Do physical injuries have an effect on pH?

[Diverge]

I woke up this morning and my pH was about 5.6, dropping from 5.8. Two things I noticed is my plants drank more than usual overnight (lights out) than usual, and some of the lower bud branches that I should have pruned off long ago had fallen over due to the weight of the buds on such skinny branch stems.

I tied them up, topped off the res, and increased the pH a bit to make sure they didn't fall too low while at work. But everything seems back to normal.

So my question is does physical harm to the plant make the pH fall at all, or was it just a coincidence?

 

[moe.red]

Interesting question.

I'd be guessing.

My initial thought is no not physical damage, we trim these up, sometimes hard - and I don't see a ph change

You using silica in veg to get strong stalks? Big flowers need it for sure. It also helps buffer and lift PH overall.

 

[Diverge]

I've been using PowerSI, Jacks 321, and Mr Fulvic throughout the whole grow so far. I read that some people stop using PowerSI in flower, but I figured I'd leave well enough alone.

My plants would be really tall (probably over 5 feet - they might even be over 5 feet w/ the tops bend over) right now if I didn't bend over the tops. So these weak branches are coming from the bottom of the plant and are quite long and skinny. I should have cut them off but was hoping they'd reach the canopy, but never did. Next grow I'll be more decisive on what gets cut off.

 

[moe.red]

Yes, you will not want it last 2-4 weeks of flower ime.

But it helps early on a ton.

 

[CookiesLikeWhoa]

You use R/O, tap or a mix?

Could be your water as well. Or what ever you're using to buffer.

We use city water to buffer and that has some variance to it for sure.

 

[Diverge]

I'm using RO. I didn't specifically buffer this grow, just added things in this order:

1. PowerSi 0.5ml/gallon
2. Jacks 5-12-26
3. Epsom salts
4. Jacks CalNit
5. Mr Fulvic
6. pH up to 5.8
7. Orca, hydro guard into system, not nute mix

My pH has stayed rock solid to whatever I set it to throughout my whole grow until a week ago when I accidently over filled my system, almost overflowing everything.

I had made a mixing system using a 20 gallon brute garbage pail and a sump pump to mix everything around, and a separate aquarium pump to pump it out into containers or directly into my hydro system. I got distracted for a minute and almost flooded everything. I guess I messed up the micros living in my netpots, cause since then things haven't been the same.

I'm close to harvest and just want my trichomes to start turning amber somewhat. I don't need the buds getting any bigger or I'll be tying most of them up.

This is only my 3rd grow. First 2 I always had pH dropping issues (even with buffering). This grow it didn't happen until my overflowing accident. But this grow I added a chiller and switched from Lotus nutes to Jacks.

 

[Diverge]

I used to use 7 gallon containers and twist them back and forth repeatedly after adding each ingredient, until it messed up my forearm.

Now this does all the work for me:



I tried to attach a video of it in action, but it gave me a file too big error.

 

[Diverge]

The above mix gives me a pH around 5.8. Should I be doing something different?

I've been watering down my nute mix lately with straight RO, since my plants want less now that they are getting close to harvest. Could that be causing my pH issues?

I guess I should drain my system and make a new batch with less nutrients.

 

[Diverge]

Some images of the plants:

 

[Observer]

Clean.

 

[moe.red]

Great setup and nice plants Diverge. You think like I do. Unfortunately that is not a compliment.