organics and PH

S

somebody041

Well-Known Member
hello everyone, i am fairly new to growing and growing organically. from the research i have done on this board and icmag, i have determined that PH is not as big of a deal for organic growing and that the only precautions one might take to make sure they have the correct ph is adding dolomite lime to the soil.

i had a buddy over looking at my grow and he noticed that most of the plants dont look happy, most notably that they only have 3 leave sets and some new growth is exhibiting only 1 leave sets! when i told him about my PH theory and what i was using to maintain it he told me NO NO NO i need to be concerned with PH and try to keep it dialed in as close to 6.5 as possible.

i am using RO water that has a very low PH (5). i haven't even tested the ph of the water i am giving the plants (after things like hygrozyme or SPT are added), nor have i tested the runoff.

i guess i should clarify my question: what precautions are you taking to make sure PH stays in optimal range? what do you do if you suspect it is too low/too high? i am hesitant to buy PH up and PH down for fear of killing off the microherd

another random question - should i be adding anything like calmag to my RO water to compensate for the loss of micro nutrients?

i've tried to use the search function but PH is too short of a term.

thanks for all of your help
 
MJG420

MJG420

Well-Known Member
go out and buy a PH meter and test the runoff, then adjust your water that you are adding accordingly. There are many ways to raise and lower PH, the best is to use your nutes.
 
S

somebody041

Well-Known Member
MJG420 said:
go out and buy a PH meter and test the runoff, then adjust your water that you are adding accordingly. There are many ways to raise and lower PH, the best is to use your nutes.
Click to expand...
how would i go about raising and lowering ph? are store bought things like ph up and ph down okay for the microherd?

like i said i can't search for PH so it is very difficult to find any information on it. could anybody else chime in? anybody have any recommendations on a solid PH meter? i've heard that using them with RO water makes them degrade rather quickly...
 
haze2

haze2

Well-Known Member
Na bro just use about a cap full of vinegar to bring it down and use baking soda to bring it up. Thats the cheap way BUD!
 
S

StonerFishy

Well-Known Member
well since we were on the topic of nutes and such. seems like the DWC threads are dead, and all i get is the use the search funtion.. well fucken fix it first and id be glad lol
 
G

ghostsamurai25

New Member
haze2 said:
Na bro just use about a cap full of vinegar to bring it down and use baking soda to bring it up. Thats the cheap way BUD!
Click to expand...
Dont use this method, the vingegar makes the ph unstable, ph will rise once the vinegar has disipated from the water. Go buy ph down, it wont hurt your micro buddies.
 
dirt clean

dirt clean

Well-Known Member
yeah, you need real ph down and 5.8 is what you want for dwc. 5.8 is where all nutirents are available, i have the chart on a how ti hydro book on cd I got off ebay.

Interesting to note, grodan does recomend lemon juice and even states that an easy way to control ph over the long run, say if you go on vacation is to cut up half a lemon and drop it in you res. You have to experiment with your own res to see how much. that is a trick they give on theor rockwool website but every grower will swear to use real ph down instead. I used stealth hydros and have no idea what it is but I am sure their are olenty of organic ph downs for hydro.
 
Boneman

Boneman

Well-Known Member
Here is a PH chart for you and anyone else that wants it


Be careful with RO water and meters. From what I've read, the RO ruins the tester glass or something like that. Also your RO is low and adding SPT lowers it even more. SPT lowers it a good full point.
I've enclosed a few diagrams that will hopefully help you and everyone else that comes across this thread.
 

Attachments

haze2

haze2

Well-Known Member
Yes thats anywhere from a little in the cap to a full cap of vinegar. Ive been using it for me and my ph seems to be just rite everytime. Notice that I said earlier, THIS IS THE CHEAP WAY BUD!! Thats all I have ph up and ph down and my method works just as good so like I always say . You have to experiment and see what works best for you.
 
S

somebody041

Well-Known Member
Boneman said:
Here is a PH chart for you and anyone else that wants it


Be careful with RO water and meters. From what I've read, the RO ruins the tester glass or something like that. Also your RO is low and adding SPT lowers it even more. SPT lowers it a good full point.
I've enclosed a few diagrams that will hopefully help you and everyone else that comes across this thread.
Click to expand...
thank you. do you have any recommendations on how to test RO ph accurately? i bought some litmus papers but seems they are duds because they don't change color no matter what i put on them. i can tell from looking at my plants that they are experiencing PH problems but since i can't test my runoff i can't tell what i need to do
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top