool)! Success. Jus' when i wuz about to give up on rockwool...the humidity dome(and ziplock) has once again saved the day! Germinatin in Vegas definitely has it'z quirkz... My that'z my 3 experiences with rockwool...and yes i can say..."aahhh...rockwool...i like..." This was the very first time that i germinated anything without any soil...my first true hydroponic experience. Incidently, i cloned fer the first time using the turky dome n rockwool...success! It took about 10dayz though...but hell...i'm jus glad to have pulled it off!!! Unfortunately most of my clones were males...so i only have 2 confirmed female Pure Power Clones to admire...still...i would have been happy with jus One(male or female...didn't matter at that point)! Yipee!! Can i get my Clonin' Certificate now Growkind? Next mission...to try to build an aerocloner...aaahhhh...i wonder how many mistakes that will take(i alwayz make a mistake or 3 before success...don't u?)... Again...growkind was ultimately where i found the turky dome and soak in plain water trick.... ..thanx again growkind!!! I am so fortunate to have found this place(a simple google search).... (Edited by hellostupid at 1:58 am on July 13, 2003)
