# need input from serious hydro growers



## wedginfool (Jan 22, 2009)

hi all i'm fairly new to hydro growing i've got 1 years worth under my belt, however i'm not new to growing pot. 
i'm growing in an crossover between a multipot system and a ebb and flow system. it's 3'x6' and 4' high, and i have 6 rubbermaid trays and in those trays i put individual pots with my plants  and i use rockwool cubes the little ones 1/2 ". 
it's hard enough to pull every plant out and check the ph run off of every plant and then have PH's all over the place................every plant is different even the same strains...........nothing's ever consistent....and i only have access to one side of the unit which kills my back since it's at floor level 

plus since i grow in pots and want to put up a screen for scrogging what type of ph tester should i have.............i can't even pick up the pots once i've screened them for fear of breaking the buds

i've got a couple of testers but they only work with liquid
i've got a soil tester but it don't work i've put them straight into ph testing calibrating fluid and it didn't even bump the needle. 

does anyone out there have some suggestions for me to get an accurate PH runnoff of all my plants ............ or what i should use to measure my ph in my grow cubes if i can't lift them out to let the runoff just pour into a glass???


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## willowgrow (Jan 22, 2009)

i would say get a soil tester that works? other than that im not sure what else you could given your setup


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## wedginfool (Jan 22, 2009)

any suggestions as to what type??? or brand???
the only thing i can find is the cheap probes.......and they don'tr work
and i can't have one of those where you have to take a sample of the soil because it isn't soil!!


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## Growdude (Jan 22, 2009)

Dont really understand your setup, cant you just check the PH of the rez? its all the same nute solution going to all the plants yes?


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## willowgrow (Jan 22, 2009)

sorry, no.  i never really got into soil growing; i kinda jumped into dwc hydro and caught on.  however, you do have a unique situation in your hydro setup.  im sure someone will pop in here who can recommend a decent tester for ya


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## Growdude (Jan 22, 2009)

willowgrow said:
			
		

> sorry, no.  i never really got into soil growing; i kinda jumped into dwc hydro and caught on.  however, you do have a unique situation in your hydro setup.  im sure someone will pop in here who can recommend a decent tester for ya



Im I missing something? thought this was a hydro system.


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## willowgrow (Jan 22, 2009)

it is.  he needs a way to check the individual ph runoff of each pot, not the main res.


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## SmokeyTheBear (Jan 22, 2009)

There are a few good PH pens out there on the web  I just found this one for $49.99 USD but am sorry I dont remember the site. I really dont under stand how your setup works   If it is a flow system, dosent all the water after watering your plants ,flow to a resavor  If not your just going to have keep at what your doing. Ill find some pics of a flow system that you should mod yours to


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## wedginfool (Jan 22, 2009)

yes that's right, but what i'm saying is that the ph of every plant almost seems to be different. I should have only 1 strain from the same mother if i'm growing in my setup that way my ph's should all be the same, or real close to each other. but i don't...... i have 2 strains from i don't know how many donors.....I never selected 1 best plant from the seed lots that i grew, i just took cuttings from every one of them ...leaving me with montage or colage of plants that use ferts at different rates thus giving me different ph runnoff's of every plant..........some of them widely differing! I may have 1 plant with a ph of 5.2   and one with a ph of 6.3
and then if i was able to check the ph of all of them.........where would i settle for a happy medium

I should have only 1 strain in my system from 1 mother thus giving me a more average ph on all plants

YOU CAN'T DO THAT INDIVIDUALLY IN MY SYSTEM


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## SmokeyTheBear (Jan 22, 2009)

This is just a vary simple ebb & flow system. But all ebb & flow work in the same way res on top with plants and res on bottom for water. You must be useing some diferent kind of system. It sounds as you have PVC pipe with with net pots on the top of the PVC pipe and just ahve the water sitting in the pipe  Am I right??? 

View attachment ebb.bmp


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## SmokeyTheBear (Jan 22, 2009)

You can have many differnet strains in one system because ALMOST all plants need 5.5 ph with 1.6 EC and 1.8EC near the. You could also just keep it at 1.6EC with most strains


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## wedginfool (Jan 22, 2009)

that aside, what's your guy's method for taking ph and what kind of tester would you use if you were using the half inch grow cubes in pots that have been scrogged.....(you cant lift them out once you've scrogged them)


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## Growdude (Jan 22, 2009)

wedginfool said:
			
		

> I may have 1 plant with a ph of 5.2   and one with a ph of 6.3
> and then if i was able to check the ph of all of them.........where would i settle for a happy medium



5.8


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## Growdude (Jan 22, 2009)

wedginfool said:
			
		

> that aside, what's your guy's method for taking ph and what kind of tester would you use if you were using the half inch grow cubes in pots that have been scrogged.....(you cant lift them out once you've scrogged them)



Just adj your feed to 5.8 dont worry about every ind plant.


