Quote Originally Posted by stinkyattic
Do NOT bring your water pH to 5.5-6.5! The correct pH for potting soils is 6.5-6.9, and soilless 6.3-6.6.
I have also seen purple stems and older leaves that are yellowing from the outside in, tips curling up and drying, and spots that look exactly like these and various other pictures of potassium deficiency. The chemdog clone was received 14 days ago from a shop, was transplanted into a 5' pots filled with a soiless mix of perlite, vermeculite, peat, and coir which claims 45% air retention when fully saturated, and placed into a 10 gallon ebb and flow using a quarter of the recommended dose of Botanicare Pure Blend Pro Bloom 2-3-5 during veg (guy at the hydro shop recommended this, I thought it odd not to use a the grow formula) and I am now adding and Advanced Nutrients Bud Candy 0-0-1 during week one through six of flowering (I'm on week one). I feed twice daily, one hour after lights on and two hours before lights out. . I use the liquid color chart to adjust my ph vary hard tap water to about 5.9 as recommended in Jorge's "Bible". I have a difficult time getting R/O water and thought the hard tap water was my problem. Extremely hard water can cause potassium deficiencies from my understanding. I do want to avoid using R/O water because I will need to purchase and use CalMag and I was trying to do this on a budget.
Can I still use the hard tap water and just raise my ph to 6.4-ish?
The area is a 2'-4'-7' grow hut sectioned into a 4.5' tall bloom box on bottom with a 2.5' tall veg box on top. A 200w CFL feeds the one problem clone the bloom box. Day temps are 78 and night temps dip to 68. Humidity ranges from 40% to 18% because the hard water leaves traces of mineral deposits throughtout the bloom box mainly but some gets sucked into the veg on the way out. I assume these mineral deposits are not good for the plants or mine and my cat's and it is better to run low humidity than have mineral deposits on the leaves.
Last question. The book I am following recommends inducing flowering after only 16-ish days to maintain a small canopy for CFL light penetration. I have cracked a few seeds that I will do this with unless...
Apologies for the long story to ask about ph. I'm a first time grower (never could get past the seed stage).