This chart represents the last few days of my RDWC grow. The girls are healthy and happy. What you see in the chart is my periodically adding water and grow (GH) nutes when the Ph gets a little high. I have not added Ph UP or DOWN during this period. I realize that the EC is low, but it is what I have been seeing as effective.
I have not been in this type of rhythm before, but it seems to be working, at least for a few days, to help me keep Ph stable.
I would love some comments and tips on whether this seems OK to keep going this way.
Thanks! Here is a picture of one of the 4 girls after a little S&M yesterday.
The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.
- Bertrand Russell
@matommy, here are a couple charts that might help explain a few things. This may help explain why your Ph goes up and down. Remember, in veg when a plant uses a lot of Nitrogen it will normally raise the PH and when it's in flower it uses Potassium and that will normally lower the PH, so these are normal occurrences. If your PH drops 0.05 in 12hrs it's fine. If it drops 0.10 in 12 hrs, there's an issue, so use the charts and figure out what's up.
If I'm reading your chart correctly your at an EC 0.44 and a PH above 6.0. Your Ph seem to be fluctuating fine but your EC is a bit low. If these were mine I'd try to SLOWLY increase EC to 0.50. Depending on have many Gal/L in your system I'd give them a .25ml-.50ml per gal/4l of grow a day extra. If their sensitive then try adding every other day. If the EC starts increasing then the EC is too high so add straight water to dilute, but the charts will have this info.
If your increasing EC then you'll want to increase your light too. If your going to feed them more then they have to be able to burn it off. Both need to be done gently, so no sudden moves there gunslinger!! lol
So yes your graph looks fine and they will grow at these amounts that you have them at now. If you want to increase then this is how I would do it but it's your grow. Good luck my friend.
@woodi2 Very helpful thanks. I discovered the charts you reference a while back and they are my goto for dealing with these questions! I was not aware of the K making Ph go down part in flower! That might explain some stuff and I will keep an eye out - I just flipped them because I have to rush this grow to get it done in time for the bigger fall grow.
EC: I struggle with this and have posted it here before. My RDWC seems to require really low EC for reasons I don't get. If I raise it, my Ph will start to plummet until I get EC back to the 420 (heh) range. Same thing with my last run which turned out really great. I'd be game for some experimentation if you are!
Thanks for the great info and for taking the time to help me.
The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.
- Bertrand Russell
Ok. Phosphoric acid. Me too. I know citric acid can fluctuate in hydro. I never could keep it stable.
It can be a challenge. I have two ph dosers on the same reservoir. One for up, one for down. I took a long time to get there.
@matommy, So my system(s) have also always had low EC but mine is comparable to Monkeydo's coco run. My highest EC has been 1.45 at peak of flower. I've had burnt tips from over feeding and taco leaves everywhere. But I would still be able to bring in a decent harvest. Some grows were best at 1.2. But then my grow buddies are all at 2.0 and above and in the same system with the same brand of nutrients. This is also true with a Bubble bucket or an RDWC system.
So here the questions,
What size bucket?
How many gal/L in your system?
Water level under net pot?
Air pump size and number of stones per bucket?
Water source? Tap/RO/ Sky water, back ground EC?
Nutrients are GH Trio? What amounts of each per gal/L?
@woodi2 Thank you for asking. We also talked about this here.
What size bucket? - 4 x 13 gal
How many gal/L in your system? i put in about 45 gal when i swap the water.
Water level under net pot? Water covers about 25% of the netpots - maybe too high? The stones are soaked and Ph'd to 5.8
Air pump size and number of stones per bucket? 1 big stone per, 15L/min pump spread across 4 buckets, dialed all the way up
Water source? Tap/RO/ Sky water, back ground EC? Tap, BG EC is 230 or so.
Nutrients are GH Trio? What amounts of each per gal/L? GH Trio. I have not been measuring per gallon recently. Today I swapped the water and used 30ml ea (micro, grow, bloom) + 90ml Hydroguard. I need to watch Ph as it stabilizes or starts to rise (add more nutes if it is consistently rising fast) or falls (lower EC).
The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.
- Bertrand Russell
@matommy, I remember now, too many grows and growers around here. lol Ok, so as far as the water level, they say the water level is suppose to be 3/4"-1" below the net. But I don't do that anymore because I want as much water as I can so my water touches the net at first and then drops as she drinks. I have had it slightly up onto the net and haven't had a problem, so I don't know why everywhere I read they all say to keep this air gap. Works fine for me and now obviously for you too. Congrats.
Now, "They" also say that 1l of air for each 4L of water/solution. Now I've always went big and now I have a big collection of air pumps to prove it. I kept increasing the size of my air pump thinking it was helping, and it was at first. But then, too much air starts to hurt. been there. So maybe insufficient O2 levels might have something to do with your low EC, idk, but I'm at 1.5L per min and she's loving it. When I ran oversize air pumps it would increase to CO2 in the water and the PH would drop considerably.
I have not been measuring per gallon recently.
Well, I haven't tried this method yet but let me know how this works out. Read them (plants) and see what they do.. Good luck man.
@woodi2 Thanks for all of that. I am curious about the air pump thing. So you're saying you use 1.5L/min/4L of air? So, in my case that would be about 75L/min when I am currently using 15L/min? That would be a big difference! Meanwhile, I will update in my diary for this run that the best EC to keep Ph relatively stable is, wait for it, .420. I will put some pics of the girls in that diary, and to me they look healthy and happy.
I have no idea why this is! I have double-checked my readings by using another EC meter.
The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.
- Bertrand Russell
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