Yep, your right. This is a case where I am glad I'm too cheap to want to buy that shit in bottles. But I have to say I broke down today and bought a damn PH tester and I'm at 7.6 and I have never worried about it before but I got all paranoid because this is my second grow with my HPS and all my big fan leaves were turning yellow, and I wanted to make sure it wasn't the PH just in case. Both grows, both turned yellow, but the buds stayed a beautiful green, so I worried myself into it and it turns out it's just fine and dandy. I went to wal mart fish section and got the kit for 5 bucks only to find out exactly what I knew in the beginning now I have 250 more tests.
Im assuming you bought a liquid drop test that gives you a color chart to follow?
These get you in the ballpark but are not fully accurate. I would suggest getting a ph pen.
The other question is, are you testing before or after you put nutrient in your water. Some nutrients have ph buffers that will help lower the ph. Other nutrients may discolor the water leaving you with an inaccurate color after using the drop test.
in my opinion 7.6 is slightly high but probly not enough to really cause severe problems. Again I am also assuming youre using soil.
The yellowing in your leaves is due to the flowering cycle and is perfectly normal, but if left untreated can cause yellowing of your buds. You need to use some CAL-MAG in order to keep your leaves nice and green. The more leaves you lose during your flowering cycle results in more stress and less photosynthesis equaling a smaller yield. Mixing some dolomite lime before planting will prevent any yellowing during this process, if youre leaves arent green theyre not working to their full potential. The yellowing is a sign of deficiency as the plant takes what its not getting from the leaves that contain it., youre lacking calcium and magnesium.. just my 2 cents.
