I appreciate all the replies.....even though this thread is turning into a debate about mycos in potted plants and organic growing
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UB, I fully understand the issue with mycos in short term potted plants. I researched and found the same and similar studies you reference, showing that the high P we use, along with the short time in the medium, doesn't let the mycos colonize enough of the medium at a sufficient density to allow the proper fungi-root symbiosis. I am using Great White strictly for the beneficial bacteria to keep any bad bacteria at bay. Maybe the mycos are helping, maybe they aren't, but I'm not claiming the myco part of GW is doing a thing for me, and I understood the science behind it before I even started using it, just so that's clear.
I emailed Botanicare to ask them about the missing micros....I think you have a good point, but at the same time, I have had 2 excellent runs with CNS, and one of my three tents with the same pheno of this strain and same nutrients is doing fine. It is just this newer tent, and some of the third tent that is showing this issue. I'm racking my brain trying to think if I changed anything in the last run, and I can't think of anything. I'm still on the same 2.5g jugs of CNS, which I agitate very well with a paint mixer before dispersing into smaller bottles for daily mixing, same gallon jug of Pro-Tekt....same bottle of Drip Clean, and same bottle of Floralicious Plus, also same quart of pH down. The tents have the same bulbs in them from the last run, same ventilation, around the same temperature, maybe 5-10F hotter during the day. The fact that I had good results, and others I see when googling "CNS17 coco" have good results with it, makes me question the vector of a bad nutrient regimen being the sole culprit of this problem.
I flushed the plants a third time with 6.4, 1.0 EC solution, and again got 5.5-5.6 runoff, slurry test 5.5-5.6...so the pH is still very low. I'm trying to learn more about the CEC of coco and trying to figure out how effects the pH the way I'm seeing it. A noob theory I have so far is that maybe the coco is "picking" out all the higher pH stuff from my flush solution like P and K, and leaving behind/giving up N, which is very low pH.....giving me the low pH runoff numbers. This wouldn't explain why the slurry test is also low though. Trying to learn as fast as possible here, the plants are still yellowing, just less quickly, which is good I think.
TexasHank, I did read it somewhere, it was an article someone posted somewhere, I will try and find it and link it....as I'm trying to learn more about it myself at this point since it's obviously affecting my plants.
I'm flushing again at 6.5pH and hoping for better numbers.