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Battling a res that is constantly dropping in PH, and climbing in PPM. Numbers yesterday morning was 3.6ph(wtf) and 5.0ec. Gave some ph up with some tap water to drop EC. This morning was 6.8ph and 9.0ec. So emptying the res, and starting with a new batch.
Last one got me about 2 weeks checking and adjusting ph and EC every morning.
Oddly my tomatoes are doing the opposite, climbing in PH.
If your plant prefers more water and less nutrients (ie slightly lower PPM than you have), then it'll climb in EC because the concentration of nutrients will rise since water is being taken away instead of the nutes.
So in that situation just adding a bit of water would do. It would raise the PH and lower the EC.
I've often found that one can sometimes take too much care about PH and EC and end up overtending, meaning correcting too far and then countercorrecting and so forth, only creating more problems.
I've used the same setup and nutes for several years and while I'm probably undertending my PH and EC, I don't even measure them anymore, and haven't for a few years. I just observe the plant and err on the side of giving them slightly less than optimal, so as to avoid toxicity of any kind.
Last grow I just yolod it, didn’t change the reservoir and kept adding full nutes every 3-4 days. Its ppm was off the charts and could have led to some issues, this grow appears to be doing better. All anecdotal and different strains so impossible to actually tell.
Im not correcting it every morning unless the numbers scream at me I’ll let it get from 7.5-6.0 before upping it, add water from 6.0-3.0, but it’s been getting more frequent, so figured time for a reservoir change instead of adding just more tap water again.
The plants not showing any issues I can see, but I don’t see how a reservoir constantly sitting above 4.0 can be beneficial to the plant. So a little preemptive handling before it becomes an issue is my goal there.
I would hate to empty my reservoir every 3-4 days and refill it like it’s recommended.
Last grow I just yolod it, didn’t change the reservoir and kept adding full nutes every 3-4 days. Its ppm was off the charts and could have led to some issues, this grow appears to be doing better.
Yeah when doing this I try to err on the side of caution. It's easy to see when the plants get a bit hungry from the hue of the green they have, imo. I mean, easier than waiting to see nute burn and lockouts if you have too strong a solution.
I've often grown the same strain, so that makes it easier as well. But I'm sure I'd get better harvests if I actually tried optimising that, but I'm lazy and the setup isn't optimal anyways, and my harvests are decent enough.
And yeah, by the time you'd see actual problems, it'd be a bit too late. Which is why I err on the side of keeping them a bit hungry rather than giving too much.
If I changed the strain, the hydros and the nutes I use, then I'd definitely have to start monitoring.
I think some nutes buffer pH better than others. I use Canna Aqua series nutes, and have little experience with others.. Biobizz is another I use but 90% Canna Aqua
Edit and yeah emptying and refilling is a bitch why I don't do it lol. I'd love to have a proper grow room, a garage or something, and actually have reservoir barrels outside my tents. Small ones, perhaps, but still.
Hopefully you got it figured out, seeing a pH that low would have sent me into a panic
I honestly think it was a PEBKAC error.
I may have grabbed PH down which is more concentrated which would have dropped the res more, I also didn’t check it at night to see where it leveled out.
This morning it only changed from 7.1-6.8 and 3.0-4.0, I think the res was turning to be honest as well, started seeing some fruit flies, so hopefully that doesn’t get worse. So gave everything under the canopy a spray and wipe and a good of a clean as I could get. Don’t see any on the trap this AM /fingers crossed.