Newbie pH, and flowering questions.

About 3 weeks ago buddy popped by with 7 Northern, and 3 Afghani clones, already well rooted, and already zig zaging leaves(I'll bring that up later). Anyways they had to sit in the little rockwool cubes in a 90 degree closet for 2 days while I restocked(it's been a while). It was pretty much a take them or they chuck them situation.

Anyways, I got the dryer set up and got them in pots of sunshine mix under a 400 watt MH bulb. We started advanced nutrients, grow, micro, and bloom. Picked up so timers, and set up the exhaust.

Then we identified a spider mite problem which went a little unnoticed in the rush to get everything set up. That's been fixed up pretty good and is under control. Man can you see the difference once they're gone.

So now about 3 weeks later they are about 10" tall whith huge fan leaves( almost the size of my hand spread out but I've got chick hands), pretty bushy and I just transplanted them into 6" pots(then they exploded in size over night!). When they were smaller I had my waters pH at 6.5 and the run off from the pots was 6.5 too. Now that they are in bigger pots, and the nutriets are being increased the water is at 6.5 but the run off is only 5 pH! So do I have to increase my waters pH to 8 pH or do I have some sort of problem going on? I'm following what they say in the catalogue.

The other question is about this zig zagging thing. I've grown aa few times but have always had to chop my crop early to get rid of it quick so I've never made it far into flowering, and much less educated. Anyways I read that zigzagging is a sign that plants are ready to flower, but my plants were zigzagging as clones. What are good indications that a plant is ready to flower? I don't want to wait forever but I don't want to force them either. Anyways TIA.

whats the PH of the plain water your using, and whats its ph after youve added the nutes?

going off what you said, i would say a good flush now and then should keep your soil/run off ph under control.
its less complicated than using an addetive to bring the ph up, and better for the plant, i belive.

as long as you have reasonable drainage, dont be afraid to give them a good flushing, i do it quite regular, but try to use luke-warm water to avoid stressing the plant too much, i do mine in with a shower head in my bath tub, lol

as long as you let the plants dry out for a few days between heavy waterings, and your drainage is good, then youll be fine.
what you dont want is water sat in the pots rotting away.

the reason your plants have alternating nodes is coz there clones so the mother that they came off would of all ready had alternating nodes as well! as startbud said a gd flush now and again should help alot are u ph'ing after you add the nutes like ur supposed to or are u doing it befor? im glad to see u got the spider mite problem undercontrol i hate them little fuckers i had a really bad fungus gnat problem a couple of weeks ago it was so bad i had to throw my baby in the garden lol any way can u post some pic's i would love to see ur babies! laters peace!

I just transplantd them on friday, would the nutrients build up that fast? How often should I be flushing them?

me personally i flush once a week sometime's once every two. as for the build up of nute's i think it depends on what nute's ur useing and how much!

5.5-6.8 is the correct ph...dont change it unless your seeing signs of stress on your plants.For harvest....if your "white hairs" are dying faster than there growin,or when 40% of your hairs are brown is a close estimate.

Sorry can't show pics, to low budget for a camera. What signs should I keep my eyes open for?

stoned aint that ph for hydro i thought it was about 6.8 to 7.0 ph for soil and for hydro its like 5.5? i might be wrong but thats how i was tought! if you just keep a close eye on ue babies u will no when something is wrong but wen u get more exp u will be able to tell befor it ne thing happens normally!

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Originally Posted by mc-blaze21

stoned aint that ph for hydro i thought it was about 6.8 to 7.0 ph for soil and for hydro its like 5.5? i might be wrong but thats how i was tought! if you just keep a close eye on ue babies u will no when something is wrong but wen u get more exp u will be able to tell befor it ne thing happens normally!

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The catalogue for the nutrients says it should be around 6.8, 5 just seems to low even by the charts in other books.

unlike ppm(which can vary by strain or particular conditions) PH determines the plants ability too absorb and process nutrient.there for the 5.5-6.8 applies to any method,although as you say soil will maintain the higher end w/out negative effect.

P.S. whether in veg. or bloom i run my ph at 6.0 (hydro)

yh sounds right to me. im in soil and i run my ph round the 6.8 mark usually

I'm so confused!
I water my plants this morning, that's when I got the pH of 5. Just now I run down to check on them and test the pH and it's back up to 6.5! I just they fied themselves, I checked and double checked and all are back at 6.5.

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Originally Posted by divestoned

unlike ppm(which can vary by strain or particular conditions) PH determines the plants ability too absorb and process nutrient.there for the 5.5-6.8 applies to any method,although as you say soil will maintain the higher end w/out negative effect.

P.S. whether in veg. or bloom i run my ph at 6.0 (hydro)

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Wait right here(book in my lap) it says that primary nutrients cut off below 5.5 pH, It's not optimun but it works.

I always read that 5.6 to 6.2 (approx) for hydro applications and 6.5-7.0 for soil growing. Chrissy if you took a bunch of fried, spider mited clones and got them to 10 inches with hand-sized fan leaves you are doing something right. Whatever got you that far stick with it.

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Originally Posted by Weedhound

I always read that 5.6 to 6.2 (approx) for hydro applications and 6.5-7.0 for soil growing. Chrissy if you took a bunch of fried, spider mited clones and got them to 10 inches with hand-sized fan leaves you are doing something right. Whatever got you that far stick with it.

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Thanks I don't get much opertunity for feed back here. I'm glad I found this site. I've never seen anyone grow before so I'm kinda blind to the expectation for the plants and whether or not I'm doing good. I'm glad to hear I'm doing something right, I treat them almost as caringly as my 5 month old, lol.

lol wh, lol

hi crissy, i must say, like wh, that you are doing something right. i don't know what's up with your ph, but, i'd say that if it stays down for 24 hours, try ph up... on the other hand, if the plants look happy, i'd let them work it out on their own.

kp:p

here's a chart i found that should clear things up on the PH question.

looks gd stoned safe for that i copied and pasted it in to my scrap book lol!

I think I figured it out, my whole pH problem. I have never flushed my plants and Idid it for the first time today and tested the water as it came out. It was about 5 again, so problem identified and problem solved.

kl glad to hear u got it sorted peace!