Is this total normal

[Pot of soil]

I'm haveing a go at growing in coco but it's going to be a bit of a learning curve no doubt. 

 

Basically one of the coco pots had dried out at a faster rate then the others and needed a drink, so I knocked up a liter of just growers ark root tonic as I had already made a bit of a mistake with the trace elements and added about 40 percent more then I should have.

 

I spoke to GA who said as a one of it should be fine but that I may want to makes its next drink just root tonic.

 

I gave it 4ml per litre of root tonic and Ph downed it to 6.4 from 7.4.

 

I thought I'd leave it in the jug and use it the next day as by then the others would have been dry enough to water again.

 

Curiosity got the better of me and I just thought I'd see what the ph or the solution I had knocked the day before and set to 6.4.

 

I was surprised to see the pen reading 7.4 again so I'm guessing it's not advisable to do that and betrer to knock up fresh everytime.

 

What do you guys do if you have a pot of coco drying out but all the others are still fine. 

 

You probabaly only need 200 to 300ml of solution to water the dry one but if you knock up a liter your wasting more of it then you are using.

 

In compost I could just give them a little splash of water if needed to tie me over to the next day where I could make up a bio biz feed to feed them all

 

Could I do the same in coco, but obviously I would need to ph down to 6.4 ish 

 

Any advice would be much appreciated 

 

Thank you 

Edited November 10, 2023 by Pot of soil

[mikeydoughnut]

If something is drying out fast you need to water it more often basically. Personally to fix a bit of dryback I’ll go in with a weaker solution until I get the numbers I want coming out in the run off. 
 

Coco needs feeding every time bud. I’m not sure just putting water through it is a very good idea. Especially if they’re small. You don’t want to drown them to correct your EC. At least a solution of for example 1.0 will set your coco to 1.0 at the lowest. If you just dash water through you might be left with a lower EC than you wanted meaning watering food back in. 
 

How big are the plants and the pots? Do they need potting on if they’re supping up so quickly?

 

Id pH down to about 6.0 too. You’ll find with full strength (3/4ml) growers ark your ph will be in range without the need to fiddle about … 

 

Take my words with a pinch of salt though (no pun intended). I get there in the end but far better qualified folk on here to put yer reyt.

[Slippy One]

You need to remember that coco when fully saturated is the perfect amount of water/air. You should water/feed every day regardless of whether the coco is dry, to about 20% runoff. 

 

[Pot of soil]

@mikeydoughnut

 

Cheers for reply

 

They are only very small at the moment,  literally a 2 week old rooted clone, that's been living in a 4inch pot for a week.

 

I got my first feed wrong  as I misunderstood the trace elements bit.  Plus it was probably a bit to strong

 

I added

 

3ml grow part a/3ml grow part  b/4ml extra traces/5ml root tonic

 

Today 

 

I did

2ml grow part a/2ml grow part b/ 3ml extra traces/ 5ml root tonic

 

The ec pen was flashing between 1.2 and 1.4 so it must have been saying it was 1.3 

 

And I PhD down to 6.2.  

 

The intial ph reading of the water comeing out off the 100l storage water butt I use was freaking me out a little bit at 8.4, but once I had added the 2ml of A and B it went down to 7.4

 

It was just a few drops of ph down to get it to 6.2 ,but im just aware of everyone warning about the funny taste it can leave if you use to much.

 

At 8.4 though it looks like I'll be using it often.

 

 

 

@slippyone cheers for the reply as well, I did water the ones that needed it today untill a good run off and thanks for reinforcing the need to keep it well watered 

  

 

Edited November 10, 2023 by Pot of soil

[Lux_Interior]

8.4p/h in your reservoir is too high ideally for growing weed. My tap water is about 7.0p/h. A dose of 0.5 ml in 10l of water of a phosphoric acid based p/h down solution brings it down to 6.0p/h... ish.

[Pot of soil]

Thanks for the reply @lux_interior 

 

 

 

Yeah so I tend to fill the 100liter water butt everytime it runs out with just plain old water and then just take any water needed from there.  I've got a water heater in there that kicks at a certain time and there is also a pump that comes on and off to keep it all moving.  It's not on constant so jot sure if that makes any of you wince 

 

I think I need to re calibrate my ph pen even though it's new as I did have my water tested and that came back as 7.4

 

But for some reason the water in the water butt which may have been in there a couple of weeks comes out at 8.4

 

I'm going to fill a glass of tap water up and see what that come out at 

 

Just out of curiosity 

[Lux_Interior]

On 11/11/2023 at 10:14 AM, Pot of soil said:

Thanks for the reply @lux_interior 

 

Yeah so I tend to fill the 100liter water butt everytime it runs out with just plain old water and then just take any water needed from there. ...

 

The amount of p/h adjustment is based on the p/h of the water you are using. Tap water in the UK can be -/+1p/h easily.

 

 

[RUFUS HOUND]

my tap water is hitting 9 some days.

 

Its high but I need to check my pH is working correctly as I tested lime juice and vinegar but both came back 0.8 higher than expected.

 

not sure if the cold weather effects the chlorine levels / ph of tap water????

 

 

Edited December 5, 2023 by RUFUS HOUND

[Herbal Kint]

Not sure about weather but I changed anode in my water heater last time and water EC dropped from 0.9 to 0.7, I can't say exactly for ph as I figured my pen is all over and needs calibration.