Batista

OH you!!! #Blush!! 
I just hit a bong and have gone blank
But yea, for me, I put a tub in the shower and let it rain down for a while (my totes have drainage holes so draining the water out is a breeze) ... A 5 kilo coco brick will expand anywhere from 60-80 litres of coco... If you do not have a EC or ppm pen to test the run off, I have found that........ Once hydrated with however much it takes you to hydrate it........ From that point I would run 60-80l sometimes 100l of water to get the coco flushed properly, even if it says buffered coco... Still wash the fuck out of it. 
Then you must have your calmag mix ready.... 60g per 5kg brick is fine.. Dissolve it into 20l and pour over the coco and then agitate the coco well to mix in the calmag which will fill the open cation sites, or will exchange cation sites with potassium.... Leave it for 30 min or over night, and then rinse the coco again with 60 - 80l of water and drain. 
Your coco is now ready for anything you want in it! 
 Fresh coco is the hardest to work with... If you reuse your coco it gets easier to use, washing it after eash harvest of coarse

wow fok those are nice results bud!!
not gona argue with that
you can totally disregard what I am saying, because I am agreeing that you get good results, but remember "the exception proves the rule" and there is probably a good reason why we are all not using vinegar and why you got asked why you using the stuff. 
the air bubble hahah I try not even shaking my pen when I clean it and stuff just to save the tech inside that little bit longer. my pen came with a book with instructions and a box of stuff to maintain it, it cleary states don't shake the pen too vigorously or hit the sides of the pen against anything., though people say the one they have is indestructable, that again is an exception and it proves the rule, you hear WAY more stories bout them going to shit for no reason. lay them down without use for too long, fucked. swing them around, fucked. drop them once, fucked... they are quite sensetive little toys and the people who make them clearly warn a person to look after the thing as if it's a baby. 
I keep mine upright in a jar at all times, so the storage liquid don't run out. gets new storage liquid weekly. literally 2 drops, easy. gets cleaned and calibrated once a month or so. done. 
 

Hey gents, so I've been using brown vinegar for years now with no issues.

So new pen arrived today. You guys were laughing at me when I mentioned air bubble hey lol, the new pen doesn't have any air bubble in it and seems the probe is shorter than the old one on the right.

Attached some pics of my last grow using brown vinegar and hortimix. I got no issues with brown vinegar lol

Sent from my SM-A715F using Tapatalk

Storage solution, all I'm going to say...
Cheap or expensive pen, storage solution

interesting story here, I have a friend who dusted off some probes his grandad had in his garage, must've been the shit back in the day, cause it had this leather covered box with the name written in gold, some german or swedish name we couldn't read. shit looked expensive even for today. each pen still takes one single AA battery, this guy pops it in some calibration solution and I shit you not 100% accuracy, took a minute to get there as the tech was a bit delayed, but hey, it worked!!! I almost burst out in laughter but then realised it's not even funny, how the hell....? even when it turned on when putting the battery in, blew me away! this thing must have been in storage over 10 years, maybe muuuuch longer, the plastic even looks like it's going brittle, the probe was onviously drier than a you know what.... and the rule of thumb with the probes are "if it dries, it dies" 
this thing was on point with both calibration solutions..
luck certainly is a factor here, cause in a production line up where millions of the same thing get's made repetitively, you're bound to have that one in each 1000 or so that will be put together better than the others. it's the same with a defective slip up, sometimes you buy something and it only lasts a month, because of a slip in the production line, but sometimes the slip up may result in a better end product.

So I ordered a new cheapie Ph pen, it will come with 2 solutions of Ph 4 and 6.86. I also bought the dropper Ph test and will use that to test my old and new Ph pen when it arrives.

The dropper test showed around 6 for last night's feeding so I let it be and didn't add any vinegar and plants looks good, new growth is green.

