Re: My First Grow Journal-Holy Grail Kush- Purple Kush 6x12 Scrog 4 x 600W LEDs On Mo
I did alot of reading last night and am not educated enough to understand alot of what I read but one of the possibilities is my well water has alot of co2 in it and as it releases into the air it will cause the ph to drop quickly. another highly educate guy on another forum said this to another grower with the same problem.
That is normal during budding as a plants roots tend to release positive hydrogen ions to balance the charge in the root zone if they have taken up to much ammonia. And as nearly all nutrient formulations have some nitrate as ammonium and often in excess of 15% them the pH problem occurs. It is just another indicator that a plant is self flushing of ammonia so flushing is not necessary. That is why you should have no ammoniun nitrate or ammonium phosphate in you nutrient formulas when possible during budding. they are only beneficail during low lighting conditions or when roots are not highly developed. ie only use them if gowing under other than HID lighting and during sesdling and early vegative states. Plants will use nutrients up until they are harvested if they are available.
and this,
Nearly all the manafacturers have at least a small amount, but the ones with larger amounts that I am aware of are: Hydro Farm, ECO, Peters, Miracle Grow, and to a smaller extent Gen X, AN two part, and GH MaxiBloom and Maxigrow. AN and GH are not high enough to be of much concern but high enough to have a additional causitive effect. Most of their ammonium most likely comes from the use of ammonium phoshate, maybe from amminum nitrate (much less likely) however they do not release their formulation information so that is just my opinion of its probable source. In general the veg formulas typically have the higher ammonium. Never use a formula listed as good for early vegative growth during budding. It is probaly best with premixed formulas to just be prepared to deal with it rather than putting in great efforts to avoid it altogether as nearly all the better formulas will have some ammonium even though it is not added as amonium nitrate. The safest bet if the formulation is known is jsut avoid all preparation that include ammonium nitrate and ammonium phosphate during budding.
A few formulations that do not contain ammonium as nitrogen are: Genisis, Pure Blend, Techna Flora, Rock Wool Formula, Holland Secret.
Consider this:
Consideration of pH is important for hydroponic/aeroponic growers, because the pH of the solution affects the solubility of elements, and their availability to plants. Most probems occur where pH becomes too high, above 7, resulting in firstly iron then calcium forming insoluable salts which precipitate out of solution. As the pH increased above 7, plant uptake of these ions become less efficient, so plants become deficent even if the ion is present in solution. pH therefore has an effect on both nutrient solubility and plant availability for uptake.
As plants remove some ions from solution, the solution pH drifts, upwards or downwards. If left uncontrolled, typicallythe pH will drift downward (to approx 4.5) for several days after starting seddling growth or clone fertilization(ie new crop), after which the pH will steadily increase (to approx 7 or above). This feature is due to the differential uptake of ions from solution, wih the release of hydrogen (H+) or hydroxyl (OH-) ions from the root system. As positive ions, cations (Ca+, K+, Mg+, etc) are removed from solution, hydrogen ions are released from the plant root system to equalise the ration of anions to cations in the root zone. This lowers the pH of the solution. As the plant commencess active growth anions (NO3 etc) <nitrate> are taken up which increases pH through the release of hydroxyl ions into the solution. Supply nitrogen as ammonia can acceleratte the uptake and utilisation of nitrogen under certain conditions. Uptake of ammonia (ammonium ions) can result in lowering of solution the pH, as plants will release positive hydrogen ions (H+) to balance thehcharge in the roots system.
This essentailly means that early growth of seedlings and clones under low light conditions (Flourescents, CFC's, window sills) can readily benefit from ammonium and the adverse side effects of a lowering of pH is usually considered acceptable, but it is not consisered acceptable during bi udding as it has a hugely more pronounced effect on the solutions pH during budding when the uptake can be huge in comparsion to the uptake by seedlings and young clones. Budding plants do not need a softer easier way of uptaking nitrogen as they have a fully developed root sytem and enough leaf to insure good tranpiration to assure adequate uptake of solutions.
he also said that just about every nutrient company wants you to use alot more of they're product than is need(just like you said AJ
)so im dropping the ppm's to 800 and we will see if that helps.
some other growers said that taking the (zym) product out and adding h202 fixed the problem,any thoughts on that?
family, pull up a chair its just getting interesting in here
