Desperately Need Help

This is my first hydro grow. I am using the Earth Juice line of nutrients. The leaves on my plant started to turn yellow. It was brought to my attention that my pH was way too high. I haven been trying to get it under control with lemon juice, but that doesn't seem to be working. I am desperate, but the plant is really not doing well and I'm not sure how much longer I can keep it alive. Does anyone know of anything natural/organic that works well? I can't order anything, because it will be dead by the time it arrives. I am looking for something like lemon juice, or I have also herd vinegar. Any help would be GREATLY appreciated. Thanks.

Are you bubbling your EJ for 24+ hours after mixing it before messing with the PH? And what is your PH?

Yea I bubble it for24 hours. The pH always starts off where it needs to be. If I don't stop it, the pH just keeps going up. One day it got up to 8.4. It usually starts around 6.8-7.2 and keeps going up until I do something. The lemon juice brings down the pH, but only for a day or so. Even with that, the plant continues to decline.

How much are you using and what? Looks seriously underfed.

You could try not bubbling it. My EJ before bubbling is super low, like 5 or less. Never needed a pH down with EJ, just the opposite.

Wet

Currentlly, per gallon, I am using EJ Grow (5mL), Catalyst (5mL), and Microblast (10mL). To adjust the pH I am using organic apple cider vinegar.

I'm not familiar with their feed chart as I only use a couple of their products, but that's a whole lot of microblast to give with each watering. Other than that, as per usual I agree with Wet, they look very underfed. I honestly don't think you could fix the problem fast enough to save anything worthwhile from those plants. Sucks, but that's how it goes. Live and learn.

Is there not a pH buffer available for hydroponics? An aquarium store should have one. A buffering agent will stabilize the pH in an aquarium environment, I have no idea if it would help in a hydroponic system. I'm a lost ball in tall weeds when it comes to hydroponics and bottled "nute systems". I did 2 grows (in soil) with chemical nutes and even THAT was too touchy and unpredictable for me.
Those girls really look hungry to me.

This happened to my plants awhile back when I was too incapacitated to do anything for myself let alone gardening. My garden was starved by the time I was able enter the grow room. INSTEAD OF HAVING THEM CULLED because they're not really salvageable unless you want to wait longer for a real tall indoor plant, I just cut the tops off into clones and start anew with a new medium and roots for each-what do you have to lose anyways? In the meantime just start over from seed.

its that a girl plant?

Start with your water. Are you using RO water? If not, what's the pH and TDS of the tapwater? i suspect that your tap water may be too alkaline and have too much buffering capactity to drop the pH without resorting to drastic measures.

Remember to get some Cal/Mag if you switch to RO water.

that sounds like it could be the case if the pH just goes back everytime

coolguysean280 said:

Yea I bubble it for24 hours. The pH always starts off where it needs to be. If I don't stop it, the pH just keeps going up. One day it got up to 8.4. It usually starts around 6.8-7.2 and keeps going up until I do something. The lemon juice brings down the pH, but only for a day or so. Even with that, the plant continues to decline.

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I also use the Earth Juice line and never ever ever have I had to use pH down. Even when 'bubbled' (aerated) for a couple days I don't recall it getting very high. At the moment I pretty much just use PSG, humus and blackstrap and\or catalyst aerated occasionally and the rest of the EJ line raw.

Your water indubitably has a some-what basic pH, this is very common in some areas of the country where limestone deposits are dissolved at the water table. Florida is apparently a very good example of this.

Do as Wetdog suggested and stop aerating. At least until you start requiring more per gallon.

Wolverine97 said:

I'm not familiar with their feed chart as I only use a couple of their products, but that's a whole lot of microblast to give with each watering. Other than that, as per usual I agree with Wet, they look very underfed. I honestly don't think you could fix the problem fast enough to save anything worthwhile from those plants. Sucks, but that's how it goes. Live and learn.

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Cosigned

That is way too much microblast and way too often. I would only apply it every 2 weeks to a month. I was hitting them a lot heavier, but that was just once/week and in soil and that's a different animal than hydro.

Wet

sounds like your wanting to stay with organics but u need to do something NOW as she will be beyond recovery in a day or two. Luckily i grow hydro peppers with very hard water and have run into this exact problem before. Your plant definately has a nitrogen deficiency weather that be from lack of food or PH nutrient lockout. Organics get broken and absorbed slower than manmade chemical fertilizers so you need to ditch the organics and switch to a chemical fertilizer for a few days. Once she has recovered you can switch back to organics.

