COCO pH runoff question

I

infdjedi

Well-Known Member
sup folks,

Using coco.. automatic watering system 3 times a day. RO water. My target pH has been around 6.0 entire grow. Nutrient PPMs been between 400 - 500 for several weeks. I am in 5th week flower.

Throughout my entire grow my runoff pH has been much lower than my incoming pH. It is anywhere between 5.5 - 5.7. One of my plants was actually 5.3 at one point but hasnt gotten lower than that. I have, at times, fed them with 6.5 pH and flushed (with 400 ppm nutrients) in order to get that runoff pH up. That seems to work, but its never the same as incoming.

What is stumping me is my runoff PPMS are always about 30-50 PPMS lower than incoming. If I am feeding 500 PPM I am getting like around 450 in runoff. It has NEVER been the same, or higher than my incoming PPMS.

Everything I have read says lowering pH in coco is a sign of overfeeding. However, I am seeing no major signs of this.. other than just the very tip of all my leaves are burned.. but that has always been the case since I switched to GH MAXIBLOOM/GROW. By tip I mean like 1/2 millimeter so slight. I have posted about that and most people said it wasnt a huge deal because the rest of the plant was doing fine.

I am pleased with the results.. bud growth is actually getting denser (third time running same strain from clones) than any of my previous grows. All I did this run was lower PPMs substantially than what I was doing in previous runs (was in the 800s on 500 scale).

Just curious for any thoughts folks may have...
 
curious2garden

curious2garden

Well-Known Mod
Staff member
infdjedi said:
sup folks,

Using coco.. automatic watering system 3 times a day. RO water. My target pH has been around 6.0 entire grow. Nutrient PPMs been between 400 - 500 for several weeks. I am in 5th week flower.

Throughout my entire grow my runoff pH has been much lower than my incoming pH. It is anywhere between 5.5 - 5.7. One of my plants was actually 5.3 at one point but hasnt gotten lower than that. I have, at times, fed them with 6.5 pH and flushed (with 400 ppm nutrients) in order to get that runoff pH up. That seems to work, but its never the same as incoming.

What is stumping me is my runoff PPMS are always about 30-50 PPMS lower than incoming. If I am feeding 500 PPM I am getting like around 450 in runoff. It has NEVER been the same, or higher than my incoming PPMS.

Everything I have read says lowering pH in coco is a sign of overfeeding. However, I am seeing no major signs of this.. other than just the very tip of all my leaves are burned.. but that has always been the case since I switched to GH MAXIBLOOM/GROW. By tip I mean like 1/2 millimeter so slight. I have posted about that and most people said it wasnt a huge deal because the rest of the plant was doing fine.

I am pleased with the results.. bud growth is actually getting denser (third time running same strain from clones) than any of my previous grows. All I did this run was lower PPMs substantially than what I was doing in previous runs (was in the 800s on 500 scale).

Just curious for any thoughts folks may have...
Click to expand...
TL;DR If they look healthy stop measuring run off and best of luck on your grow.

I've grown in coco since about 2014 and used GH flora series trio since 1996. I have measured my run off maybe three times and twice were because of people discussing that here and I was curious. I've found no correlation between my healthy plants and the run off water measurements although any correlation would have been mere speculation. I set my pH to 5.8 and I usually swing to 6.3 over the life of the res. That slight swing allows for abundant access to nutrients.
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medidedicated

medidedicated

Well-Known Member
Just checked ec runoff out of curiosity, 1.2 going in, 2.0 going out.

Not changing anything though. When feeding to low runoff it was .5, when feeding thoroughly, I guess it is 2.0 lol.

That is good, it is flushing out salts in flower from pot getting real dry is my guess. I monitor ph before feeding every time, I use tap with ec of .5.

I do not exeed 1.4ec total.

Edit: 2nd out of 3rd feed of the day now it is 1.75EC. Later will probably be 1.5 EC which is “normal.” This is why I feed thoroughly/large runoff and not check runoff, I knew it would read this.

Last edit: Confirmed, runoff on last feed today was 1.57 EC but cannot feed it overnight, no auto system.
 
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xtsho

xtsho

Well-Known Member
Growing in coco for at least 15 years. Long before it got popular. I've never once checked runoff and never will. Same thing with soil. Chasing number based off of runoff is a poor method of determining anything. What matters is what goes in. If you take care of that then nothing else needs to be done.

I have better uses of my time than performing tasks like measuring runoff. When I have both the 4x4 and 2x4 tent going I spend less than an hour a week on my plants. I'm always looking for things I'm doing that I don't need to but I think I've ran out of tasks to eliminate. Blumats and light on a timer. Sometimes I go days without even looking at the plants. They grow on their own so I let them.
 
curious2garden

curious2garden

Well-Known Mod
Staff member
xtsho said:
Growing in coco for at least 15 years. Long before it got popular. I've never once checked runoff and never will. Same thing with soil. Chasing number based off of runoff is a poor method of determining anything. What matters is what goes in. If you take care of that then nothing else needs to be done.

I have better uses of my time than performing tasks like measuring runoff. When I have both the 4x4 and 2x4 tent going I spend less than an hour a week on my plants. I'm always looking for things I'm doing that I don't need to but I think I've ran out of tasks to eliminate. Blumats and light on a timer. Sometimes I go days without even looking at the plants. They grow on their own so I let them.
Click to expand...
I keep looking at Blumats. But based on my room I'd need a pump and they are pricey little things.
 
B

boostedhonda

Well-Known Member
Control the ph going in, don’t worry about runoff ph. I have runoff in the upper 3000s in my third week of flower feeding 1.8ec but I’m crop steering.
 
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