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## wedginfool (Jan 22, 2009)

hi smokey, 
not even close my system is a home made multiflo system but instead of individual buckets for every plant i use a rubbermaid tray a big one I can put 6 individual plants in individual containers in each one. 
my main problem is that I have too widely varying ph levels even within the same strain......like i said they are not all from the same mother even if they are within the same strain and i beleive this is causing me my main problem.......I think that if i was growing all the same ty-pe of plant from the same mothjer i would have a much more average ph level between the plants.........all this stuff aside 

TO SCOGG you must screen off your plants and train them where you want them, right?

since there scrogged how would you lift them up to check the runoff???........what kind of tester would you use???

and the ec or ppm isn't a factor here I never mentioned it and it has little to do with my ph problem


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## wedginfool (Jan 22, 2009)

I'm, almost ready to harvest this batch and i'm, going to change my set up some how. i'm going to be in the process of moving real soon which means moving my plants right in the middle of things and i'm going to change my set up some how, i'm not sure how but i am going to change it.....any ideas??


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## greenfriend (Jan 22, 2009)

if your're doing hydro using just growcubes what do you need to check runoff for.  the rockwool is inert and wont affect pH.  all plants should be fed a solution at pH of about 5.8.  get a good digital pH meter - bout $90-100 and pH your reservior.  pH has nothing to do with what strain your growing. how do you know that the runoff from individual plants is different if you dont have an accurate pH meter?


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## mikepro88 (Jan 23, 2009)

from what im getting ur trying to pull each plant up and test the watter drippin from the plant  and i think i understand what ur saying that each plant u pick up has a diffrent reading  bbut  i think the people here are trying to say screw picking up each plant get your res to about 5.8 and feed your plants with that   as long as there getting fed/waterd with the res thats 5.8 you should be good


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## mikepro88 (Jan 23, 2009)

oh and post a picture of your setup  please sounda crazy lol


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## INTHEDES (Jan 23, 2009)

I have an ebb n flo 4x4 tray w/ a 60 gal res(want to add 1 more 4x4 tray with this res) I'm not quite sure why your tryin to "zone" in on individual PH.This sounds like a headache seein that you use a res 4 all 6 in the tote how would you even adress the problem?You should adjust the PH of the cubes (5.5)before planting and keep your res. adjusted (5.5-5.9)and from there your plants will be cool.If your experiencing PH issues make sure their not actually NUTE issues.I have my purple kush,candy shiva,bubba kush in my 4x4 tray and it seems one of those bytchs is always burnin/lackin.Individual strains use the same PH,the strenght(tds)of the nutes differ(as I found out drasticly at times)from strain to strain.There for it almost alwayz(4 me) seems like one is over/under (resembles PH issues). Your set up sounds "cost efficent",so get equal strains into your trays(totes)and add a couple more res.
 do you simple raise your res to water on are you using pumps?do use a tote in a tote method?
  We should also just consider just one strain @ a time,lol


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## IRISH (Jan 25, 2009)

seriously?

dude, you lost me when you said the runoff of the hydro solution in the individual trays. am i right believing theres one rez? does 1 pump feed all, or 1 each? 

testing your soil ph tester in buffer solution? thats a joke right?

throw up some pics so we can help you out here. it'll give us something more to go on if we can visualize the set up...bb...


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## NewbieG (Jan 28, 2009)

wedginfool said:
			
		

> hi smokey,
> not even close my system is a home made multiflo system but instead of individual buckets for every plant i use a rubbermaid tray a big one I can put 6 individual plants in individual containers in each one.
> my main problem is that I have too widely varying ph levels even within the same strain......like i said they are not all from the same mother even if they are within the same strain and i beleive this is causing me my main problem.......I think that if i was growing all the same ty-pe of plant from the same mothjer i would have a much more average ph level between the plants.........all this stuff aside
> 
> ...



I'm just curious as to why your are interested in testing the runoff of individual plants? You set the pH of the water t he plants take it, what they spit back out doesn't matter... Once its all collected then make sure that its back where its suppose to be. Am I missing something?


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## SmokeyTheBear (Jan 28, 2009)

NewbieG said:
			
		

> I'm just curious as to why your are interested in testing the runoff of individual plants? You set the pH of the water t he plants take it, what they spit back out doesn't matter... Once its all collected then make sure that its back where its suppose to be. Am I missing something?


 
Thats not true at all. If you want really good stuff you test you water run off, media, and water of the res. All do have different ph's and do equire flushing. Say you are doing hydro. You test your media and res before flushing. Once you have the results you flush the madia with what ever ph and ec water you need. Then change the res water with the same ph and ec water


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## NewbieG (Jan 28, 2009)

SmokeyTheBear said:
			
		

> Thats not true at all. If you want really good stuff you test you water run off, media, and water of the res. All do have different ph's and do equire flushing. Say you are doing hydro. You test your media and res before flushing. Once you have the results you flush the madia with what ever ph and ec water you need. Then change the res water with the same ph and ec water



I understand testing water of the res and setting your media to the correct pH before hand but i feel like you test overall run off when you test the res. pH. Is this a thing lots of hydro grower do?


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## wedginfool (Jan 30, 2009)

thanks guys for the info i beleive what i should do in my case is to vary the ph back and forth from the high side of 5.8 to the low side.............and you can tell when the ph is shifting in the media because it also shifts in the rez, however it is not the same as what the actual runnoff would be if you were to test them individually...........but you can tell what direction it's going and adjust it accordingly


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## SmokeyTheBear (Jan 30, 2009)

NewbieG said:
			
		

> I understand testing water of the res and setting your media to the correct pH before hand but i feel like you test overall run off when you test the res. pH. Is this a thing lots of hydro grower do?


 
No not a lot of hydro growers do it that way, but testing everything is the proper way to grow  and in doing this you will get the best buds you can get


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