New Grower help please!!

[moonshine]

hello all at afn! first of all let me congratulate you all for creating such a wonderful site ive seen some lovely plants on here and as im a newbie thought i would join so i could tap into some of you experts as ive just been teaching myself off the net learning as i go! atm ive got four plants just over 6 wks old and five babys that will be 3wks old fri the older ones are doing well as far as i can tell they have started to bud but a lot of the lower leaves and fan leaves are going yellow i read somewhere this is normal as the plant is sucking nitrogen from the leaves in order to bud but some plants ive seen on here are still very green when mature full of bud! why is that? also i have been ph testing the water (with a cheap solution test) before feeding my plants however today i ph tested sum of the run off (for the first time! i only ever have ph tested b4 watering up until now) when i watered my 3wk old plants and the ph came out really low from the chart ive got im guessing about 5.0 maybe 4.0?! (gonna buy a decent ph test next time i go for supplies) does anyone know why the ph is coming bk out the pot so low? they have only been getting 2ml/l of some root stimulator im a lil bit worried so any help with this would be greatly appreciated! i will sort my camera out later put up sum pics if anyone would like to see them thanks again

 

[Dazed]

Hey Moonshine welcome to AFN my friend, you are right this is a wonderful site and it's great to have you here!
You are correct on most things you have said there, the pH of your run-off is very low which is why I suspect you have yellowing of the leaves. It is normal for leaves to yellow as the plant is finishing up but at 6 weeks it's a little early.

There are plenty of amazing growers here and a team of members who are ready to help you out. I would suggest heading over to the introduction section, say hello to everyone then get a description of your set up and some pics in a journal and then we can get you sorted and back on track!

Dazed.

 

[Waximus]

Hi, moonshine Dazed is right.. That pH is way low. Put up some pics, so we can see what you're seeing, and we can help get you sorted With the pH that ow, you're likely experiencing nute lockout. It'll help to know what soil you're using, as well. If you're going to be picking up a pH meter, I highly (ha!) recommend the Accurate 8 soil meter. It's reasonably priced ($50-60, US) and, well... Accurate! Depending on how you're recovering the runoff, it could be making the pH result inaccurate. An Accurate 8 let's you probe through the soil, and get good readings throughout the pot.
Good luck, and I'll keep an eye out for pics :Sharing One:

 

[growbeast]

Hello moonshine! Welcome!!! Quick question, do you ph your water before or after you apply your root stimulator?

Reason i ask sometimes chemicals we add greatly affect ph.

 

[moonshine]

thanks Dazed, Waximus and Growbeast for your speedy replies and warm welcome ive taken sum pics so i can show you guys what i mean as for the soil i am using canna terra pro and ive been ph testing with nutes b4 watering them never knew i should of been testing the run off until yesterday though!:Brain Fog..: these are 2 most affected had to get them out to take a good picthe other 2 dont seem to affected that muchand this is one of my 3wk olds that had that really low ph runoff yesterdaybut they seem happy enough at the minute though! i just dont get how the ph could drop so low when it was fine when i put it in!

 

[growbeast]

Have you ran them over to the live help section, they can get you sorted real quick

 

[Dazed]

If your run off is that low you will be getting lock out and the plants are using nutrients from the leaves. So many factors that can cause the mediums pH to drop. Get over to the Live Help Thread bro, they'll sort you out.

 

[lonewolf25]

im having this problem uswell i ended up doing four 1 litre flushes to bring the run off to 5.8 . but do we have to ph the soil or ph the water ?

i have seen these soil ph testing thing but they come quite expensive so rather not as on a budget

 

[Dazed]

im having this problem uswell i ended up doing four 1 litre flushes to bring the run off to 5.8 . but do we have to ph the soil or ph the water ?

i have seen these soil ph testing thing but they come quite expensive so rather not as on a budget

You can get a rough idea as to what you soil pH is by testing the run off. If you know the pH of your solution going in, and test the run off, you can see roughly where you are at. A decent soil pH meter is invaluable imho. Accurate 8 is generally the one worth getting, will pay you back quickly by saving your plants.

 

[lonewolf25]

just wondering what you think, being that i fed 6.8 and run off came out at 5.8 what does that make the soil ? 4.8 .....? :S
i will get one in the future but just need some refference for now