Smoky Smurf's first grow

Typically 1tbsp per gallon of soil. However that didn’t phase mine one bit.

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He told me to use quite a bit at first and then edited his response to say too much would make the top of my soil like concrete. I have been mixing it in really well and haven’t had an issue with it hardening the soil. I am basically adding 2 tablespoons every time I water which is about every 4 days.

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@smokysmurf I add my nutes then use my Apera PH meter to keep an eye on things as I add the bicarbonate. Doesn’t take much, around 1/3 of a teaspoon in my watering can. Then I measure the runoff over the next few days to see how it fares. It’s a gradual process but works for me😎

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I wish I could be of more help. Good luck gradually getting your pH back where you want it.

For what it’s worth, I’m using two parts happy frog to one parts ocean forest. My ph went STUPID low. I really flushed them well and, the ph came to rest at 6.3-6.4. It’s been over a week since then. I have watered twice and my runoff has tested 6.7 with RO water and bits that naturally balance at 6.5. I’ve got my fingers crossed. Maybe I won’t be battling ph for the entire grow.

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Same here with a straight to soil germination, can’t post the pics, but I’m at 5 weeks (FFOF from Amazon received 4-10 @smokysmurf) I did 1/4 nutes at 3 weeks, 1/2 nutes at 4 (FF Trio schedule so Big Bloom was the same amount both feedings Grow Big was twice as much as the first feeding). Cal-mag foliar feeding every other day and 1/2 strength in every other watering. Only “signs” showed after the 1/2 strength nutes there was slight yellowing on the tips (some things I’ve read say this is good so long as it stays on the tip because it shows the threshold of nutrients needed, I’VE READ I HAVE NO PRIOR EXPERIENCE AS A GROWER) which I may even be able to attribute to having under-watered them. I haven’t tested any of my run-off I have just kept the water to 6.7-6.8 and ppm 300-400 and started watering to run-off at mid-week 3.

You shouldn’t have started adding nutrients. Brand new FFOF will usually take you past 6 weeks above ground![

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Which goes to show that the FFOF is still ok. lol I ADDED nutes at 3 & 4 weeks and, I think, the plants look pretty good for having done that to them.

At the end of the day, what works for others just may not be in your wheelhouse.
I would bail on the FF and go with Pro-mix HP. GH ph Up and down, and nutes. I suggest Jack’s. If you want liquid then GH Flora trio with CaliMagic. Pretty much all you need.
If you are in the organics camp, search this forum for organic soil recopies and you will find a few. @garrigan62 has posted a few and he is super knowledgeable on the subject of soils. (and pretty much anything else MJ grow related!)

Here is one to look over from garrigan62:

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I am in my first grow with 4 WW photos and 4 WW autos in a greenhouse. I use both HF and OF, 50/50 with the happy frog on top, and let the roots grow into the OF. Some were transplanted May 9th and the rest about 10 days later. They are all doing great, have had a couple of early hiccups, but they were easily fixed by all the Wizards on this site. I have yet to feed them anything other than Cal-Mag, some potassium on two plants, and only twice I think, and some Mycorrhizae for the roots very two or three times when watering. The photos are taller than I, 5’11", and the Autos are almost done. The photos runoff PPM was between 2100-2800 and their runoff PPH varied from 6.3-6.5. The Autos leaves are turning all sorts of colors as they eat themselves. Their PPH going in runs around 550, and I feed with 6.7PH water. Their runoff PPH runs between 1500-3100 and runoff PH anywhere from 6.1-6.4. I feel like feeding them, but they don’t need it, and I am very satisfied with the FF soils, specially being new to this. This is a link to my journal, sorry the last pics are a few days old, but the site has stopped allowing me to upload and it seems to be happening to quite a few on here.

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In my case I had to flush to try to raise PH so now I have to use nutes. LOL. Washed everything out to the point of getting runoff TDS of 164.

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And this is exactly why I would prefer to have a soil with NO nutes at all so I can add what I want from day one without having to worry about nute burn and hot soil or guessing when to start using nutes. It makes it way too confusing especially with an auto.

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Every once in a while one or more of the plants would come out with a Runoff PPH of 5.7-5.8, and I couldn’t be sure if it was correct, or more likely, operator error, lol. Now when I water I try to give them 6.7PH water, just in case the readings were correct.

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Deplete the soil and you will get your wish. I used the same soil from May 2018 to this year. Toilet Bowl Seeds contaminates the soil so I am depleting the nutrients one crop at a time. I still have 3 more FFOF bags to do this to. :+1:

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@jetlag believe it or not I flushed with 14 gal of PH 7.0 water and it only came up to a runoff of 6.2. The next watering I adjusted water to 7.0 after adding nutes and got a runoff PH of 6.0.

But you were flushing. I have never flushed yet. The Photos in 5G grow bags get 2Gals of water. and the Autos in 3 Gal. bags get 1 gallon. Isn’t flushing used to wash off buildup of minerals and or to wash away nutes at the end of flowering? Might that make a difference?

Sorry, just went back and read one of your posts. Forgive my ignorance, I did say i was knew, but was not aware that flushing would raise the soil PH, only that it would clean the impurities out of the soil.

@jetlag I suppose flushing could raise or lower the PH either way.

@jetlag I am growing my auto in a 5 gal Smart Pot and it takes 2 gal of water to get decent runoff.

“Isn’t flushing used to wash off buildup of minerals and or to wash away nutes at the end of flowering?”
I’m not an expert but I think generally you can just water with plain water for the last two weeks before harvest and the plant will use up all the nutes. You don’t necessarily need to flush before harvest. Flushing is also recommended if you are having PH problems like I was. It’s hard to believe but the recommended amount of water to use in a flush is 3x pot size. So for a 5 gal pot that is 15 gal of water. I stopped at 14 because my PH and TDS readings weren’t changing much at that point.

very interesting, thank you. I am still having problem with the harvesting part. The girls two of the Autos, should be ready, but the pistils are not very cloudy yet.