Heat Stress + Slow Water Absorption + Discolored / Blotches on Leafs

TacoMac said:

I've been using RO water from my 5 stage RO/Di unit for years. Never, ever, even after 5 days of storage has my PH ever been below 6.5.

You have an issue somewhere. I would start with whatever method you're testing your PH with. Get some new test strips or borrow a buddy's tester or whatever it takes, but get a second test method involved in this, because there's simply no way on this earth any RO water is below 6. If that's the case, it's not worth even using.

Click to expand...

I will do this double-check today. Any particular method you'd recommend? What's most accurate without dropping $200 on a Hanna/BlueLab meter?

BTW - the thing is, I used a calibrating solution on the meter just last week, so I would be surprised if the meter was off..

By the (bad) pics, I'd say cal/ mag Def,
Pro mix & RO water call for supplemental cal, imho

Ingvar said:

I will do this double-check today. Any particular method you'd recommend? What's most accurate without dropping $200 on a Hanna/BlueLab meter?

BTW - the thing is, I used a calibrating solution on the meter just last week, so I would be surprised if the meter was off..

Click to expand...

I'm old school, bud. I use PH strips. They are never, ever wrong...unless they get really old.

TacoMac said:

I'm old school, bud. I use PH strips. They are never, ever wrong...unless they get really old.

Click to expand...

This is exactly what I did today. Went out and bought old school pH test strips because I figured / hoped they would be most accurate. I do find it a little difficult to identify the color-based values especially when they're in the middle lol.

But the big finding was that the strips report my mix as far more acidic than the $250 Hanna Instruments meter did. The meter showed 7.2 whereas the strips reported the water around 6.5 pH.

So I do think that my medium and/or watering mix have been too acidic. I've got a set of plants in veg that are suffering as most likely the result of this, and I just demolished half of the cuttings that were taken a month ago due to the same issue.

Any advice on how to resurrect and get back the plants to healthy would be VERY appreciated. For now I'm watering with ProTekt + CalMag + Foliage Pro + Liquid Karma mix that is at 6.5pH (tested with strips lol)

P.S.

I also think one of the problems was that I was measuring pH of the water while having the aeration pump going.. I read somewhere that the bubbling actually totally messes up the pH readings. Live and learn.

6.5 is perfect. That's exactly where you want it. Remember: The LOWER the number is, the more acidic it is. The HIGHER the number is, the more basic it is. 7 is dead neutral.

You're in perfect shape. Don't get over involved in a bunch of additives you don't need. Sometimes, less is more.

TacoMac said:

6.5 is perfect. That's exactly where you want it. Remember: The LOWER the number is, the more acidic it is. The HIGHER the number is, the more basic it is. 7 is dead neutral.

You're in perfect shape. Don't get over involved in a bunch of additives you don't need. Sometimes, less is more.

Click to expand...

Yep! The younger dames are looking better over the last couple of days since some aggressive efforts to get the pH up. The new little leaves are healthy looking, while the old ones got chopped off today. Tomorrow I'm watering the older veg plants, then they get topped and pruned.

Do you recommend anything for making them feel better after the topping + pruning? (adding something to the feed mix?)

Ingvar said:

Yep! The younger dames are looking better over the last couple of days since some aggressive efforts to get the pH up. The new little leaves are healthy looking, while the old ones got chopped off today. Tomorrow I'm watering the older veg plants, then they get topped and pruned.(adding something to the feed mix?)

Click to expand...

Great news! That's good to hear.

Ingvar said:

Do you recommend anything for making them feel better after the topping + pruning? (adding something to the feed mix?)

Click to expand...

No. Don't do a thing. Just water until they recover. Some plants get more stressed than others. One of mine in fact just kept right on going like nothing ever happened while the other stopped dead in its tracks for 4 days. Don't do anything that could risk extra stress. (Overdoing it on an additive could add more stress, etc.) Just top it, water it only until you see it coming round and getting back on with it.