Grandpa's Second Try - Come Join Us!

BW...we have some white vinegar, but I'm not sure I understand what you mean when you say not buffered. If we mix some in with the bubble bucket water, do we have to use it immediately? If so, then we will do that right away. This is the first time I've ever had to adjust the pH on anything. I'm assuming you do it little by little... But I don't know.
I have heard of specific products that lower and raise pH, but I don't know the names of the ones that would work well and easily. Does anyone have a suggestion?
Pw... we are using this pen. It is the one that OT was generous enough to send us. It is calibrated as far as I know. According to the instructions for this pen, to store it all you do is rinse the tip and put the cap back over the tip. I have read numerous places here and on other websites that say to store the tip in distilled water, but I think we would be better served to follow the instructions for this particular one.
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Eyes4grandpa said:
BW...we have some white vinegar, but I'm not sure I understand what you mean when you say not buffered. If we mix some in with the bubble bucket water, do we have to use it immediately? If so, then we will do that right away. This is the first time I've ever had to adjust the pH on anything. I'm assuming you do it little by little... But I don't know.
I have heard of specific products that lower and raise pH, but I don't know the names of the ones that would work well and easily. Does anyone have a suggestion?
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Buffered to maintain the pH for extended time.
I'm really a soil guy, so I'd wait for some of these more seasoned soilless growers to chime in.
I would start slow though. You can always add more, taking it back is a different story.
 
Okay, here's what we've done. We recalibrated the pH pen and used white vinegar to lower the pH of the water to 6.4. Actually... Somewhere between 6.3 and 6.4. We gave each girl a half cup around the stem and a quart or so around the edges of the pot. When I lifted them before watering, they were very light. So I figured it was okay to give them a drink. I was also told that although not really droopy, the leaves were starting to point down. I think I'll have to lift them more often than I have been. I'm assuming that as they are growing, they need water more often.
Mistake number two... I tested the air in the 10th originally after putting the new light in not long after they came on. When I checked them this afternoon, when they had been on since 2 a.m., the tent was quite a bit warmer. So we gave them a little more air from the clip on fan and opened the Ducts so they can get a bit more air intake.
Additionally, we raised the new like two inches. It's now sets two inches or so above the original light. My thinking here is that possibly that new life she might be a bit strong for them as close as it was. We will keep a sharp eye on them, and test the water each time since the white vinegar is not buffered as explained by BW. Other than the traditional ph up and PH down, is there something we can get that is buffered for long-term pH control?
 
Glad you found the likely cause (8.x ph water going into her). Don't have any anwser to the buffer for soilless mix, would you really need that though if you've now corrected the input water ph issue?

As imtoasted mentioned -
The pen should be washed\dipped\swished in a little clean distilled prior to storage (to clean off residue) then given a decent shake to get most water out of it, be gentle though, they can break easy. It's not a bad idea to cut off a little thin piece of a folded paper towel and cram it into the bottom of the cap, put a few droplets (it should not be dripping wet) of distilled on the paper-towel piece. Ideally you want to store it with special storage solution dips into that paper towel, but distilled water will work ok in most cases. Much like when they tell you to use special de-ionized water for calibration...you can do that, but distilled will work ok too.

The less often you use it, higher the chance that re-calibration will be needed I'm told, also depends on the pen and storage. I have one that hasn't needed to be recal'd since I got it 8 weeks ago, and another that looks basically same as yours that has needed to be screw adjusted twice slightly since I got it about 5 weeks ago, yet I use both every water cycle. go figure. lol
 
First of all... I want to publicly thank PennyWise four his huge and extremely generous, very much appreciated offer and purchase of a pH Down kit for us! That was out of the blue and quite awesome, PW! Thank you so much. :thanks:

NH...thanks for all that great info. So... Are you saying that we don't need to keep it directly in distilled water? We have it in that now. I think your idea of a damp paper towel with distilled water is a good one. Think we'll try it! Thanks again! :thumb:
 
Kelley told me that the girls do look better this morning. New growth coming out, and no sign of yellowing on Browning on any of the leaves that were unaffected until now. Maybe we got it figured out? As soon as we can, we'll take some pics and I'll get them up for you to see if you agree. In Joy the eclipse everyone in the United States!
 
Eyes4grandpa said:
Do they actually look like they're doing a little recovery? Do any of you think that the affected leaves should be taken off?
Emma
Elsa
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Maybe where they are truly brown\crusted up I might snip the tips off there on the lower ones, otherwise I'd probably leave them for now and let them fall naturally or wait till they are even more fully dead before removing. /2cents
 
Good morning! In checking the girls this morning, I'm told that the brown edges and tips on the leaves might be getting worse regardless of what we've done to fix it. I am really beginning to suspect that heat May well be the issue.
All we can do for now is to place the clip on fan in front of one of the sleeve vents in the tent and aim it as best we can over top of the girls and then let the exhaust fan do its thing. We will also leave the top flap of the tent down during lights on as much as we can. That's all I can think of to do at this point. I'm also told that the new leaves coming up are not Brown at all. It's probably best that we keep an eye on those new leaves and see what happens. Apparently... They still want to grow, which I take as a good sign.
 
PW...Kelley tells me that attempts are much warmer than they were, and the last reading we got from our thermometer before it died was in bee high 70s. We will get pics ASAP! She also told me that the clip on fan is blowing on top of the lights. I see that as a potential problem, which is why I am going to place the fan in front of the open vent, and do my best to aim it directly on the top of the plants without involving the lights. I hope I can get it aimed that way.
 
how is the new growth? High 70's doesn't seem that bad. And, once the leaves start to brown and dry out, the damaged leaves will not recover, the plant will suck the juices out of the damaged leaves and redirect toward the rest of the plant. The key is to watch the new growth and see how it is, and hopefully the new growth looks good and healthy.
 
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