Click to view attachmentHi all
I've got 2 cheese cuttings growing(4-5 weeks back from deaths door) in clay pebbles (11l pots),ec is 0.8 and they are under a 600w grolux cooltube(20 inches away).RH a poor 35% and temps of 21/25 off/on. 6" extraction.
A couple of problems.....
No matter what I do,I just don't seem to be able to get that dark,leathery look to the leaves that most peeps seem to get. I've tried moving the light away for a couple of days,they just don't seem to green-up. Although not clear in the pics, the older shade leaves with the burnt edges are quite a bit darker than all of the new growth.
My ph is rising constantly which I don't think is food uptake related. I'm using a couple of large airstones to oxygenate the 50l of feed in my 70l wilma res. I keep reading about how the ph will rise when the water is bubbled(co2 displacement-de-blah) but when will it stop rising? I can adjust to 5.8 on a morning,and it be up to 6.1 by evening...i'm now a bit concerned as to the amount of phosphoric acid i'm using to adjust down daily.
My background ec is 0.5 with a ph of 7.5 mixed with home ro of e.c. 0.1 and ph 6.5....My MIXED water only background is ec 0.2/ph 6.7
I've had good results in the past with the pump on constantly,which is why I need the res airstoned 24 hrs a day.A sort of dwc/clay pebble cross.
I cant see how I can counter the ph rise from feeding AND from bubbling the res.
My mate has same cuttings,same age,same mother,even similar set up, but are feeding on 1.2 already! Mine, along with the lighter growth, and the fact the res is emptying with a steady ec of 0.8 (+ 0.2 background) are worrying me. Why aren't they feeding more? I've learnt to read my res,and to keep the ec steady,but this isn't producing lush dark green growth.
Any thoughts plz?