They didn't look like this yesterday!

Starting with the necessities from the "Read this first!" thread;

Growing in a tent in the basement.
I feed at least once a day. Current feed is 800-900 ppm.
In coco.
Day 15 of Flower.

For a very detailed description of the grow; https://www.rollitup.org/t/my-first-grow-my-first-post-hi-everyone-critique.929200/#post-13204922

As the title says, these looked much healthier yesterday. Temperature in the tent is mid seventies. Humidity was extremely low last night, around 30% this morning, I left a window open by accident and we're getting some extremely cold and dry weather. Good thing the basement stays pretty hot.

I was planning on flushing today, but because yesterday was so damn hectic I forgot to fill buckets. I let the water sit at least over night before using it since it's filtered tap water - I don't know how if the filter gets all the chlorine/chloromine out - figure let anything left over burn off first. And because I left a window open the little water I do have is freezing cold. Luckily the feed I had left from yesterday wasn't near the window so I did feed this morning.

I've seen some people's feed schedules drop N completely for the duration of flower. Seeing Micro and CaliMagic both have N I'm wondering if they're getting too much. (Modified Lucas formula, see link for nute sched)

But this is my first grow, so I may be way off base. Any ideas? I will be flushing tomorrow, then trying to bend some of the branches away from the light with the trellis netting. One is over 4 ft tall already!

Thanks for reading, I appreciate any help.

Do you know your runoff ppm? Looks like my plants did when I had a high runoff ppm. I am using the modified Lucas as well, but only running 1ec or 500ppm on the .5 scale. My girls are light feeders.

Im not sure about coco because Im in soil but I had to comment on YOUR comment. Do not flush in any medium until you find out what is really wrong, that will only keep you " chasing" your deficiency. Removing N entirely during flower is not what you want to do, lots of people do this lots of people also could be growing better cannabis!!! This seems to be a popular trend with the "flushing" crowd as well. Do not stave your plants in flower.

jay5coat said:

Do you know your runoff ppm? Looks like my plants did when I had a high runoff ppm. I am using the modified Lucas as well, but only running 1ec or 500ppm on the .5 scale. My girls are light feeders.

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I clean up runoff with a bucket head vacuum. The water in the bucket I just checked it is at just over 900 ppm. ( I also use this to water my christmas tree...)

I just realized something....

Ph has never been out of the 5.7-6.1 range. Almost always 5.8/5.9...

I flushed them for the last time today. Then put up the netting to get the tall ladies away from the light. That was about 4 hours ago. I just realized I didn't adjust or even check the ph of the water I flushed with. I can't believe I did that. I just added the SLF-100 25mL to about 5 gallons X 3 and then just went ahead and flushed... I didn't even medicate today. wtf... better get back home and get to feeding asap I guess!

Can someone please tell the purpose of (or provide a link) testing runoff?

I've been searching and searching and only find debates as to the usefulness but no answers as to what the point of it is. Like, ok the ppm or ph is this number that means this and you should do that so this happens...

My nute mix is 900 ppm at 5.9. Runoff is 540 ppm at 6.6.

What is that supposed to tell me exactly? Is there an issue? How is remedied? Is there a thread on this that actually answers the question already? If so please link it.

You want you run off "to be" the same as you want your media to be...
if your watering with 5. 9 and reading 6.6 on run off... then currently the ph of your media PH is higher, around 6.6

Looks like you have nitrogen toxicity

rsx2009 said:

Looks like you have nitrogen toxicity

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NOPE!

@CraxCorn

What do you pH in-going to?

pHing the run off ONLY tells you the run off pH!

You should be using a Ca/Mg product with coco! It needs more!

You do NOT stop N use in bloom....You increase P&K at a prudent rate.....and at the proper time.

I wonder if you let it dry out enough? It should be rising in pH in the pot....yet if you only check run off at watering......it maybe doing so......

CraxCorn said:

Can someone please tell the purpose of (or provide a link) testing runoff?

I've been searching and searching and only find debates as to the usefulness but no answers as to what the point of it is. Like, ok the ppm or ph is this number that means this and you should do that so this happens...

My nute mix is 900 ppm at 5.9. Runoff is 540 ppm at 6.6.

What is that supposed to tell me exactly? Is there an issue? How is remedied? Is there a thread on this that actually answers the question already? If so please link it.

Click to expand...

