WW Autos Super Hempy - LED - HPS - Miracle Grow Experiment

why are you using activated carbon in your hempy setup? activated carbon will filter out the nutrients till it reaches its capacity then add nutrients back to the mixture. i believe that is what is altering your ph. i am guessing you do not have a ppm meter to measure the resulting hempy reservoir mixture.

https://www.google.com/search ppm meter

since you already have a reverse osmosis system why do you not use it?
 
I have a meter. I posted a long post about an experiment I did with it. All it needed was batteries replaced to work accurately again.

I read this on the back of Black Gold Charcoal, so I decided to give it a try.


This is an excellent soil conditioner, especially for heavy soils. Use it to improve the soil’s texture, density, aeration and drainage. Charcoal can absorb excess moisture as well as remove odors. It is very effective in sweetening soils in terrariums and pots that lack appropriate drainage and need improved root oxygen levels. Think of charcoal as nature’s soil conditioner.

More air sounded like a cool idea for a perlite grow.

I don't have a RO system, just a water distiller. I'm almost wondering if the electricity it uses is about the same price per gallon if I just bought bulk distilled water.
 
Tap water filtered through a carbonfilter. 40ppm, but the ph has been high lately 8.0. Usually, it is 7.2

After adding nutes, I ph it to 6.0, but the res quickly rises after a few hours to 6.5. Let me go check what the res is now. Before I went to bed it was 6.5 and I just checked, one was 7.0 the other 7.5.

I just emptied them, ran 5.5 in, then measured runoff, it was 5.8, waited a few minutes, and it was 6.5. I will check in an hour or so and see how much it rises. My water doesn't buffer that fast when left in a cup ph'd, so something else is raising ph that fast.

all I can think to do is keep emptying the res and filling it with 5.5 until it stays at 5.5, then I can start to water with 6.0



Since doing this laberous task, the plants are doing better. I just took this pic before I emptied the res.

DAY 48 from seed. (75 day auto strain) Dinafem White Widow Auto

april3-auto1.jpg


Crazy bushy for an auto. No stress training, no cropping, nothing.
 
Next time, I will not use the charcoal, and I will soak the perlite in stable ph 6.0 water until the perlite is stable. I think this is a good practice for any medium, especially rockwool. My 100% rockwool Mendo Purp is doing great.
 
Okay, so around 5pm an hour and a half ago, I only emptied the res, then filled with 5.5, after a few minutes, it went up to 6.3 or so. I checked again, an hour and a half later, and it is 6.7 auto 1 and 6.9 auto 2. I didn't run the water through the medium this time. If you look at that one pic of my pot, it is a bottom feeding pot. It has a lip at the bottom to fill up the res. Half of that res is water, half is perlite, do to the shape at the bottom, which is a plus sign, indented shape. The roots have grown through the holes and into the 4 water parts, so now it is like dwc/hempy.


SO something in the bottom root zone is buffering the ph. Maybe the hygrozyme, no I think that drops. Maybe there was silica in one of the things I fed it, the Jobees or the root zone shit. Not sure. But I have flushed the medium several times with 6.0 until the run off was 6.0, but it rose within 10 minutes, then almost back to 7 in an hour. I did that twice so far. Then this third time, I only emptied res, then filled with 5.5, hoping it would remain lower.

Irritating. I guess I will keep flushing until it stops rising so fast.

What do you all think?
 
Alright, so I said, frack it, I'm going to use sulfur. In the Critical, I sprinkled sulfur on the top of the perlite/coco, then mixed it in a bit. Then I watered with ph 6.0, drained the res, and watered again, at the top of the medium with 6.0. WIll see where it is at tomorrow.

For the autos, I put the sulfur in the water, then ph'd it to 6.0. I then watered it from the top, emptied res, watered from the top again. I would not recommend doing this to anything but something super airy like 100% perlite, or 75 perlite 25 coco, or 100% hydroton, etc.

I will let yall know where the ph in the res is by tomorrow. Hopefully it doesn't raise to much. I have no clue what is buffering it to 7.0-7.4

Unless the perlite I bought from Walmart was treated with lime. OMG, I bet that is it. I should go back to Walmart and read the bag, or maybe I still have a bag left in the attic.

If that is the case, I doubt even sulfur will work fast enough, but if I just keep watering it with ph 5.5-6.0 the lime will eventually lose it's buffering ability.

Also, tap water, even when ran through a carbon filter has a buffering ability do to the minerals in it, so I now have a 30 gallon tote filled, which I will keep phing down until it stablises. I have a large airstone in it to keep it fresh. I will continue to water with this. Hopefully, that does the trick. I'm running out of ideas.

I will keep putting drip clean in the water too and now and again florakleen. In the 30 gallon tote I put florakleen instead of drip clean.


The autos only have very slight yellowing here and there. They are mostly nic and green. The Critical, though, not doing as well. Hopefully MG and phing fixes it in the next 30 days, because after that, I'm putting her in 12/12 regardless.
 
Alright, I think I figured this shit out. :)

I should have read the perlite bag from Walmart. It has some ferts in it, some calcium phosphate, etc. The ferts most likely have lime as most Mircale Grow products have lime in them. Makes since why it buffers so fast to 7.0

However, my sulfur trick worked a bit. It took much longer for it to raise to 7.0 this time. It took 6 hours to raise to about 6.4 and from there to 7.2 about another six hours. I just tested.

I have a new plan to help rid the lime buffering and add a acidic buffer to keep the ph lower longer. I bought some Botanicare Sweet Original Berry. Why? Because unlike most Molasses, this has water solible sulfur, a natural acidic buffering agent. Because it is water solible, it will work instantly, unlike the powder stuff I put in, although, it did help a bit.

So, first, I am going to florakleen flush the medium. Just florakleen and ph water 6.0. Then I will feed with GH three part series, 1,1,1 ratio as buds aren't big yet. I will add Botanicare sweet, hygrozyme, and drip clean. I will shoot for about 400-500 ppm.

That should keep the ph stable longer.

My 30 gallon res after six hours rose just a tad to like 6.3, then I put more ph down to 6.0, and it is now at about 6.3 again, 6 hours later. So it raises slower than when in the plants res.
 
FEEDING

I am feeding Lady Black, in closet under t5 with Miracle Grow at half strength. Actually, I am just going to ppm it to 400ppm. I will see how much that takes. My water starts at 40.

MG FEEDING

I put that there so I know when to feed again with MG. Between feedings, I just give ph water, drip clean, and maybe some sweet, or hygrozyme.

I already fed the critical MG. I will feed it again when I feed the Lady Black.

The rest of the plants are being fed with GH three part series from the 30 gallon tote.
 
The mixture per gallon I went with for the autos =

1/8 teaspoon GH 3 part series for each grow, micro, bloom.

8mL Hygrozyme

8mL Botanicare Sweet Berry. This has water solible sulfur which should help keep a lower ph longer.

1/4 teaspoon General Organics Cal Mag

This brought the ppms to 430 just the GH 3 part only brought it to 250.

After all this was added the PH was a tad low, so I added a bit of ph up to bring it to about 6.0

I will see where it is at in a few hours if I remember and then when I wake up. Hopefully, the ph stays lower longer, moves up slower.
 
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