Differences between veg/bloom when growing in soilless media

Long time hydro grower, wanting to perpetual in soilless media. I'm phrasing the question as the differences because I've kept my mothers this way for a long time and learned to keep them healthy. I limit the feed to about once a week at 500-600 ppm and PH to 6.9-7. I was PHing to 6.5 but would get PH drops to the point I had to flush/feed/adjust PH while cycling the new feed. Lengthy process which I was okay with for a few plants but not wanting to mess with that in a flower situation.

So PHing to 7 avoids the PH drop in the soil mix I use but I know PH needs for mothers doesn't change, while in hydro I've noted that when the potassium uptake increases the PH quits dropping at the same rate.

The basic plan here is to PH to 7 weeks 1-4 and at 6.5 weeks 5-8. Q1 Does this seem like a reasonable starting point?

The other issue is feed. Q2 Is there a reason people tend to feed/water/feed/water rather than light feed/light feed/light feed?

I'd like to work with a light feed and avoid using water in between just to keep things simple.

And any other advice for someone who is proficient at keeping mothers healthy in soilless but inexperienced at blooming in soilless. Thanks!

In hydro or soiless medium tour ideal ph to keep is 6.0. Maybe even 5.8 for veg. I just stay at 6 the whole grow, veg and flower. I'll let it drift to 5.6 or 6.5 but that's the max drift I allow before correction.

No one growing hydroponicly is giving just water every other feed. You feed every time and depending on your medium sometimes multiple times a day

Are you going to dwc or coco or rockwool. What's your plan?

Apologies if I wasn't clear, I'm switching from hydro to a soilless mix (pro mix HPCC). If I feed the soilless mix at 6.5 the PH of the mix will drop below 5 in 4-6 weeks. That's why I mentioned feeding at PH 7 which seems to keep the PH stable so far. I've been doing my moms in soilless mix for years, and using the PH 7 feed for several months. Prior to that I would need to flush, stick the plant in a sink with stopper, feed, measure PH in runoff, add base to sink and cycle the runoff until it's coming out at 6.5. It can take an hour or more per plant but is very effective. Like I said, no big deal when doing a few moms but not something I would do with a lot of plants.

Anyway one question I have is, does anyone adjust the PH of their feed down in the last half of flower in a soilless mix

And the other is, what's the point of feeding in a soilless mix at a particular ppm and then giving the plants plain water in between?

Rahz said:

Apologies if I wasn't clear, I'm switching from hydro to a soilless mix (pro mix HPCC). If I feed the soilless mix at 6.5 the PH of the mix will drop below 5 in 4-6 weeks. That's why I mentioned feeding at PH 7 which seems to keep the PH stable so far. I've been doing my moms in soilless mix for years, and using the PH 7 feed for several months. Prior to that I would need to flush, stick the plant in a sink with stopper, feed, measure PH in runoff, add base to sink and cycle the runoff until it's coming out at 6.5. It can take an hour or more per plant but is very effective. Like I said, no big deal when doing a few moms but not something I would do with a lot of plants.

Anyway one question I have is, does anyone adjust the PH of their feed down in the last half of flower in a soilless mix

And the other is, what's the point of feeding in a soilless mix at a particular ppm and then giving the plants plain water in between?

Click to expand...

Guys,

I saw this and it sounded like my problem. I just can't seem to get my moms healthy in 2 gallon pots with soil mix. So I'm having trouble getting cuttings rooted with not so healthy cuttings. I flower the cuttings in DWC if I can get roots.

I have my moms in happy frog veg soil-less mix. They do great when first transplanted into new mix but after about 6 weeks the nutes in the mix are used up so I amend the top soil with the happy frog veg organic nutes but after a few weeks the plants look bad. The soil doesn't allow drainage and absorption and water just goes down the side wall of the container and out the wholes in the the pan.

I thought over watering so I try to let them dry out but they start looking thirsty/wilt but the pot is still heavy from water.
I give them a little water and the come back but still don't like healthy and growing with vigor.

I've tried adjusting the PH down to 6.0 when watering and nothing changed. I tried plane tap water at PH 7.0 - 7.4 with watering and again no change.

I tried adding a few drops of liquid soap as a surfactant and that helped the water to penetrate and absorb into the top crusty layer of soil and down into the root ball.
Instead of just run down the side wall and out the bottom of the pot.

Every 6 months I do a root trim and refresh the soil-less mix in the bottom of the pot.

Any help will be appreciated.

Thanks

Rahz said:

Apologies if I wasn't clear, I'm switching from hydro to a soilless mix (pro mix HPCC). If I feed the soilless mix at 6.5 the PH of the mix will drop below 5 in 4-6 weeks. That's why I mentioned feeding at PH 7 which seems to keep the PH stable so far. I've been doing my moms in soilless mix for years, and using the PH 7 feed for several months. Prior to that I would need to flush, stick the plant in a sink with stopper, feed, measure PH in runoff, add base to sink and cycle the runoff until it's coming out at 6.5. It can take an hour or more per plant but is very effective. Like I said, no big deal when doing a few moms but not something I would do with a lot of plants.

Anyway one question I have is, does anyone adjust the PH of their feed down in the last half of flower in a soilless mix

And the other is, what's the point of feeding in a soilless mix at a particular ppm and then giving the plants plain water in between?

Click to expand...

Unless you see a specific problem in the plant I wouldn't even worry about testing and adjusting the pH of the run off. In coco you feed to run off everytime pH at 5.7-6.4. It's ideal for the pH of your feeds to swing within this range because it gives the plant easier access to whole menu.

My moms were suffering from low PH, which seems to be an issue with reed sedge peat based mixes. I was feeding at 6.5 and plants would start to yellow after 6-8 weeks. I tested the run off (note below) and measured PH under 5. My first solution was to do a flush and then feed and "cycle the runoff" while adjusting the PH until it was 6.5. Worked like a charm but like I said it's a long process. So I started feeding at PH 7 and several months later plants are staying healthy.

As a note: measuring the initial runoff isn't a true PH indicator as the water will not pick up the full PH profile. Getting closer to a true PH indicator means sticking the plant in a sink/container, doing a flush and cycling the runoff through the media multiple times. You will notice the PH continue to change with each cycle until eventually it stabilizes.

Anyway, I think it's just a matter of getting to know a particular mix and in my case, feeding and watering at PH 7 prevents the PH from dropping too low.

Anyway, the whole point of the thread was about transitioning from hydro to a soilless mix. I have a drain pan system worked out so I'd be able to flush anytime I wanted without moving the plants... but I'm getting cold feet. I'm good at hydro and don't know if I can make the buds as sticky with a mix, not even considering the learning curve and mistakes I will make along the way to proficiency.