Well you test the ppms in the runoff to see if you have salt build up in the root zone. If it comes out hogher than what youre putting in, then you have salt build up in the growing media. I like to just run water through and test that. If its up over 1000 youre in trouble. If its at 500 you should be ok. Some guys have their plants sitting right on the plant saucers and the water that runs out is reabsorbed right back into the plant so it builds up in the root zone. I always put pices of 2x4 under mine before i went to dtw. That way the salts dried to the saucer and didnt get reabsorbed.

thccbdhealth said:

You want you run off "to be" the same as you want your media to be...
if your watering with 5. 9 and reading 6.6 on run off... then currently the ph of your media PH is higher, around 6.6

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Annnd that tells me what?

And why is " "to be" " in quotes?

Dr. Who said:

NOPE!

@CraxCorn

What do you pH in-going to?

pHing the run off ONLY tells you the run off pH!

You should be using a Ca/Mg product with coco! It needs more!

You do NOT stop N use in bloom....You increase P&K at a prudent rate.....and at the proper time.

I wonder if you let it dry out enough? It should be rising in pH in the pot....yet if you only check run off at watering......it maybe doing so......

Click to expand...

ph going in is almost always 5.8-6.0. In about a 3 gallon mix I've got 1/2 tsp of epsom salt and 8 mL of CaliMagic.

I feed/water at least once a day. I was letting it dry out and getting very slow growth, as soon as I changed that schedule, growth exploded. I've read everything about feeding coco from once a week to 5 times a day. So I tried everything. Turns out it really likes being wet constantly.

Alienwidow said:

Well you test the ppms in the runoff to see if you have salt build up in the root zone. If it comes out hogher than what youre putting in, then you have salt build up in the growing media. I like to just run water through and test that. If its up over 1000 youre in trouble. If its at 500 you should be ok. Some guys have their plants sitting right on the plant saucers and the water that runs out is reabsorbed right back into the plant so it builds up in the root zone. I always put pices of 2x4 under mine before i went to dtw. That way the salts dried to the saucer and didnt get reabsorbed.

Click to expand...

\

Alright that makes sense. I vacuum out the runoff in the saucers almost immediately after it comes out. I've been doing so mainly to prevent root rot, didn't even think of the salts in it. So the higher the runoff ppm, the more straight water should be used. Or the closer it is to what's going in, the more a flush is needed.

So the other part; what is the ph of runoff telling me? I put in feed at 5.8, it comes out at 6.6. So what? Good? Bad? Irrelevant?

What if it came out at 7.6 or even higher? Is that a bad thing? Why is it so high? How is it remedied?

Some say it's pointless.....everyone else can't say what the point is?

I'll just keep bumping my own thread until someone can answer the question. Or does no one really know why they're checking the runoff? They just think they're supposed to but don't know what to do with the results? Just a bunch of parrots?

Squaaaaak !!!!! Its pointless or you would be able to google it and find your definitive answere. Not from pot forums either.

Look at it like this my man. How are you going to adjust the ph of the "soil"? you arent. You can p.h your tap water wich is a good idea you can even add ph adjusters to your nutrient solution before you water if you really want to but once you add that to your plant thats all she wrote partner. Other than determining what the run off levels are " for no reason "because you cant change that now can you. ? This is where this bullshit theory ends..... There is no other chapter...

so if your watering with 6.3 @ 1330 ppm
and your run off is 5.8
with no nutrient burn showing on leaves

would you then continue watering with the 6.3 to bring the run off, up from 5.8 - until the run off PH was the same as your Watering PH
I'm new so please correct any misunderstandings'

Leaves have been thinning and tips burning. I lowered the ppm ... then when mixing feed yesterday I noticed the OminA amino acids by NPK RAW has a ton of nitrogen in it... 14-0-0 .... oops ... week 5 of flower with a shit load of N. Guess I'll just stop using that. Flushed with SLF 100 and started feeding again without the OminA and added a bit of molasses.

Any recommendations on a better amino acid product?

Is this not a very active forum? My questions don't seem to be responded to unless I keep bumping the thread

Dont use any fertilizer, ph your water to 6.3 and check the ppm.

Then water with it, and check ppm again in the run off

If the run off has higher ppm then what you just watered with, you have salt build up and need to continue to flush Ph"d water threw and bring that down untill they match up....

CraxCorn said:

Is this not a very active forum? My questions don't seem to be responded to unless I keep bumping the thread

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I don't know for sure why no one answering, but here's a possibility read posts #3 and #5.