what should my ph be?

hey guys, the last month or so my plants have been getting red stripes in the stems and sometimes solid red on some of the weaker strains. I have been using amino acid nitrogen and molasses here and there but have cut those out of my regimen until I figure out this problem. up until this point I had a nice veg garden. I can't remember what my pH was back then and though I hate to admit it I haven't checked pH in about 8 months. I've started pHing my water religiously now and have been phing the nutes and fresh water at 6.5, the promix buffers it down to 5.6-5.8 area. from what I understand this is a good range for promix since it is considered hydroponic?

but then i hear of people saying keep it in the 6.3 range. I've been watering at 6.5 pH for about one week, should I keep on this course?

I use dyna gro grow, protekt, kln, botanicare cal mag

any help would be appreciated

Optimum is 6.5

Stay the course..and keep and eye out for major issues
Some strains always show a Red line..

i would stay the course with your ph ranges i also use promix and dyna. stem coloration could be a phosphorous issue but could also just be the strain itself

6.3 to 6.6 ph in dirt. 5.8 in hydro.

guys I'm confused here, you guys mean keep the promix pH at around 5.8 correct? or are you guys saying keep the promix pH at 6.5?

i had thought promix was considered a hydro medium, is this wrong? should i be phing it like soil?

I don't consider promix or coco to be hydro. They are soilless mediums.

Your problem sounds more likely related to your dyna gro. Are there crystals in the jug?

HomeLessBeans said:

I don't consider promix or coco to be hydro. They are soilless mediums.

Your problem sounds more likely related to your dyna gro. Are there crystals in the jug?

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good point homeless .also if i may add what temp do you store your nutrients at

I use gallon dyna gro jugs with hand pumps on them. yes, there are crystal formations where the nutes are dispensed out of the pump (no crystals in the jug), is this something I need to clean and maintain you think homeless? also, do you think I need to be phing the soil upwards of the 6.5 range then? this would mean I need to ph my nute water and fresh waterings to about 8.5 ph since the promix tends to buffer way down

bloody, I store my nutes in a room with 70F ambient temps

thanks for the help guys!

Do you test the PH & PPM of your run off?

i ph a slurry of the promix mixed with nute water, is there any advantage to phing runoff versus a mixed promix slurry?

I'm basically seeking the answer to this question:

what is the ideal ph of promix?

sounds like 6.5 is the consesus or something around that area. for the last couple weeks I've been phing the promix to 5.8 and haven't really seen much improvement in the red stalks and pin striping

sorry for the stupid thread, it's just that researching this topic leads to suggestions all over the board, figured some michigan growers could steer me to the correct answer

I was just thinking of identifying the difference between input & output as a means of better understanding the changes.

TheMan13 said:

I was just thinking of identifying the difference between input & output as a means of better understanding the changes.

Click to expand...

You should be checkin your run off. that will tell u what we need to know.. plants up-take different nutes at different PH levels so there is no One number. there is a range..

The cyrstals are the nutes returning to salts. That means it is not getting to your plants if it is on the spout.

I just did a fresh water on a teen I have, the water is 7.5 ph without ph up or down

the run off read 6.7 ph

the soil slurry reads 6.7 pH as well

HomeLessBeans said:

You should be checkin your run off. that will tell u what we need to know.. plants up-take different nutes at different PH levels so there is no One number. there is a range..

The cyrstals are the nutes returning to salts. That means it is not getting to your plants if it is on the spout.

Click to expand...

shit... well here's the thing. I use the same nutes in flower (grow/bloom 30/70, protekt, mag pro) and the flowering plants don't have any red stalks and only the faintest tinge of red at the base of the fan leaves so nutes seem to be working

this is interesting read ..https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=5&cad=rja&sqi=2&ved=0CFYQFjAE&url=http://bonsainut.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-7821.html&ei=TJ3kUO7NDYedqgHfrIGoCA&usg=AFQjCNHC4MjYNkYEMq29l9ajGCZ00NVOLg&sig2=D0vpvVKOzG_-c1MLc2_4vg i think the crystals may be calcium sulfate.

bloodytrichomes said:

this is interesting read ..https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=5&cad=rja&sqi=2&ved=0CFYQFjAE&url=http%3A%2F%2Fbonsainut.com%2Fforums%2Farchive%2Findex.php%2Ft-7821.html&ei=TJ3kUO7NDYedqgHfrIGoCA&usg=AFQjCNHC4MjYNkYEMq29l9ajGCZ00NVOLg&sig2=D0vpvVKOzG_-c1MLc2_4vg

Click to expand...

good info, got me to shake my jugs for crystal formations, luckily there weren't any

just got off the phone with the grow shop guy and he was saying that promix should be 5.8 during veg and 6.3 during flower, does anyone concur? this would explain why my flowering plants have never had red stems since the majority of the time I've been growing I've been phing the soil mix for 6.3 for both veg and flower. I've only been phing for 5.8 the last couple weeks so I'm think perhaps I just need to be patient before I see any real change. I do notice on veggin plants that all new growth sites are green with no red, does that mean anything?

thanks for everyone's help so far

it just occurred to me that the problems started when I started using botanicare cal mag. I'm gonna switch back to dyna gro mag pro and hopefully it resolves it self b/c from what I've seen my ph isn't really out of whack and I'm giving it the same dosage of grow formula as I have since I started growing. god I hope it's as simple as that. will post on this thread in a couple weeks for future reference for anyone else.

This could be a dumb question but what are the temps of the room?