Hi madcat2k,

Actually you shouldn't change a winning team. But 70-80-115-52 NPKMg does not sound that bad - although the P-content is a way high and K could even be a little higher for a blooming stage. What about Ca content in your "new mix"? Is "Bloom" containing any Ca? It's just a guess, but the lack of Ca may be a part of the problem here. Otherwise, some P- and K- components may alter your PH, and also make it drop. Potassium Sulfate for instance liberates Sulfuric Acid - although it is normally used only in small quantities because of it's high sulfur content. Anyway, the combination you use here seems to destabilize the PH and make it drop. Actually a colleague had a similar problem and it was due to a lack of calcium (using one component nutrient without Ca) with soft water. But even trying the impossible to correct the PH with almost exotic additives, he couldn't solve it other than changing nutrients. As you use a product from the shelf, you can not do much about it, except not using it in this combination. Adding whatever to this mix that fixes and stabilizes the PH while fitting the NPK-requirements seems complicated to me anyway.

One more hint: in some cases a correct and stable PH is much more important than the right NPK+ configuration/concentration and has always to come first - to some extend even at the price of a non perfect NPK config.

Hiya. Well, I just looked at the Bloom bottle, and it contains the following....

5% - P
4% - K
3% - Mg
3% - Sulfur (This one baffles me now, the Sulfur content is higher than the Mg..I thought sulfur was supposed to be in smaller quantities?).

Needless to say the Bloom has no Ca but really lowers the pH down.

The Micro contains 3.5% Ca in it. Would it help if I list the whole ingredients on the back of the bottles and you can see where I am going wrong with the mixing process? I have stable pH at 5.7 as we speak, but the plants are showing new growth as complete yellow and it's not "greening" up when the leaves get older.

There's also some deficient problems that looks like nute burn, but it can't be nute burn as there's way too little nutrients in there any way.

Thanks for the reply by the way!

you want your N:K ratio to be between 1:1.5 and 1:1.7. they don't need all the P. they want K.

In the GH Flora series, all the K is in the Grow.

to arrive at this proven target:
N - 200ppm
P - 55ppm
K - 318ppm
Ca - 200ppm
Mg - 55ppm

I use 16-6-5 plus 3ml of CalMag+ per gallon

Hi again guys, I'm learning quite a lot from all of you. I've gone over the bottle and labels and I'm pretty confused about one thing.

The Micro is 5-0-1, the Bloom is 0-5-4, but there are other nutes in some of it that don't make sense to me.

I will start with the Bloom (I was wrong before)

Available Phosphate (5%)
Soluble Potassium (4%)
Soluble Magnesium (3%)
Soluble Sulfur (5%)

This is what it says on the label. What is the purpose of all this Sulfur??

On the Micro there's 5.5% Ca. So, let me get this straight, the Ca ups the pH? Someone told me that C. Annuum don't need much Nitrogen at all, and to get it below 50 if possible. When I do this by using the Micro, I suppose there isn't enough Ca to help with the pH, right? See, I never had this problem before, it was only when the plant got older, which I guess is expected as they're bigger and get more hungry.

Here are the readings from my system, both newly calibrated pH and PPM meters 3 days ago, over the last 3 days.

pH 5.83 - PPM 472
pH 5.77 - PPM 433
pH 5.61 - PPM 362

Todays reading is....

pH 4.92 - PPM 498

What on earth could be causing a drop in pH and raise in PPM so vigorously in 24 hours? I haven't even touched the system other than check visually quickly. You see, I dare not increase the nutrient amount or they take more damage? So am I starving them or overfeeding them?

I have attached a link to some pictures of how bad it looks. They don't look too good :( Link at the bottom of page.

Plus the amount of floral abortion (I think that's the name used) is insane. I thought it could be a pollination issue but nothing I do matters, it'll flower, then drop off from the stalk. Hmmm.... Probably every day I see 10 dropped flowers :(

Any further help? I'll definitely be changing the solution again today. Just, are you sure putting so much Nitrogen is ok at this stage?

Here is a link that might be useful: My sick Chili plants :(

Hi again guys/girls.

I have just mixed up a new solution. I had found some Grow left over that was stored in the shed, lol. Not the best idea I guess. I only have about 40 mL left, and I'm almost out of Micro and Bloom too.

I have to admit right away that it seemed impossible to get what I need with just Micro and Grow, and I know I've been told before NEVER to mix the Grow and Bloom together, but I had to...I'll explain why.

This is the mixture I came up with and the amounts used.
-----
Micro
-----

87 N
19 K
96 Ca

----
Grow
----

52 N
8 P
101 K
14 Mg

-----
Bloom
-----

14 P
22 K
20 Mg
33 S

-----
Total
-----
139-22-142-34-96
N P K Mg Ca

-----
In mL
-----

20 Micro, 20 Grow, 7 Bloom

-------------------------------------
PPM/pH (that'll change over 24 hours)
-------------------------------------

PPM 982
pH 5.91

Ok, so well, I cannot at all risk adding any more P or Mg through the Bloom. I could add 2 mL per US Gallon extra which'd change the P and Mg to 36 (P) and 54 (Mg), though I would see the pH drop below 5.4 and I'm scared it'll just keep dropping after that. Would the plants do ok with that low amount of P and Mg? I guess, I must also thank everyone again because I think now it's possible that I have learned that the Ca is vitally important to the pH. I didn't really know this before (silly me). If I made this mix up with such a low amount of micro the pH woulda dropped below 4 with even the Gro. Is it safe to put this mix (once the pH stabilises into my system that is only using 3xx watts of CFLs)? I don't wanna kill the plants with it...