Okay Tact,
I hate to assume one's growing experience when trying to solve issues on line so I apologize if I'm over descriptive. First, lets put things into perspective. You've decided to grow organically - which is great decision. Advanced Nutrients is a solid choice as well. In these conditions we are concerned with microbial life. A living system to feed our plants with. For this discussions purpose, we need to broadly understand Bacteria and Fungi. Both form relationships with plants exchanging nutrients for "exudates" which are carb rich fluids microbial life uses for growth. Bacteria release enzymes that naturally raise pH. Fungus use acidic enzymes naturally lowering pH. Enzymes are essentially they're digestive juices. I wan't to post a comment I made regarding pH from another site to help you understand how my approach is to handling organic pH issues.:
" Some organic growers feel there is little need to moniter pH. By choosing appropriate ingredients in the soil to create a balanced microherd and by applying specific water they are ensuring the soil creates natural pH regulatory conditions. This means even when pH is considered not much of a priority in reality it is of great concern made evident by the attempt at maintaining a balanced microbial environment. Basically, maintaining your microherd is similar to maintaining the pH. It's all an attempt at creating proper nutreint absorption conditions.
In saying that, maintaining thriving microbial populations and/or an acceptable pH is a major priority in relasionship to cannabis - under many growing conditions. Your organic solubles will produce an environment that sustains solid microbial life hence they will essentially control your pH. It's hard to trust these methods sometimes but the microbes can handle the job. You only need to adjust pH under organic conditions if something is off. Like too much bacteria to fungi for example or if the water supply is extremely acidic or alkiline previously to application. Even then - in organic grows we can frequently adjust pH by simply adjusting ingredient levels. More humic acids for example to feed Myco and fungi or Molasses to promote bacterial blooms. Both which have effects on pH. Hope that helped a little. Best of luck......."
You can see simply from that, what may be happening here. When I look into organic grows the first thing I do is study the ingredients involved. This will determine how pH will run it's course. Lets consider your medium. FFOF is highly nutritious stuff. In regards to your issue, it has some included oyster shell - a solid source of Calcium and a pH regulatory ingredient. Regulatory in the sense that it raises pH. FF is humus and peat rich - both very acidic. However, the soil alone is quite balanced.
Your water is a little confusing. Before the RO your water is 9 +, right? I'm taking a risk, but I'll assume your water is solid - depended on the pH after RO. The aquarium stuff, from what I understand has no effect on pH or biology.
Treating your organic nutrient mix with Synthetic pH up and/or down is counter productive in many ways. General Hydroponics pH up is potassium carbonate and potassium hydroxide - 100% chemically derived. This is detrimental to microbial development. When you add this to your tea your actually killing some bacteria and more importantly inhibiting germination of fungal spores. Fungal spores are sensitive and develop slowly in the world of biology. Once established they can live through some serious stress - but development is touchy. Fungi lowers pH naturally in organics - with-out them bacteria populations can rise - and so does pH. Not immediately but only after microbial interaction. Your tea and/or solution can appear balanced but the biology may not be. In rare cases only the pH at you root zone (rhizosphere) will be off (or on) while the rest of the medium is different. Again, we must balance the microbial life under organic conditions.
Lets look at your nutes. I'll roughly separate them in categories for our purposes. Ingredients that potentially raise pH through stimulated bacteria directly or indirectly are Carboload, Voodoo Juice and Tarantula. The Voodoo juice contains 5 species of Bacillus bacteria. This specific microbe is tough - it has lasting qualities due to a thicker skin of sorts and may indeed maintain populations through-out the GE pH additions. You also feed them - which is normally good with Carboload. The Tarantula may suffer a bit but your generally higher pH conditions probably help it out a little. So Bacteria appear like they may be okay - and Bacillus probably is thriving. This is all good - provided the Fungi ratio is also on point.
Piranha, B1 (which is primarily fermented brewers yeast), Humic and Fulvic acid and Iguana juice all are designed in one way or another to promote fungal life. Without heavy populations of fungi however, many of these nutes or additives could be some what wasted and the pH would most likely climb. Fungi is also very good at absorbing Ca, Mg and P.
Dolomite lime is a wonderful soil enhancement when needed. It adds Calcium and Magnesium. When using it, typically we eliminate using Ca/Mg products for fear of lock out. Calcium and Magnesium in the wrong ratios will lock each other out eventually. It does help stabilize pH and your right it rarely takes numbers above 7 - when properly applied.
So after understanding all that, lets look at your combination and specific issue. Why is pH climbing? The answer is easy. It's microbial life or the lack there of. The fungi populations are small, hence all the Ca/Mg involved here is only effecting pH and not feeding fungi. Oyster shell, 5 TLSP dolomite per 5 glln, large Bacillus populations and poor Fungi populations have finally revealed themselves. Things happen slowly in organics. The good news is you've seen the first symptom and can address the issue before your ladies feel the effect.
Mixing nutes for organics is not always an exact science. You need to really use some foresight. How will these ingredients react with the soil - and help build life that will balance it self out in ratios that provide an environment indicative to growth and eventually bud formation. Understanding this concept is important. If you add things that slowly effect growth of this microbial life the impact can gradually become worse over time as your finally seeing.
You added Dolomite to allow the medium to balance the pH. So why pH it before adding it yourself? At 5.4 before adjustment, I bet your " living " soil would raise it naturally if it felt the need to at all. Running water through it will naturally draw the minerals not bound in bio-mass out. Your bio-mass is weak at retaining Ca/Mg because of a lack of fungal life. Ca, Mg are just a few things that will leach out - raising the run-off pH more as you leach. Your basically seeing the effects of Dolomite and pH adjusting ingredients with-out proper microbial ratios in organic growing.
So how to fix it - right? My best advise is trust your microbial life. Understand it and trust it. Your feeding schedule sounds fine - with-out the pH adjustment. If you make a tea - as I saw in your picture - and pH is lower than your comfortable with, try adding Molasses (or something similar) to feed bacteria and increase pH naturally rather than killing off Fungi to accomplish the same goal. The lack of Fungi is what eventually brought about the issue in the first place imo.
Your plants look great - just try to prioritize where pH is in relationship to your style of grow. pH is not your concern - it's the microbial life's. You should be more concerned about maintaining balance. Fungi to Bacteria - determining that ratio entails practice but your obviously on the right track. I hope this at least helped you understand what I think is happening here, its an important lesson.
Sorry it took so long - it's like 75 degrees in Cali - gotta love it........
Jman