Sent from my SM-A715F using Tapatalk

just make sure you get the right range of colour strips if thats your determination. most test strips i have seen are for pool calibration and the ph reading starts quite high... i think higher than what we want our ph at its highest. 7-14 i think
the below may be a better choice 
https://www.takealot.com/urs-ph-0-ph-14-urine-saliva-reagent-strip-test/PLID53253511?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIp83srIG_8QIVkd_tCh00JwJZEAQYASABEgLlt_D_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

for very accurate calibration i believe you should use them both. calibrate to the higher PH, then test in the lower PH and recalibrate, and then back to the high ph and recalibrate until you find the spot where it is accurate on both fronts. lots of rinsing needed, and lots of time. for my needs, calibrating to one or the other suffices

So I got this pen Feb 2019, I emailed the shop and asked their advice. In the meantime im probably going to buy those colour compare test until I can get a proper ph pen(this means buying it without my wife finding out lol)

Another question, do you need to calibrate with only the 6.86 solution or must you calibrate with a 4ph solution aswell? I have 2 year old 6.86 solution lol dont think that is a good idea.

There is a liquid, potassium chloride.

Guys, is there supposed to be water inside the Ph pen phrobe thingy? I see an air bubble, I think my Ph pen is not working

Sent from my SM-A715F using Tapatalk

That to me is normally a sign of bad pH.
I see he last did pH of 5.5, which is low.

why are all your leaves looking so twisted? almost as if the leaves are fighting for space to grow. i would defol and free up some space for those ladies man

I think watering every 3 days in organic soil is a bit much.Those stones could be leaching, they seem to have turned browner.Do you have a ph meter? I would collect some of the runoff and measure it.

This plant is impressive. Growth is taking off now. I did open her up yesterday with the wire, she will require daily training now.

I don't think I'm going to flip just yet, I probably need another 2 weeks because I lost around 2 weeks due to my unwashed coco messing them up lol

Apologies for dark pics, had to put my light off otherwise electro lines.

Sent from my SM-A715F using Tapatalk

Wow, they look like totally different plants between the week 5 and 6 pic. Very healthy and thick looking lol

Im using the same hortimix, but don't have that thickness, could that be the silicone that's doing that?

Sent from my SM-A715F using Tapatalk

On 12/11/2020 at 9:55 AM, Golden-Goose said:

I didn't think there were many/any of us left on this forum. I was TrailBlazer on that old forum. That was an age ago though. Good times...

Nice man, I was and still am Batista lol

Hey bud, I was looking for the screenshot where you mentioned that soil mix picture and couldnt find it.What is your soil mix?

I've used coco only before and I can get away with watering everything 2nd or even 3rd day,but it depends on age and health of the plant.If your plant can use more feeding, then you can feed her everyday in coco.Coco is a hydroponic medium and meant to be wet all the time, but you usually want to flush every 3 weeks or so with plain water to prevent accumulation of salts.

Nice man, All I can say is rinse that coco very well.Ran into a few issues and it came down to unrinsed coco lol

Update, survivor is going great now that the medium has been rinsed well, and I also tied her down. Ec is set at 0.7 and Ph 5.5. A bit miffed that I messed this grow up to be honest, but she is pulling along.

Sent from my SM-A715F using Tapatalk

So these plants are stressing me out!Luckily I didnt threw them out, just left them on my windowsill.

I did a little runoff test and it came out very high , around 600 ppm.

I think that is the problem,those plants were locked out because my coco was not flushed properly

I flushed them now and then watered with nutes again.Im going to do the remaining plant tomorrow that is in the 15l pot,as I need around 50l to flush that pot out.Hopefully this will sort out my lockout issues and im keen to see if these stunted plants recover.

Here she is, she hasn't pushed out new growth in 2 days. I still have one plant that is doing relatively well though!

I have also switched my light from 150 hps to a 150 cw led floodlight. I have already noticed the stretching after only 1 day and wished that I just started with this light from the start.

Sent from my SM-A715F using Tapatalk

I rate its a combo of the fish ferts and the mildew, mold. Did you bud wash before you dried? Edit sorry I see you did.

Must be the strong fish mixes. I've had it in the past but mine smelt of old biltong cos I used bone and blood liquid ferts.

Sent from my SM-A715F using Tapatalk

I'm pulling my 2nd plant because she is struggling, at least I'm down to one solid one left. I kept everything the same for all plants so it's the randomness of seeds.

Sent from my SM-A715F using Tapatalk