Late Flower in DWC, Lockout PH below 5.2, how to fix?

Definitely man, I will definitely pay it forward. I have some Jack berry going right now, which will be my second hydro grow. I'll get some pictures up right before I harvest the AK48. I'm using GH Flora, Lucas formula for the Jack Berry which is alot easier to deal with than the fox farm trio for me. I'm still going to use the solubles for Flower though. So hopefully everything will go smoother from here on out.

been through 2 grows since this one...and the same fucking problem seems to keep coming back to haunt me.

Always in late flower, and always a PH drop. This time Using Lucas formula.

Currently running around 520 ppm
after flushing

Lucas 4/8, FF solubles cha ching 1/8 tsp, 10ml aquashield per gallon

PH drops from 6.0 to 5.3 within hours after flusing

Mongobud said:

been through 2 grows since this one...and the same fucking problem seems to keep coming back to haunt me.

Always in late flower, and always a PH drop. This time Using Lucas formula.

Currently running around 520 ppm
after flushing

Lucas 4/8, FF solubles cha ching 1/8 tsp, 10ml aquashield per gallon

PH drops from 6.0 to 5.3 within hours after flusing

Click to expand...

Grow in soil or stop using organic fertilizers in hydro. It's just nasty all together.

This kept happening to me early on, what I did was... just not adjust my ph after I mixed my solution. My nutes would be 850ppm/6.5 and gradually over the week they would drop down in ph to about 5.6 which at that point I would change my solution all together and start over. Been working fine like that for me for the past month.

Aqua SHield will clear your problem the only thing is you have to use it throughiut your grow

Mongobud said:

I'm in very late flower with my AK48, and It's a 4 site DWC/Bubbleponic system. I'm using Fox Farm Big Bloom, Tiger Bloom, Cha Ching. Running RO.

I'm trying to get the buds to finish (Ripen), and I'm trying to get my PH from dropping below 5.5, but it keeps dropping below 5.2 even below 5.0

I've already flushed with Cearex and RO for 48 hours, got it back up 5.58/70 ppm, then re-nuted at half strength....but then it fell again!

What should I do to keep my PH in range, and allow my girls to finish? Here is what I have to work with..Maybe I can get some suggestions.

Nutrients/additives:
Fox Farm- Grow Big (Hydro), Tiger Bloom, Big Bloom, Open Sesame, Beastie Bloom, Cha Ching

Botanicare- Cal-Mag, Sweet Berry,

Ceanser/Preventative- H202 12%, Clearex, Hygrozyme

I also have GH Flora series, but I've been using FF throughout this grow.

Click to expand...

Yea, I have been having the same issues lately.

The plants I have grown in soil using FF is looking very good, but too green..
But, the bud growth is incredible!

The hydro plants next to them have had bouncy ph...same as yours

It didnt start off like this, but now since its finishing, Iam encountering problems.

Iam about 2 weeks from harvest, and have swapped to GH lucas formula from here on out.

Not messing with organics ever again.

Its sad, yet true.


GH Lucas.. just micro and bloom, and that is all.

Good luck my friend

laserbrn said:

Grow in soil or stop using organic fertilizers in hydro. It's just nasty all together.

Click to expand...

Got that right Laser..

Never will i grow organics in a bubbler.

Soil maybe.. not hydro.

The original post was from my last grow with FF liquids in DWC...I was basically venting about a new grow in an old thread....didn't think it was worthy of a new one.

Negative on the organic hydro fellas...I'm using GH Lucas as well in my 5 gal buublers, but I also supplement with FF solubles (non organic) bloom boosters. Open Sesame and so on...

I got the problem fixed. I gave some 12% h2o2 and Hygrozyme. I used 5ml of h202, and 10ml of Hygrozyme in 3gal of RO water...not per gallon, that formula in 3 gallon. I didn't want to overdue it.

I let her sit in that soultion overnight. When I checked during next lights on the next day PH was stable @ 6.04 and the PPM hadn't risen...cool. I then Re-nuted @ 1/2 strength, minus the bloom boosters ( I always just use base nutes after a flush.)

