Adjusting the PH levels of your soil

This short guide will help you to get the correct PH levels for your plant and help you keep your plants healthy for under £10, No need to spend £100,s on expensive test equipment.

Step 1 ... get yourself a ph tester, this is the one i use it has a ph test, moisture tester & light tester all in 1.. its called (DRAPER 54655 PH / MOISTURE /LIGHT INTENSITY SOIL TESTER)


Step 2... Get an empty 2 littre drinks bottle and clean it out with bleach and make sure you dry it out well. Now fill the 2 littre bottle with cold tap water and let it stand for at least 24 hours with the lid off.

Step 3.... now get your ph tester and make sure that the probes are really clean, and now insert the probes about 2 inchs into the water and wait about 1 or 2 mins and then write the ph level down. (in most cases tap water will read a ph level of about 7.5 to 8.5)

Step 4.... ok now take out the probes and wash them with tap water and dry them very well, ok now its time to get that ph level down between 5.8 & 6.3.

Step 5... got to your local supermarket and buy some lemon juice make sure its not pure lemon juice coz that can sometime be to strong for the plants, buy the lemon juice that you put on your pancakes. Ok now take the lid from the 2 littre bottle and fill it up with lemon juice and then add it to the water. Now insert the probes and wait 1 - 2 mins and then write your ph level down. it will 100% be lower than your first reading.

Step 6.... just repeat the above step untill you get a ph level of about 5.9 and then let the water sit for another 24 hours and test it before you water the pants everytime.


This has worked for me for over 7 years now and i have only had 4 plants die on me in 7 years

Welcome to RIU - Good 1st post, (better than most of the "wat the fuck is wrong with my plant"). Sounds like you have alot to offer here so pull up a Chair, Grab a bowl and Enjoy!

ok dude my chair is pulled and im munching out as we speak. once i get my head back together in a few hours i will post some more toopics coz i have alot to talk about. sweet dude

It doesn"t get much easier than that. I"m happy that it works for you, but i have the same meter, and it"s always off 1ph or more. I believe the meter isn"t designed to test liquids, only soil. I"ve finally got a digital ph tester, and it was worth every penny.

FastLane said:

It doesn"t get much easier than that. I"m happy that it works for you, but i have the same meter, and it"s always off 1ph or more. I believe the meter isn"t designed to test liquids, only soil. I"ve finally got a digital ph tester, and it was worth every penny.

Click to expand...

Agreed, i was going to type this b4, but im a little too baked and forgot to

Yes i totaly agree with you both about the digital reader being alot more accurate when reading ph levels. But this post was really put together for those first time growers that cant afford to splash out on expensive equipment for there first grow. And as the ph levels can be between 5.1 and 6.6 and still have a healthy looking plant im sure the 1ph out will not matter to much untill you can afford a digital meter??? agreed.

Anyway thanks for being honest and posting that fact .. im a strong beliver that honesty will take you farther in life.. now im talking complete shit. time to build another reef

i wouldn't stick that meter in straight water. it tests moisture and submerging it in water is going to spike the sensor.
do you ever test your run off water? if not, you need to in order to verify that this actually works.
putting in slightly basified or slightly acidic water is not going to alter your ph that much.
i have been trying to do so with actual ph up for my last three waterings, but it does nothing.
my soil is 4.9 and it's pissing me off.
just so you know, fox farm ocean forest soil is naturally acidic as hell, even though it says it is ph balanced.

This ph tester can be used to test the ph level of water direct. as it guides you how to do so in the instructions on the back of the packaging. you just switch the meter from moistur to ph and dip the probes into the water.

As for your ph level not changin much even tho you are using a proppa ph down chimcal, dont worry it took me at least 5 watering before the ph level in the soil changed to 6.0.

And the moisture tester i use to make sure i dont over water my babys i just stick the moisture probes 2 inches into the soil and if the meter indicates that the soil is nearly bone dry i water them.

The most common fault with new growers is over watering..

what you need to remeber is that when these plants are grown in hot countries like africa they dont get hardly any water at all so these plant are very tolerent to having not much moisture but on the other hand they aint use to getting lots of water.

I mix lime in at the begining and then don't even worry about ph. I use a 50/50 mic of FFOF and Pro Mix peet moss. I mix it in a large 35 gallon barrel and add a cup or 2 of lime. Then I don't worry about PH again.

On my first indoor grow I think I damaged my plants more by trying to fix a ph problem than if I would have left them alone. Five grows later and I don't even check it anymore...

Who puts lemon juice on pancakes?

Step 5... got to your local supermarket and buy some lemon juice make sure its not pure lemon juice coz that can sometime be to strong for the plants, buy the lemon juice that you put on your pancakes. Ok now take the lid from the 2 littre bottle and fill it up with lemon juice and then add it to the water. Now insert the probes and wait 1 - 2 mins and then write your ph level down. it will 100% be lower than your first reading.

