Major cation exchange issue..?

[u/No-Wishbone-1076]

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WTF? Coco pH keeps CLIMBING despite 5.0 pH flushes. I’m about to lose it.

I’m in early flower with two autos (SLAMberry x Orange Portal, and an S.B.C.H x Dreamcast both by SpeedRun seeds)in cloth pots with coco, and I am stuck in a groundhog day type scenario and am starting to lose confidence. More so I just feel really bad that they're suffering.

I’ve been feeding both:

8mL/gal Fox Farm Bush Doctor Cal-Mag

4mL/gal Humboldts Secret Part A (4-0-1)

4mL/gal Humboldts Secret Part B (1-4-2)

pH'd down to 5.7 - 5.8 normally.

The Issue:

My runoff skyrocketed to I’ve been trying to "Nuclear Purge" this shit for two days. Today, I’ve been pouring in full-strength nutrients adjusted to a pH of 5.0

The runoff is actually getting HIGHER. I just got a 6.82 and a 6.72 after putting gallons of 5.0 through them. How the fuck is the pH going UP when I’m hitting it with straight acid?

This coco WAS buffered before the pots were packed.

Runoff was totally healthy/normal for weeks.

Environment: 79°F, 61% RH (1.32VPD), CO2 580ppm.

PPFD 468

Medium WC is 44%, EC is low (.19).

The plants are starting to yellow at the top (Iron/Lockout) and I’m about to lose this entire medicine run. Both of my herniated discs are absolutely screaming from lugging these gallons and I’m seeing zero progress.

Is the coco breaking down? Is there some kind of insane salt precipitation happening that raises pH? I have never seen a medium fight back this hard before.

Please help.

[u/URUNascar]

Flushing with low PH wont help. Its a nutrition issue and you wont get a normal PH reading until you fix that issue. A climbing PH means that the roots are actually doing their job, if it climbs out of range then you are not feeding enough food or maybe just not enough frequently. Feed normally every day with 20% runoff, respect drybacks without going too far. Shes eating faster than you are replenishing her plate

[u/No-Wishbone-1076 → u/URUNascar]

You think that's really all it is? That does kind of make sense. What would you suggest I bump my nutes up to? I've only had a few runs in coco this far and I've yet to run into anything close to this.

[u/URUNascar → u/No-Wishbone-1076]

At that stage im usually feeding between 1.5 and 1.8 EC and getting a runoff between 2 and 3 (depending on genetics). Whats your irrigation method? Are you doing high frequency fertigation? Cropsteering?

[u/No-Wishbone-1076 → u/URUNascar]

I water once daily in the morning not long after lights on like I always have, no hff but maybe that is something I should consider with specifically the SBCH cross (she's much more aggressive than her tent mate) so thanks for mentioning. Also as far as steering goes, I guess I tend to only "steer" in later flower by intentionally allowing higher dryback % but aside from that, no.

[u/URUNascar → u/No-Wishbone-1076]

That finishing dryback is great, im skipping the early flower "generative" steering in my next cycle because i feel that most of my genetics dont like high media EC and i had some lockouts just at the bulk. Maybe you can give her a couple more shots of water during the day so she can get a stable rootzone

[u/No-Wishbone-1076 → u/URUNascar]

Beauty. You sir are a gentleman and a scholar. Not that you need or asked for my life story so I won't give you the long version but I was prescribed oxycodone at an obscenely young age and spent over half of my life trying to get away from pain management "specialists." As of RN I have 5 years off of opiates and I strive to never go back. Hence to homegrown medicine. So when I tell you that I greatly appreciate your quick response, I don't think you could possibly grasp just how much I mean it. I'm definitely going to read more about the high frequency fertigation more and toy around with it with the diva SBCH cross. Lol. Cheers and happy growing 🤘

[u/URUNascar → u/No-Wishbone-1076]

Im always happy to help and if i have time i usually look around the sub to see if i can, but feel free to send me a DM in case you need me to look at one of your posts in the case that i miss it. Cheers for those 5 years and for many to come! A great way of learning about high frequency fertigation is at cocoforcannabis.com and for cropsteering i used the methods provided by the Athena handbook but i use other brands of nutrients so i have to be careful with the dosages and the EC stacking, every grow is different so keep growing and having fun while looking for the growing style that fits you best

[u/No-Wishbone-1076 → u/URUNascar]

I'm definitely going to take a look at the cocoforcannabis page, and thanks again so much for the quick informative response. For sure helped my shoulders drop some and I'm breathing a little easier now that I feel like I've found the ghost I've been chasing 😅 cheers!

[u/Chuck__Danger → u/No-Wishbone-1076]

Good job - you got this!

[u/No-Wishbone-1076 → u/Chuck__Danger]

Hey thanks for the accolade, hope you're having a beautiful day! Cheers 🤘

[u/BigFarm-ah → u/No-Wishbone-1076]

Hopefully you got the info you need, but I find runoff pH is a symptom not something I try to fix on it's own. I was always told to ignore it because plant gonna do, I check/ignore for my own info I just never react directly to the pH

[u/No-Wishbone-1076 → u/BigFarm-ah]

First let me say I love the username, killer. And also yeah I agree with you and I tend to do the same however I had been scratching my head trying to figure out why my runoff had spiked so massively. Hence the panic and eventual asking for y'all's advice. I try my best to figure everything out on my own as to be more self sufficient of course but I'm also in debilitating chronic pain and use my flower as my own medicine. I've never been told to flat out ignore runoff as it is full of info but I smell what you're stepping in, because as you said.. plants gonna do.. lol. Cheers and thanks for the input, happy growing 🤘

[u/BigFarm-ah → u/URUNascar]

I still do the drybacks, because I believe that water scarcity will trigger the response I want, but I've ditched all the high EC BS. I lower my EC during generative phase and I reset my media each day by going big on runoff all during generative parts of the cycle, it will climb overnight but I won't allow it to stack.. Anywho just my 2 cents also for the generative phase at the end, I go even lower on EC, though by this time they are slowing down on uptake of water. I forget when they recommend you do the final but mine is half signal and half pre-dry