The PPM are dropping bigtime now and the PH only drops a bit if any...she's eating like a mofo. Problem solved so far.

I'll post some pics of her later...there is some in the DWC showoff thread though. Big ass Jack berry that I scrogged for 8 or 9 weeks before flower....so I hate any prodution halt at all on this plant.

....but I am doing some LA confidential clones in Roots organic with FF liquids. ...mmmhmm, yep, sure fuckin am!

Mongobud said:

....but I am doing some LA confidential clones in Roots organic with FF liquids. ...mmmhmm, yep, sure fuckin am!

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I missed a beat on this one, didn't realize you said Lucas on this one. Yeah, hygrozym and H2o2 my friend. You can't use those in organics (that's how we got down this road last time), but they are definitely a necessity. I actually don't use H2o2, just the hygrozyme and I haven't had any problems.

I've switched to growing in soil for a little bit too. I'm running some LA Conf x OG Kush in FFOF using the FF liquids. Those, Sour D and my Fucking Incredible that's about 4 weeks into flower are all in soil.

I just decided to give it a try and I think the only way to give it a real fair shake is to grow a few strains and a few grows. Spend basically this year working on soil grows, I've done enough with Hydro and I'll see if maybe soil surprises me.

Glad you got your problems figured out and you're on track. How did these original plants end up?

The last Jack Berry harvest was a little premature and airy. Since then I started running a 400w solarmax with a 250w Hortilux and a couple sun blaze strips for side lighting ..698 watts in total....let's just say I won't be running this strain again, just not a great producer at all. My AK48 produced more with just a 250.
Replacing the Jack Berry with DNA Lemon Skunk to run along side the LA Conf.

The PH dropped again though...It's just so hard to work with this huge fucking plant...the canopy takes up a 3'x'3' area and I've already broken a lower stalk while flushing.

I'd like to switch to an ebb and flow system or maybe an Ebb and Grow with a controller. I'd like to streamline a perpetual as best I can...I hate fucking with each bucket seperatly. I'd like one rez.

Does anyone think that root spin out could be the problem? Like I said it's a huge plant...the roots may have outgrown the bucket.

I've got the same problem for the first time but I am already using Aquashield and Hygrozyme but that didn't prevent it or fix it.

The OP:
-2000 watts over 2 ebb and flow trays running on one 40 gallon reservoir
-SCROG using Razzelberry, Grape Kush and Strawberry Cough (the ones going around Denver/Boulder area)
-Botanicare nutrients (PBP line with all the additives-except sweet-and a little CNS 17 to supply synthetics) Also gets hygrozyme at 3/4 strength and Aquashield at full strength. This res also got Advanced Nutrients Overdrive for the first time but the last res was doing this to so I dont think that has anything o do with it? I dont add H2O2 to the water but I spray the res and trays with a 10+% solution between water changes.
-I'm at week 6 of flower after a 2-4 week veg (depending on strain). Durring the last 6 weeks I have increased the nutrients from 1400 ppm (during transition) to 2000 ppm (during peak flowering at week 4-6). This res (1500 ppm) and the last have both had CRAZY ph drops. I used a half liter bottle of GH Ph down in three weeks!!!!

My Ph has always been VERY stable and I have never used Ph up until two weeks ago. The nutrients listed above usually yield a ph around 5 (when mixed at over 1400 ppm) I use a little silica to bring the Ph up a when I fill the res but thats it. This is the first time I have needed any Ph monitoring at all. NOW it drops from 5.6 or 5.8 down below 5.5 EVERY day and sometimes goes under 5.

Question?
1) If its a microb of some sort-and I believe it is-but cleaning my system will be near impossible (12 mature plants in a SCROG, 4 of which stretch WAY above the screen can not be moved or un-screened.) what are my chances of making it 3 more weeks? 2) what are the consequences of using so much ph up? 3)how do I prevent it next time? 4) should I run H2o2 across the root zones?

I can clean all the pumps and run h2o2 without nutrients but thats as close to clean as I can get. Any other suggestions?

i have my plants in 5 gallon buckets each whats should m ppm be at and how can iu get watter temps lower ?