Im from the UK and i have always put lemon juice on my pancakes since i was a child.

Oh alright I guess its a UK thing. Maple Syrup is good

Like is said in my last post im from the UK. we cant afford maple syrup in UK. that why we have to settle with lemon juice hahaha

neverstoned said:

This short guide will help you to get the correct PH levels for your plant and help you keep your plants healthy for under £10, No need to spend £100,s on expensive test equipment.

Step 1 ... get yourself a ph tester, this is the one i use it has a ph test, moisture tester & light tester all in 1.. its called (DRAPER 54655 PH / MOISTURE /LIGHT INTENSITY SOIL TESTER)


Step 2... Get an empty 2 littre drinks bottle and clean it out with bleach and make sure you dry it out well. Now fill the 2 littre bottle with cold tap water and let it stand for at least 24 hours with the lid off.

Step 3.... now get your ph tester and make sure that the probes are really clean, and now insert the probes about 2 inchs into the water and wait about 1 or 2 mins and then write the ph level down. (in most cases tap water will read a ph level of about 7.5 to 8.5)

Step 4.... ok now take out the probes and wash them with tap water and dry them very well, ok now its time to get that ph level down between 5.8 & 6.3.

Step 5... got to your local supermarket and buy some lemon juice make sure its not pure lemon juice coz that can sometime be to strong for the plants, buy the lemon juice that you put on your pancakes. Ok now take the lid from the 2 littre bottle and fill it up with lemon juice and then add it to the water. Now insert the probes and wait 1 - 2 mins and then write your ph level down. it will 100% be lower than your first reading.

Step 6.... just repeat the above step untill you get a ph level of about 5.9 and then let the water sit for another 24 hours and test it before you water the pants everytime.


This has worked for me for over 7 years now and i have only had 4 plants die on me in 7 years

Click to expand...

Never,

I think I've got a combo meter just like the one you speak of. All though I've looked it over good and can't find a manufatures name or number on it. I got mine on line several years ago and remember paying around $20 for it. Just this past week while in the Homely Depot I saw what looked like the exact same thing for $7.58.

I've played around with mine quite a bit seeing how much various things (vinegar, lemon juice, aluminum sulfate, molasses, ferts, etc.) will affect a gallon of my water. Even compared it to tests done with a chemical ph test kit and some known ph level samples. I think it's fairly accurate. I especially agree with you about keeping those probes clean and washed off between readings to keep from getting erronious readings.

One of these days I hope to run into some one with one of those expensive digital ph meters so I can do a side to side test with it. But to tell you the truth I really don't think you need to know your ph all that accurately (more than one place past the decimal point) in order to grow good weed. As long as my soil makes the needle on the meter read between the 6 and the 7 me and the kids are happy.

Jack

PS: And speaking of other inexpensive and handy tools to have in ones kit, there's no need to buy that expensive "weed-o-scope" they advertise in magazines to view your trichromes. RadioShack has that same 60 to 100 x magnifier for like $9.95.

All though, for the benefit of any one thinking about getting one of these (or any other higher magnification device for trichrome viewing), don't expect them to be something you can just hold up to the plant to use. You pretty much need to clip off a small section of a leaf, lay it flat on a table and place the device over it and focus in for any kind of good view. My experience is that you just can't "free hand" it up against the plant and really expect to see any thing worth while.

Jack in the Bud said:

PS: And speaking of other inexpensive and handy tools to have in ones kit, there's no need to buy that expensive "weed-o-scope" they advertise in magazines to view your trichromes. RadioShack has that same 60 to 100 x magnifier for like $9.95.

All though, for the benefit of any one thinking about getting one of these (or any other higher magnification device for trichrome viewing), don't expect them to be something you can just hold up to the plant to use. You pretty much need to clip off a small section of a leaf, lay it flat on a table and place the device over it and focus in for any kind of good view. My experience is that you just can't "free hand" it up against the plant and really expect to see any thing worth while.

Click to expand...

I picked up one of these off Ebay, it has a 150X Magnification, and i can freehand it on the plant - same as with the 30X jewellers loupe I had b4 that.. What exactly is the problem ur having?

XxNinjaxX said:

I picked up one of these off Ebay, it has a 150X Magnification, and i can freehand it on the plant - same as with the 30X jewellers loupe I had b4 that.. What exactly is the problem ur having?

Click to expand...

Most likely it's an older pair of eyes and a shaky-er set of hands. If I really work at it I can do it free hand up against the plant it's just that I find it a lot easier (and less fustrating) to clip off one of those small leaf tips and take it to the table. That way I can really study it and get a good look.

what is a good way to test the accuracy of your soil ph meter? I'm sure it was with the original packaging but that is long gone.

Jack in the Bud said:

Most likely it's an older pair of eyes and a shaky-er set of hands.

Click to expand...

Haha, shame..
Good 2c some older folk around here tho