any experienced users of ph up crystals?????

can anyone tell me how much crystals is safe to use in a soil grow?My water has PH of 6 my soil is 5.5-6 It takes 2 tsp.per gal for my water to go from 6 to 6.5 and that is still on the low end of where I want to be(I recently lost an entire grow due to low PH 4.7-5.3)I mixed my new soil with 1 tblsp dol.lime per gal of soil and currently fixing the problems with the water with PH UP it just never came with directions.TO SUM this up My water to get to 6.5ph my plants will receive 4 ts of PH up a week each,(2 ts at watering and 2 ts at feeding) (plants in 3 gal soil pots)am I safe to use this amount if so can I go a little more to get to 7(also will I have to do this continuously or will the soil start to buffer after a few times?)Thanks all for the help in advance

not sure how your feeding your plants but most nutrients have a ph buffer in them what u need to do is mix your nutes in a barrel what is your water ph to begin with get that figured out then adjust accordingly i use a ph up but its a liquid so best you can do is get some of that soil in a cup or what ever and experiment till your run off is what u want i like my ph to be around 6.8

so there is no ill effects from using phup in soil

Yes, it's safe to use more of it to properly set your soil pH. It's definately harder on the plants to live in the wrong pH substrate than to use a little more pH adjuster. There are many great fertilizers out there that are very alkaline. Because nearly all of our ferts have a high pH, we only use pH down. Palm Bunch Ash is pH 12 and the best source of bud-growing Potassium we know of. Our 3-10-1 Bat Guano is also pretty alkaline. Keep an eye out for a good, high-pH fertilizer and you won't need to use nearly as much pH Up.

"I" use 2tbl of lime for each gallon of mix, but YMMV.

I would think adding some more lime would be easier on your soil than the pH UP, but again, YMMV.

A sliica supplement like Pro-Tekt not only helps your plants (supplies silica and K), but also raises pH. Some use it as a pH UP.

Wet

thnks wet dog you told me that b4 on here just wasnt totally surewhat you said,you wouldnt know of a good fert i can change to for 12/12 I am currently using mg 18-18-21 preferably something I can get at local nursery or HD/lowes this worked for 6 grows and it worked very well never worried about ph levels never even checked them (this grow was a disaster from start of 12/12 the only thing I did different this time was I did not mix batguano with my soil and ph levels dropped to 4.7-5.3/mothers finest mentioned BG to keep ph levels up maybe that was my major problem on this grow and well nute def.of all sorts)anyone know of well just a good npk numbers I can match up at the store for 12/12

IDK to be honest.

I either make a heavily amended mix similar to Super Soil, or the same mix with no amendments and Jack's Classic fertilizer.

I've been making my own mix for better than 30 years. It's very much like ProMix. Simple to make and way cheaper.

Wet

I could sure go for that recipe then i could stop buying that cheap fafard soil also wet dog I just run a thread in nutes maybe you can tell me im switching to floranova bloom 4-8-7 and using floralicious bloom 1-1-1 is this all I would need in flowering period(well unless they show signs of deficiency)

wmstanton said:

I could sure go for that recipe then i could stop buying that cheap fafard soil also wet dog I just run a thread in nutes maybe you can tell me im switching to floranova bloom 4-8-7 and using floralicious bloom 1-1-1 is this all I would need in flowering period(well unless they show signs of deficiency)

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I have never used those, but the numbers don't sound too out of line. I would avoid anything with huge differences, like a 0-50-8 for example. The Jack's bloom is 10-30-20 IIRC.

You want the P&K higher, but nothing outrageous.

Wet

again wetdog thanks for all the schooling I can sure use it

2 tsp of Ph up per gallon of water???!?!?!?! What brand of crystals are you using? I grow exclusively indoors in soil (FFOF cut by about 20% with additional perlite) and I use Ph up (from Viagrow) at every feeding. I've never had to use more than 1/2 tsp per gallon to get my mix between 6.4 and 6.6. I had to experiment to find out how much to use. Now, I can usually visually judge how much to add and I'll be damn close when I check with my meter. It's arguable whether Ph balancing is necessary in soil because soil is such a good natural buffer. But I figure why take chances? NOTHING goes to my girls that isn't tested and adjusted to Ph 6.4 -- 6.6 first!!

Thats what im using viagrow but my last grow I never used ph up and never checked ph levels and the nute lockout was so bad by the time I got ph levels right it was to late for the girls and wound up killing them And it is taking 2 ts to go from 6 to 6.5 but I am going to back off of it a little this time I used dolomite lime in my mix and water with lime mixed in and i think this is somewhat working for some reason this strain does not like any ph below 6 (starts showing signs of deficiency immediately) NLf2 ive never run into this b4 always done the same thing the only difference this time (on the grow i lost)was i ran out of batguano bloom and never mixed any in the soil when i started.Im thinking that helped keep my ph level up.Or Im under feeding and they are now starving for phosphorous the definciency always starts 15 days into 12/12(mg 18-18-21 1/3 dose and 1 ts floralicious bloom 1-1-1