Coco, run-off with low ph and high ppm

3 Mars OG (clones)
1 Diablo OG(From seed)
3 gallon hand water Coco.
Roughly 850ppm when I water, every other day.
General Hydroponics (FloraSeries)
pH 5.8
2 day aged tap water
1000watt HPS

Plants doing quite well. Really starting to bulk up in the past couple days.
(Sorry no recent pics)

Tested run off today. I basically just quickly get readings in the saucer before shop vac'in out.
pH like 5.2 - 5.5.
ppm seems to be roughly 1100 - 1400.

Would this be a normal situation, or reading for some Coco that needs to be flushed? Or what? Any views on this?

Thanks

PuffinPaul said:

3 Mars OG (clones)
1 Diablo OG(From seed)
3 gallon hand water Coco.
Roughly 850ppm when I water, every other day.
General Hydroponics (FloraSeries)
pH 5.8
2 day aged tap water
1000watt HPS

Plants doing quite well. Really starting to bulk up in the past couple days.
(Sorry no recent pics)

Tested run off today. I basically just quickly get readings in the saucer before shop vac'in out.
pH like 5.2 - 5.5.
ppm seems to be roughly 1100 - 1400.

Would this be a normal situation, or reading for some Coco that needs to be flushed? Or what? Any views on this?

Thanks

Click to expand...

I think you hit the nail on the head. Sounds like you've got built up salts in your coco. Your ph isnt dangerously low so your ok. It's inevitable your going to get some kind of build up in any medium. A good flush should bring those numbers closer to optimum.

Ok, thanks. Now how 'bout the ppm when I flush? I've heard not void notes, a light nute solution is best to push out the excess salts. Like what 200ppm or something?

Hmmm different strokes here, some do a light flush, some a plain flush and some do a full nute flush, you need to be adding some cal/ mag in my view but depends what nutes your using. Personally when I used to do coco I'd flush and then feed with full nutes as imo they'll need it, in theory the salts are washed and your back to normal.

I might just feed at lights on with around 600ppm to heavy runoff.
You want at least 1/2 gallon of runoff.....check ppm. Repeat a few times, checking along the way to make sure the ppm's are dropping. Then check ph.
One or two lower feedings might clear the problem up.
Watering more often, with more runoff could help prevent.

you say your testing the run off from the saucer, which i suspect will be encrusted with salt which would give you a false acidic reading, you should catch the run off in a clean saucer, then test
i never test my run off if the plants are doing ok whats the point,

I do check the pH of the run off - sample taken directly from what comes out of the drain holes. I have never checked the ppm and never had a problem. I feed to at least 20% run off every day.

tiltswitch said:

Hmmm different strokes here, some do a light flush, some a plain flush and some do a full nute flush, you need to be adding some cal/ mag in my view but depends what nutes your using. Personally when I used to do coco I'd flush and then feed with full nutes as imo they'll need it, in theory the salts are washed and your back to normal.

Click to expand...

Why would you tell him to add Cal/Mag to TAP WATER??? You haven't even seen the Plant!

Try bumping your pH up. 6.0-6.1 in CoCo really helps cut back on the deficiencies.
Try it for a couple of feeds and see how she responds.

I always found flushing with a weak solution (i.e. 200-300ppm, 1/4 strength basically) got the mediums pH & PPM back in a good place quicker then straight water. Then like Tint Eastwood said, just keep watering & checking the runoff until it's dropped back to a good point.

Sounds like you're doing things right & they just need a flush.

Jypsy Dog said:

Why would you tell him to add Cal/Mag to TAP WATER??? You haven't even seen the Plant!

Click to expand...

Because he's growing in an inert medium that's why. Usually you'd add cal mag every feed or at least once a week, he's not adding at all from his info. Like I said based on nutes. Tap water has not much to do with it as it's all different.

As far as cal mag goes I think you're both partly right; assuming plants are deficient & need cal mag is a common misdiagnosis. Cal mag is not a cure al that'll fix all problems. That being said coco specifically has issues with cal mag unless it's really high quality & has been flushed & buffered. Otherwise the high K & Na displace Cal & Mg, which is often why coco growers either use a coco nute or add cal mag. This explains it well;

https://www.maximumyield.com/buffering-up-adjusting-the-cation-exchange-capacity-in-coco-growing-media/2/1318

tiltswitch said:

Because he's growing in an inert medium that's why. Usually you'd add cal mag every feed or at least once a week, he's not adding at all from his info. Like I said based on nutes. Tap water has not much to do with it as it's all different.

