I’m new to growing. After the frau started a couple of plants on the window sill we kept those going until the plants were 10 - 12 inches and began developing a big time “skunk” that even our country venue couldn’t explain and we started getting yellowing center tip on the palm leaves I purchased a tent setup. Short, sad story I didn’t manage sort everything out in time to help those first 2 soil grow plants - may they RIP - I invested in a Bubble Boy (and a few more seed). This time I started 4 plants in an enclosure and read a lot from lots of sources before I found this site…
Based on info I garnered from another site I moved the plants ( one never developed viable first leaf pair from sprouting it looked like the stem the stem had been pinched just below the plant crown - anyone have a guess on what happened there?)
over to the bubble boy fixed the solution at 25% of Fox Farm Trio recommended and filled until solution just met the bottom of the grow cubes. All are dropping roots nicely from the bottoms of the pots now. So, I just received the nutes I ordered from this site today. I had planned to boost the nutes in my solution to 50% of Veg recommended in a couple of days but would rather change over to the new nutes instead. Big “?” is should I change the water out as I change the feeds? If not how soon should I change and what is the best frequency for following solution changes including flushes.
I’d really appreciate any help I can get. As a follow up, the Ph is always climbing in the solution every time I check it is 7.1 to 7.3. I’ll add Ph Down to the top off water to move that to 5.5 after 10 minutes for the solution to circulate the solution tests out -I use a pen tester- at 5.9 - 6.2. any ideas on this as well? “Happy toking, everyone.” Peace.
What type of PH down are you using? What is the starting ppm of your water supply? Were your buckets sanitized, and never used with chemicals or other possibly toxic fluids?
Why don’t you follow the recommendations from the nutrient manufacturer. That is the best way to get good results.
The only time I would differ on this opinion, is if you use a certain strength of solution during different phases in your grow.
I.E. I tend to mix my seedlings ppm @ 400; Go to 600ppm for veg (short cycle), and 1000-1200ppm for long cycle veg. IN flower I mix full strength as directed, but I gave found that most plants do just fine at 1000ppm all the way into flower, and then you may boost the nutrient strength in weeks 3-6 of flower. Hope this helps. 
Hi latewood,
Everything you’ve given me will be a great help. The Ph adjusters I’m using are Draxxes. I’m using Great Value distilled water and Ozark spring water both from Walmart. The distilled is 140 +/- 5 ppm and the spring water is 180 +/- 10. I’ve got the plants in a Bubble Boy 4 holer that starts as a food service grade 3.5 gal pail. I sanitize EVERYTHING using a solution we use to wash and sanitize the feeding/watering systems for our commercial chicken houses and finally with 90% alcohol. I also soak seeds for 20 minutes in 3% Hydrogen Peroxide solution prior to planting. They look healthy and hardy (I’ll try to attach some pics). I fed Monday with Fox Farms Grow and just a taste of Tiger bloom (as recommended). An hour after feeding the nutes read 678 ppm. Yesterday they read 565 before I added first of the three nutes I purchased from this site. This afternoon the level was 648 while Fox recommends 600 - 1200 at this stage. I still have one oddity going on. The Ph level just won’t stay down.I check it every day and it is always around 7.0 - 7.1. I’ll bring it down to 6.0 - 6.2 but the next day it is always up again. Again, thanks for all the great help so far.
P.S. Guess Ill post the pics later as I can’t figure the how to on this reply.
I would have to make a guess that it could be the spring water. Try a solution with just distilled water.
I do not know what Draxxes is. I will have to do a search. This could also be the cause of your PH rising.
The foxfarm is good stuff; So I doubt there is an issue there.
I assume you are going with only the Booster products now? You can change over, but I would not suggest alternating brands. Another thing; Are you totally re3freshing your bucket every 7-10 days?
Thanks for the reply. I really appreciate it. I plan on changing water and sanitizing in the next couple of days as the seedlings I have are only 10 days old. At that time I’m switching over to the Booster products only.I wish I could attach some pics here, the 3 plants I’ve got are really beautiful. They are a rich green with crowns of 6 - 8 leaves and roots of as much as 4 in. out of the bottom of the netty pots. In the past few days there was enough crown that it was pulling the stems over. but only one is still doing so slightly One plant is noticeably smaller than the other 2 but I’m guessing that is probably due to strain. I didn’t label them but there’s 1 Cindy 99, 1 Amnesia Haze and 1 OG Kush… The Kush, I think) is the one tending to lay over some. If it continues should I stake it? Guess that’s all the questions for the moment. Again, I can’t thank you enough for the super help. Keep on toking!
I have a bunch of work to do on the forum. I do not know what is up with image uploading, but I will address it asap.
One thing I keep forgetting to mention. Don’t sanitize when doing a res change; Just rinse it out real goo dwith fresh water. Do not use bleach or anything after that.
Add your fresh water, nutrients to desired ppm, and PH to 5.8
Bak at you later, Peace lw