I'll Probably be crucified for saying this but id rather you have your plants live than have nothing and say 100% organic. Empty out your resivoir and refill with fresh water then feed with some cheap manmade fertilizer at less than full dosage "yes miracle grow will work". Then ph adjust with viniger. This will take care of all the primary nutrients, for secondary nutrients use some of the earthjuice stuff or simply put in a scoop of good quality soil. I am no expert but i do have experience with this exact problem and this method has worked for me and since your plants are on the verge of death you really have nothing to lose.

assistantreaper said:

sounds like your wanting to stay with organics but u need to do something NOW as she will be beyond recovery in a day or two. Luckily i grow hydro peppers with very hard water and have run into this exact problem before. Your plant definately has a nitrogen deficiency weather that be from lack of food or PH nutrient lockout. Organics get broken and absorbed slower than manmade chemical fertilizers so you need to ditch the organics and switch to a chemical fertilizer for a few days. Once she has recovered you can switch back to organics.

I'll Probably be crucified for saying this but id rather you have your plants live than have nothing and say 100% organic. Empty out your resivoir and refill with fresh water then feed with some cheap manmade fertilizer at less than full dosage "yes miracle grow will work". Then ph adjust with viniger. This will take care of all the primary nutrients, for secondary nutrients use some of the earthjuice stuff or simply put in a scoop of good quality soil. I am no expert but i do have experience with this exact problem and this method has worked for me and since your plants are on the verge of death you really have nothing to lose.

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Big cosign on this.

Like the man said, 100% organic and nothing still equals .... nothing

In fact, today I'll be giving my host plants a shot of Jack's blossom booster. I trimmed them heavily a couple days ago and they need a shot of something NOW. I've found that the blossom booster works best for host plants with some N and a higher P and K for good stem development. I'll top dress with some stuff I mix up, but it will be a couple weeks at least before it kicks in. By that time, the Jack's will be long gone.

It's all about reaching a balance and doing what's best for the plants, not what makes you feel good.

Wet

If you need some Nitrgen, one jar of Liquid Fish Emusion will carry you through the season. So now you don't have to do the chem shit, which only 20% is absorbed because it's so concentrated in salts. The remaining 80% is used in the over flow to kill them nasty birds, earthworms, microbial life in the soil. When you want to pave your yard with bricks, just use the chem shit, to kill the microbial life, so they can't breakdown the nutes or airate the soil, so water can't absorb, so you can use more water, to wash more chems further, that weakens the cell structure of plant-life, makes it all watery, weakens the Plants natural immunity system, like what happens to Meth-Heads, which makes them easy targets for Insects & Diease. So now, you need some more chemicals to kill the invading Insects, and something to stop the root lock, which happens when the chem-shit is used. This blocks out mico-nutes your plant needs to keep Her Immunity System strong. The Microbes can help in root lock, by breaking down the Nutes & Trace Minerials to bite size preportions, but, that's right, the chem-shit killed them, now your soil is like paver bricks. But they will sell you better & improved Meth, I mean chem-infested-shit soil. When all along, Rabbit Manure & earthworms would have amazed you.Oh Well.

assistantreaper said:

sounds like your wanting to stay with organics but u need to do something NOW as she will be beyond recovery in a day or two. Luckily i grow hydro peppers with very hard water and have run into this exact problem before. Your plant definately has a nitrogen deficiency weather that be from lack of food or PH nutrient lockout. Organics get broken and absorbed slower than manmade chemical fertilizers so you need to ditch the organics and switch to a chemical fertilizer for a few days. Once she has recovered you can switch back to organics.

I'll Probably be crucified for saying this but id rather you have your plants live than have nothing and say 100% organic. Empty out your resivoir and refill with fresh water then feed with some cheap manmade fertilizer at less than full dosage "yes miracle grow will work". Then ph adjust with viniger. This will take care of all the primary nutrients, for secondary nutrients use some of the earthjuice stuff or simply put in a scoop of good quality soil. I am no expert but i do have experience with this exact problem and this method has worked for me and since your plants are on the verge of death you really have nothing to lose.

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^^^ he spoke the truth....i had exactly same problem in the past....change water, change fertilizer (walmart, lowes, or homedepot, not hydro store) and even i got espom soil acidifier (to lower ph) mix with distilled white vingegar in the warm water....it seems worked for my plant , but it will slow growth rate but it will be alrighty in few weeks

coolguysean280 said:

Currentlly, per gallon, I am using EJ Grow (5mL), Catalyst (5mL), and Microblast (10mL). To adjust the pH I am using organic apple cider vinegar.

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i to use EJ and have the same problem. and yes i bubble it and it mite go up a number but not nearly enough. then its a 1/4 cup up to make it go up