skunk, it's fine if you want to disagree, but there's no info given in the post that pH could be a problem, other than perhaps the appearance of yellow leaves. Typically, leaf yellowing at the lower levels of the plant usually indicate that the plant isn't getting enough nitrogen. This is shown in a common pattern of yellow at the bottom and working its way up because the plant is pulling nitrogen out of the bottom leaves to use for growth at the top. Why you'd think pH is a problem I don't understand, but then it's been very common in forums like this to insist that pH is usually the cause under the rationale that it's causing "lockout" of nutes. It's true that pH is an issue in plant growth and I'm not saying it isn't, but I don't think it's quite the problem everyone makes it out to be. There are two issues in these forums that people always focus on - pH is one and the other is either rootbound or root rot. Conditions have to be way out of whack for these things to take place, not that they can't happen. They can and do happen, but the likelihood is small. So yes, it's good to pay attention to pH and it's good to transplant when the plant is big to avoid rootbound. Root rot is a bizarre thing all to itself and it has a tendency to take place when roots are constantly exposed to excessive water when growing in soil, usually accompanied by high temperatures. The lack of oxygen is really the problem, as soil that is constantly wet allows to fungi to grow and begin killing the roots. In hydro, we're not going to see this happen if the roots are constantly exposed to water that is saturated with oxygen.

Greengopher, you're right about your understanding of a veg and bloom fert schedule. I only have a guess as to why FF would say bloom in the first week and that is probably due to a lower nitrogen content. FF soil in my experience has been great and I've never checked pH. I'm trusting the company to get it right and they do. Why would they make a soil that is going to cause customers trouble? If that happened I don't think I'd buy their product again. The thing to do is fert that plant but not much. I'm going to guess that since it was a living clone as of Dec. 2nd, that is more like 3-4 weeks old now, at least. Remember that a clone was growing on a mother plant before being cut. Whoever had it first didn't give any ferts.