is necessary for the cloning process.The issue he seems to be having is his water quality. His first problem is he used tap water which may be harming his cuttings. The second is his PH has gone too high. The following is my response to him.
I am by no means a plant expert but I will address your system. Everything with your system sounds fine except the PH. 8.2 is WAY to high. I try to keep it as close to 7 as possible. Another tip is I never use tap water, too many chemicals. My tap water tests at 600ppm or higher. I was wondering why I couldn't bake a decent loaf of bread until I discovered my tap water actually kills yeast. I use rain water in my systems. If I'm going to use just water I lower the PH with cheap lemon juice from the dollar store. It usually only takes a few drops to get to where I want. The hydroponic solution usually balances it out on it's own. If rain water is not available I use bottled water. The store brands I've tested usually run about 20ppm and a PH of 7. It costs less than a dollar a gallon and worth it to not kill your plants. My little cloner uses less than a gallon so it's not a big deal. Some serious hydroponic growers use nothing but R.O. Reverse Osmosis water. That's way out of my price range although I may have a system installed some day for my own health considering what I've learned about my tap water.
I would suggest to lower the PH with lemon juice. Even better, replace the water with bottled water if it's not already too late. Tap water is bad for hydroponics. Also I would try it without any chemicals, not even Superthrive
just to keep things simple. Get your method down first then experiment to try to get better results.I hope this was informative to you. If you think I have given him any bad information or you have some tips to add to my advice please make a comment below.
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