Quote Originally Posted by Rusty Trichome
Hey, welcome.

Likely too far away. Why did you raise it?

One of my plants leaf margins were curling upwards and the temps were too high at the canopy. Also, my plants wont all fit under the 250w anymore unless its high up.. I am waiting for a 400w to be delivered

Good technique, but foliar feeding a stressed plant is usually a good way to compound the problem. A few exceptions, but generally is the case.


Temperatures affect ph pen readings. This might be the begining of the issue, as to be accurate, you need to test the liquids at the same temps every time. The Milwaukee calibrating solution you mentioned have a chart for this on every packet. (or is it a bottle of calib. solution...?)

Thanks for the tip, but I have been testing water that is of the same temp every time

Did you put the batteries in, facing the wrong direction? Did you get the circuitry inside the pen wet at some point? Did you drop the pen? Did you need to replace the batteries? Did you remove the electrode at some point, and put it in backwards? Did cleaning the crap off of the electrode help?
If the answers are no to all...likely you let the electrode dry-out, and the electrode will need to be replaced.

Pen came with batteries installed, I have been very careful with the pen, never removed electrode, always stored it with water in the cap, it did not dry out at all

Quit checking the runoff with the aquarium test kit. It doesn't do anything but confuse the issue. The liquid depends on a color-coded result. With the runoff being tinted...it skews the results. Guessing the proper ph reading isn't a good idea, nor is it even close to accurate.

Acually, my runoff water is crystal clear.. it is very easy to read with the aquarium test kit.. it turned red which was easily visible and as far as I could tell, not skewed

FFOF is pre-buffered, but after all your attempts to rectify the ph issue, it might be a tad...what's the word...unstable? ...unusable? Would consider a transplant.

Yes, the pH is now certainly unstable.. but with all the stress and shock to the plants, i dont wanna risk a transplant. I am a begginner and I already killed a plant trying to transplant it. This and I cant even afford a new bag of soil at this point (grow has me flat broke at the moment)

Use your aquarium test kit to determine ingoing water ph, and adjust till it say's you are in range. (twords the high range if nutrient day) After adjusting the water, add nutes. From that point on, your ph test kit is done.
Guessing and assuming are bad habits to get into. Ditch the pen till you either get it fixed, or till you get another one.

Pen is officially ditched.. although had I not tested the runoff of the soil, I wouldn't have known what was causing my problem

When using a commercial potting mix, doubtful you need to worry about runoff ph till nearly mid-flower. (when the buffering agent in the potting mix starts to diminish) Some compost mixes (which isn't a potting mix) are pre-buffered to a lower ph. FFOF is properly balanced.

Again, since my plants were showing signs of a serious pH issue, I think it was a good idea that I tested the runoff, otherwise I wouldn't have known what causing the issue

Did you leave the AzaMax on the leaves, or rinse 'em off afterwards?

Left it on once, didnt seem to hurt them.. it was a very low dose. The second time they were rinsed.

Guesswork will make every grow an adventure. (or a horror show)

Tell me about it I am sick of all this guess work with this stupid aquarium test kit, and I cannot afford ANY pH meter at the current time. I cant tell if the water is supposed to be yellow, green, yellowish green or greenish yellow :wtf:


Thank you for your help, but this still didnt quite answer my question.. how can i rememdy the problem with my waterings?? what should I do? I do not want to keep using pH down if my soil is so acidic, even if my water needs it to be in the correct range. Should I just water with high pH water from now on and alternate adding nutes every other watering? Liek I said, transplanting is not really something I wanna do, especially this far into it. Is there any other way I can solve this problem?