That’s wild. Last few bags of OF I had sat at 6.1. Even the current grow it’s sitting at 6.2. I like it because I don’t need to PH my water until I start adding bloom nutes.
yeah - just wondering if its a bad batch or theres something else going on. its annoying!
PH’ed water will not change the pH in the soil. It does not have any buffering capacity. You need to add amendments with some buffering capacity that will lower the pH. Adding very acidic or basic amendments is playing with fire. They should be pH balanced at 6.5
I was under the impression that a ph of 6.5 ( for soil ) was the " sweet spot. " Is this true? If so do I want to pour in 6.5 ? Or am I shooting for the runoff to be closer to 6.5?
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Your mantra, I see 
I promise i understand and was just recounting what had been done.
If this is true, why are flushes recommended to adjust ph?
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Also, once I switched to coco, all these issues seemed to go away.
@lilbia420smoke Yes for FFOF this is true. It should be between 6.3 to 6.8 with 6.5 being your sweet spot. You want to stay within those ranges going in and coming out. If you have a fluctuation you can adjust to accommodate that. there’s a chart somewhere I’ll have to try to find it for you that shows at what pH levels your nutrients can be released. If you stay out of level for too long it can cause a lockout.
Flushes remove the built-up buffers that are preventing the pH change in the soil.
Coco has less buffer (salt) holding capacity so it is easier to change with just pushing the correct feed through the medium and just displacing the old liquids. Coco does absorb Mag (unlike hydro) and doesn’t provide it to the plant so extra cal mag is necessary in the feed.
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When I first started using coco I felt like they couldn’t get enough cLnmag. Even added Epsom salts to help
I’ve had it drop by the end, as well as increase. From what I understand it’s a result of the peat/buffers breaking down
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I flushed 3 plants that have been in ffof for about 12 weeks, starting run off ph was 7.3, and I was flushing with 6.5 ph water, after lots of water I had to drop the flush down to ph of 6.0, then i finally got down to 6.6, but it was their first flush, usually the water to 20% runoff kept ph in check, but feeding lots of nutes in flower must cause build up sooner.
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so when “they” say water to 20% runoff - does that mean water until you are getting a runoff flow of 20% or you have captured 20% of the runoff. I assume the former but have wondered if i misinterpreted that.
20% of what you put in,
Thank you everyone with all of your input. Now what about ppm’s? Put them on 12/12 4-5 days ago. Only using ph’d h2o, no nutes. ppm’z going in … 145 runoff ppm’z range from 954 up to 1752. Each watering the ppm’z drop. Any suggestions on when to start nutes? Planned on using the FF trio …?? Maybe thats to much? Thanks in advance for replies
@Missiles , @ Powersrp @dbrn32 @WickedAle @BobbyDigital @Familyman
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@lilbia420smoke I use this chart as a guideline. The ones that are still higher ppm’s I would Continue to keeping water until they come Down more
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Honestly I don’t really measure ppms. I just kinda read the plants. Probably not the most sound advice but I learn more by doing it this way. It also allows me to tailor what nutes are needed more than others.
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I typically follow schedule until plants tell me otherwise too.
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