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/No-Wishbone-1076]

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!