BioBizz Microbes 8.8 pH!?!

Good note to review, Plagron Lemon Kick is a citric acid based PH down and is not that stable in the grow. There are lots of PH down products any acid can work but some are more stable then others. Some are more aggressive and other weak. I use a 80% Phosphoric acid PH down product and I am quite happy with it. Some others use Vinegar and others a hydrosulfuric acid. All depends whats available and whats cheep. Someone once told me the hydrosulfuric ones came from an autoshop and was 9$ for a 1L thats cheep and it works, its also quite aggressive. I think if you get a better more stable PH Down you will not have the same issues. Cheers,

I would agree with Nugsery. In fact, the ph for microbial additives is almost always too high. The thing is that the microbes will regulate the soil ph themselves. The soil needs to be properly buffered, and then the microbes will manage the soil ph all by themselves. I reckon that the Ph is not that high when everything is mixed together. You also aren't supposed to add PH down to solutions after you use microbial inoculants so that is something to consider. I would say you might need to add some dolomite lime or elemental Sulfur to manipulate your buffering capacity. Once you've got your medium at the ideal ph which is 6.3 for peat-based soils and 6.5 for compost-based soils, then your ph does not matter too much as long as it is between 6.0-7.5. The soil will buffer it in that range and make the water buffer the ph of the soil.

I forgot to mention runoff EC varies between 1.7- 2.0 its not too much. I also backed up nutrients many times when I saw tipburn so I don't think it's a lot of nutrients causing ph fluctuation. my previous grow was very similar strains very same nutrients and the same schedule except microbes and I was getting 3-4 runoff EC and still was not problem because runoff pH was always around 6.5. What I mean microbes product is great but has some serious problems. Lower runoff EC might mean that microbes does work on uptake of nutrients it's nice but shouldn't raise pH. Next time im gonna try with bigger pots (20L) and gonna get biobizz ph down and use it.

Thanks for all information I have been trying all kinds of experiments with nutrient solution and measuring both ec and ph in between the bottles. They started to fade away around week 8 I don't think it's late flowering these plants supposed to grow at least 13 weeks. I think microbes did work very well I have so many good bud sites and great vegetation period. I also used it to raise pH sometimes. When I measured ph of leftover nutrient solution they always raise over time not lower themselves. I think pots were able to buffer the ph for 8 weeks after that just couldn't keep up because I was adding microbes 1-2 times a week 0.4gr/l. To make an example starting with 0 water 2 ml calmag 0.2, 1 ml Bio Grow 0.55, 2 ml Bio Bloom 0.75, 2 ml Bio Heaven 0.95 EC and pH shows 6.4 if I add 0.4 gr/l microbes to this solution lastly EC will raise a bit but pH will be 7.2. It always raises pH. And even if add Plagron Lemon Kick to drop it to 5.5 after an hour it comes back to 7.0. It's hard to describe but I read all of your comments carefully and already applied the advices. Runoff pH is around 7 and I don't flush it with too many water . And I think the reason why the soil was able to buffer itself the first month is simply because they were not fed often. Only couple of times for the entre month. After week 5 they started drinking 2 liters each in every 2-3 days. and started to have some little runoff. So watering couple weeks that frequent was enough to raise pH eventually.

I do see it says pH (0.3g/L) = 8.2-8.8 on the bottle there what’s not clear is if that is the pH after the supplement is applied, or if that’s the standing pH of the actual supplement itself. Likely the former. Makes sense that it’s the pH of the actual mixed solution once this is added. So this absolutely would be a very high pH for canna and throw off the nutrient uptake. Taking pH measurements of your feeds will alleviate any confusion tho. Oh wait tho, nugsery is SURE that this product does not cause any pH issues.

Pretty normal for this late stage in flowering, commonly referred to as "the fade", generally can be prevented by continuing wih grow nutrients for the first 2-3 weeks of flowering instead of changing to bloom nutrients as soon as the first pistils appear. Also giving a feed with half strength grow nutrients about half way through flowering is another way to prevent this, the plant is just hungry for nitrogen. Mycorrhizae do not ffect pH, they are microbes that live on the plants' roots that help break down nutrients and make hem more bio-available to the plant. Since discovering the benefits of mycorrhizae a few years ago and seeing the results, there is no way I would ever grow without their addition ever again! I consider them to be THE "wonder" ingredient for healthy plants. Nugsery offers some pretty solid advice too.

High grower, this product is nothing but a stimulator for the living bacteria and fungi inside the soil. This product just let the nutrients break down faster so the plant can absorb them faster. So I am sure that this doesn't cause any pH issues. I really like the organic Biobizz pH down because it doesn’t contain any strong acids. This means that this 100% organic pH regulator doesn’t harm the substrate micro life. You need to make sure that the nutrient solution that you are giving is pH 6.2 and that you give water till runoff the next time watering. 10% from your pot volume should do the trick and after let the top layer of the soil dry out completely before watering again. After that 5% from the pot volume should be enough or just water till you see the first runoff water. Enjoy the rest from your grow!

pH can definitely cause major issues. 8.8 is definitely too high on its own... but would be a weighted average of what's in the pot already too. test runoff see if it has skyrocketed. Relative to whether it is alkaline or acidic, runoff will be further out in that direction that what results in the pot... the more runoff there is, the more closely it will be to what you add. what isn't used by the plant is still there whether in solution or not, so you add more and it's "high" concentration of wahtever is causing the resuling pH (law of conservation of mass). what had solidified from evaporation would go back into solution too as you water. the gist of cause and effect helps when trying to combat a swing in pH or concentration in substrate. e.g. i would almost never flush... rather just get 20-30% runoff and that'll bring any small issue back into alignment. this is the benefit of soilless.. or a rez change in hydro is even more immediate. Still need to consider potential lockout.. .what was in teh soil, how much you fed in the weeks leading up to initial problem etc etc... too much of something can lock out other stuff too. if your ph runoff is whacky, that's where i'd lean. but, just because "this worked last time" doesn't mean it will work all times... though you really can find a happy zone that works on 95% of plants... i rarely need more than one mix of ferts to keep plants happy seed to harvest.

Not enough information to provide a useful answer, but I'd suggest a assay test to know either way (side by side, a/b). Microbe's are often used to recover from nutrient deficiencies; ceasing the microbe application might have the opposite effect.