I wanted to update everyone on the feed / tap water situation.
I am so far extremely pleased with the results I am getting with the tap water / adjusted feed.
Old 30 gallon RO feed:
Armor Si = 60
Calimagic = 150
Micro = 200
Grow = 200
Bloom = 250
New 30 gallon tap H2O feed:
Epsom 30 grams
M = 200
G = 200
B = 250
Si used only as a pH up as required.
I learned that adding any Si first, as is normally done with RO H2O, will cause a precipitation when adding the Grow. I am assuming this is due to the higher pH of the tap water. I found that adding the Si last solved this issue.
Mixing the nutrients with the tap H2O, sans any Si, puts me at a pH of 7.0 - 7.03. This actually worked out good since the soil pH was low, trying to crash into the 4's. Monitoring the soil pH with my Apera and Bluelab soil meters I adjusted them hard early with feeds in the 8's, and got that out of the way, then a lot of feeds in the 7.0 - 7.5 range followed to keep things between 6.5 and 6.8 at the root zone. I found that adding 2 mL per gallon of the Si would bring the pH up from 7 to around 7.5, if I wanted the pH higher than 3 ml per gallon of the Si would get me I used a little pH up (Advanced).
At first each plant was at it's own pH level. I would treat each individually after those first hard 8.0+ pH adjustment feeds. Slowly but surely they all equalized and now they get the same feed pH. Took about 10 days to get this done. I was fighting the pH crash some in the veg room too and had it pretty well lined out but when I brought them into the flowering rooms the pH started crashing again, fast. Same feed and still in a veg lighting cycle. They do start drinking more as the light intensity is brought up along with CO2 levels and temperature.
Worked like a charm, plants are beautiful in room B at day 21, no signs of deficiency, not a single burnt tip, and now I am feeding at 6.6 - 6.7 and the root zone is holding at 6.5 - 6.7. If I see it start to creep below 6.5 I hit them with a feed at 7.0 and things stay in the Goldilocks zone. Thanks to the soil pH meters I am able to keep things happy, no mystery plants that look deficient. Doing the same procedure in room A that is a few weeks behind room B, hopefully with the same results.
Definitely looking at other mediums that will have a more agreeable pH. Wasn't happy with the Pro Mix HP when I tried it (bag of bugs), wasn't happy with the Sunshine 4 (high pH) and the Berger BM6 is running low on me now.
@DoubleAtotheRON is helping by testing some different mixes on his summer run, thanks buddy! I am also waiting to hear back from Berger on possibly trying their BM7 mix, I asked them what they suggest and am waiting to hear back from their more knowledgeable staff.
When I flipped them I added a little more epsom to the mix, so it's now at 1.5 grams per gallon.
At day 20 I started using some of the spare PPM overhead (I like to be around 1200 during peak flower) by adding a little more bloom to the mix. It's now at 280 ml for a 30 gallon mix, the PPM comes to 1092. I will probably take the bloom on up to 300 for peak flower as I still have room. That would put the mix at:
Epsom 45 grams
M = 200
G = 200
B = 300
Plants are drinking about every 14 hours in room B, bastards like their water. I really don't want to up size the pots because I hate hauling that much soil up and down the stairs. I do think that a switch back to hydro is in the future. Still stewing on the large site ebb and grow type system.
Probably could have given room B a few more days in veg, bu
One thing that I really don't like about the mimosa strain, it just doesn't like to spread out. It's a very "straight up" grower, crowds itself badly without a lot of work training it. Even then, the woody stems really resist training efforts. Probably gonna bust out some clones for the OCD x M15 for at least one room next round, gonna have to cut those real soon.
Well I have babbled on long enough lol.
Here are some room B images using my method seven glasses to color correct.
View attachment 4559621View attachment 4559623View attachment 4559624