Click to expand...

I add 1 cup of tap to my RO. Haven't needed Cal/Mag in 2 years. Cal/Mag is a supplement NOT part of a feeding program.

Somatek said:

As far as cal mag goes I think you're both partly right; assuming plants are deficient & need cal mag is a common misdiagnosis. Cal mag is not a cure al that'll fix all problems. That being said coco specifically has issues with cal mag unless it's really high quality & has been flushed & buffered. Otherwise the high K & Na displace Cal & Mg, which is often why coco growers either use a coco nute or add cal mag. This explains it well;

https://www.maximumyield.com/buffering-up-adjusting-the-cation-exchange-capacity-in-coco-growing-media/2/1318

Click to expand...

Guy's start throwing Cal/Mag around B4 they get the pH in a USABLE area.
Every Grower should be able to read there local water reports.

When to use Cal/Mag.
http://happypotfarmer.com/use-calmag-plus-marijuana-plants

It's comical how over prescribed it is now, on some sites it seems like every other answer to a question is cal/mag. My guess is that when coco became popular a lot of people were buying the cheap stuff which always created cal mag issues. Then it ballooned into being a standard reply parroted by people that didn't really understand what they were talking about. Now I've seen people arguing about how companies don't add it because their too cheap or are trying to jack their profits by selling more amendments. More likely is that their main nutrient was designed for average soilless mediums & the work around instead of manufacturing a coco specific line is a specific additive.

When this happens to me i flush with like 30litres of straight tap water (my tap water is like 90ppm & ph 7).
Then i make another 10L PH corrected feed with low ppm and flush that whole 10L through.
Always sorts this low ph high ppm issue out for me.

Somatek said:

It's comical how over prescribed it is now, on some sites it seems like every other answer to a question is cal/mag. My guess is that when coco became popular a lot of people were buying the cheap stuff which always created cal mag issues. Then it ballooned into being a standard reply parroted by people that didn't really understand what they were talking about. Now I've seen people arguing about how companies don't add it because their too cheap or are trying to jack their profits by selling more amendments. More likely is that their main nutrient was designed for average soilless mediums & the work around instead of manufacturing a coco specific line is a specific additive.

Click to expand...

It is funny to see so many people immediately telling someone to add CalMag to cure a problem. Most problems are not caused by actual deficiencies but by overfeeding and causing nutrients to be unavailable. I've been growing in coco for years and have never used CalMag. It's not needed if your base nutrients provide what the plant needs. Calcium nitrate is the nitrogen source in what I use and there is more than enough magnesium in the micronutrient part that adding CalMag would be pointless. I also never bother testing runoff I'm only concerned with what goes in and not what comes out. People make growing a weed way too complicated. It needs 16 elements to grow properly. As long as you give it those the next best thing you can do for it is to provide the best environment possible which means lighting, temperature, humidity, etc...

The fact is that all strains are different, all tap water is different , all nutes are different and certainly everyone's growing environment is different to some degree, to say you don't need cal mag(especially in coco) because of whatever reason YOU don't need to use it is ridiculous. What if his nutes don't have much calcium, what if he doesn't use a micro nute that's any good , or one at all. Over dosing on calcium is very difficult, better he uses it to be safe then not at all

tiltswitch said:

The fact is that all strains are different, all tap water is different , all nutes are different and certainly everyone's growing environment is different to some degree, to say you don't need cal mag(especially in coco) because of whatever reason YOU don't need to use it is ridiculous. What if his nutes don't have much calcium, what if he doesn't use a micro nute that's any good , or one at all. Over dosing on calcium is very difficult, better he uses it to be safe then not at all

Click to expand...

From the OP:
"Plants doing quite well. Really starting to bulk up in the past couple days."

Sounds like the grow is going well. Why add anything? I also don't see any need to be fixated on runoff ppm's and Ph if the grow is going well. Regardless, it doesn't matter what I say some people are going to make growing a weed much more complicated than it needs to be and are never going to be convinced that they don't need to add a bunch of unnecessary additives.