PH SCREWED IN FLOWER! PLEASE HELP!

[bakEQuatorial]

Thanks buddy and you may very well be right about lockout cos i was giving quite high doses of calmag for about 10 days into the soil by mistake. Your logic is sound.

Given @Waira thinks they might be "longer term underfed", which also could quite possibly be true since i removed the Biotabs early on and gave a weaker dosing midway tthan i was supposed too, i think i will wait for him to chime in once more and then make a decision as both are opposite ends of the secptrum. One says give huge dose of food and other says plain water for a mini gradual flush over coming days. Perhaps my low PH gives him further insight...

These newer problems def appeared when the plants entered hard flowering mode..which was several days after i stopped giving calmag..

Your low PH will most definitely swing him my side. Thing is, Waira is the infirmary guy. He is like the doctor with too many patients. If I did not read your grow journal from the start, I might reach the same conclusion as Waira at first glance. You gotta understand that the symptoms for toxicity and deficiency are very similar. Waira is a grower like us too. Has his life, grows and stuff on top of diagnosing/prescribing free of charge here on AFN.

Again, I may be wrong and Waira could shed some light. Just thought I'd help since u tagged me! Good luck bro!

 

[IndoorTropics]

Your low PH will most definitely swing him my side. Thing is, Waira is the infirmary guy. He is like the doctor with too many patients. If I did not read your grow journal from the start, I might reach the same conclusion as Waira at first glance. You gotta understand that the symptoms for toxicity and deficiency are very similar. Waira is a grower like us too. Has his life, grows and stuff on top of diagnosing/prescribing free of charge here on AFN.

Again, I may be wrong and Waira could shed some light. Just thought I'd help since u tagged me! Good luck bro!

I prob over reacted when i saw the initial PH readings. The plants have had a good amount of nutes in the last week which will have made the soil more acidic. I just poured about 10L through ONE (only one - i promise! haha) Chemdawg (5-6 gallon pot), which still has maybe 4 weeks to go. Please don't think i overreacted LMAO, i have mostly turned this first grow into a learning experience and will give the others about 1/3 - 1/2 that amount of water and a more gradual flush as you have suggested.

Since I gave the 10L of water, the PH seems to be back in the 6.0-6.5 region. Lets see how they respond to some goold old fashioned water for a while.

EDIT: Nearly all plants runoff (except healthiest - 3000ppm) came back 1300PPM, and even just a normal watering (not a flush) returned PH of all pots to 6.2-6.6. Starting to think they may just be underfed slightly. Bringing some fresh water into play has definitely helped PH in short term. If they are underfed then the 1/2 biotab crushed, orgatrex and bactrex and epsom salts added days ago will have helped things. i will keep going with clean water for few days and check responses and then continue feeding Bio PK, especially if symptoms get worse. Sound reasonable?

 

[bakEQuatorial]

I prob over reacted when i saw the initial PH readings. The plants have had a good amount of nutes in the last week which will have made the soil more acidic. I just poured about 10L through ONE (only one - i promise! haha) Chemdawg (5-6 gallon pot), which still has maybe 4 weeks to go. Please don't think i overreacted LMAO, i have mostly turned this first grow into a learning experience and will give the others about 1/3 - 1/2 that amount of water and a more gradual flush as you have suggested.

Since I gave the 10L of water, the PH seems to be back in the 6.0-6.5 region. Lets see how they respond to some goold old fashioned water for a while.

EDIT: Nearly all plants runoff (except healthiest - 3000ppm) came back 1300PPM, and even just a normal watering (not a flush) returned PH of all pots to 6.2-6.6. Starting to think they may just be underfed slightly. Bringing some fresh water into play has definitely helped PH in short term. If they are underfed then the 1/2 biotab crushed, orgatrex and bactrex and epsom salts added days ago will have helped things. i will keep going with clean water for few days and check responses and then continue feeding Bio PK, especially if symptoms get worse. Sound reasonable?

No one seems to be chiming in. Please note that 3000ppm runoff is very high for plants at any stage, let alone last few weeks. I would even say 1300ppm is already too high. Low ppm in but high ppm out. You do the math and tell me its not a build-up issue! Some plants can take it but doesn't mean its good for them. Some plants can take massive nutes from Day 1 to harvest, without showing any issues.

You just gotta realize generally, they don't need much. My advice is still to water plain PHed water only. At least a week which should give you 3-4 watering sessions. Again, at least! Do not water daily If your girls aren't drinking much. They don't look big enough to be watering daily imo. But its difficult to gauge looking at pics alone so its your call.

Again, the above is what I'd do and worked for me. I could be totally off. Not even remotely qualified to be advising anyone. Just thought I'd try to help out.

 

[Waira]

Thanks BakEQ, you're right!
@IndoorTropics what whaaaaat? This is a "super soil" that you also added Biotabs into? I'm missing something here,... if so, then indeed, the pH and ion load in there is causing lockouts, antagonistic uptake issues, etc.,... defc's are caused by plain lack-of, pH lockout, and/or toxicity... Have a look at the stuff in the Quick & dirty defc. Pic Depot in the sticky section above, page 2...toward the bottom there are charts, induced defc. tables and the like...

I'd expect a rich soil to have about 1000+ppm, not all of which is necessarily nute salts per se, but much is,usually... But with the Biotabs/organic, it shouldn't be that high? Maybe if the Tabs were really releasing fast (I did get burn using them on photo's, mid cycle, they flash out like that;sudden rapid release, then shortly later defc.'s started, P mainly)....
Between the pH and the ion load, the microbes are hatin' it too, so this slows down your organic breakdown cycle and all that,... 3000ppm is nasty, flush that more... Normally, flushing is a no-no with organics, but if this "custom soil" is hot, unbalanced, poorly buffered, then there's little choice... Good thing you're nearly done!
I'm with Bak' here, inoculants, humic-fulvic, Si, a carbo source are OK but that's it 'til finish... let's see what a week brings!