fixing pH in soil???

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dbo24242

New Member
have 1 gal pots and pH of runoff is around 7.2 which is a lil higher than what I think is good how do I fix it?

water using ~600ppms of Floranova veg which always comes out at 5.8-6.2 pH then run off is up to 7.4

shoudl I flush with pHed water no nutrients or pHed water with nutrients or just keep watering with 5.8-6.2 because it seems like it is really slowly dropping as time goes by.
 
dutc2006

dutc2006

Well-Known Member
Try not to worry about what your runoff pH is in the future, because if you start off with good soil and continuously pH adjust the water you are feeding your plant, the pH should never get so out of whack. If you are watering now with around 6.0 and the runoff is coming out 7.4, your soil is obviously too alkaline, leading me to believe you are not flowering yet because P drops pH like crazy. If you are vegging you should have plenty of time to fix the problem. If you don't have a way to get a pH reading on the soil itself (you should check it right after watering while it is still pooling) then continue watering with the 6.0 water until your runoff is just under 7.0 . Nutes or not it shouldn't matter, as long as the solution is pH adjusted before you use it. If you make a drastic change to the pH suddenly your plants will undergo pH shock, and it will take them several days to resume normal growth. So don't try to water it with some acidic solution expecting to bring it down to the desired level in one swoop. Obviously, you know that the desired pH for the soil is slightly acidic, 6.5- 6.8 is perfect. Once you get the soil or runoff to the slightly acidic level, start watering with 6.5 - 6.8 water and forget about checking your runoff pH. Your runoff PPM is more important.
 
smallclosetgrowr

smallclosetgrowr

Well-Known Member
spinkle some agriculture sulphar onto the top soil , id will bring it down after a few flushes , but as that guy said u will shock your plant if u do it to quick so do it over a few days
 
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dbo24242

New Member
dutc2006 said:
Try not to worry about what your runoff pH is in the future, because if you start off with good soil and continuously pH adjust the water you are feeding your plant, the pH should never get so out of whack. If you are watering now with around 6.0 and the runoff is coming out 7.4, your soil is obviously too alkaline, leading me to believe you are not flowering yet because P drops pH like crazy. If you are vegging you should have plenty of time to fix the problem. If you don't have a way to get a pH reading on the soil itself (you should check it right after watering while it is still pooling) then continue watering with the 6.0 water until your runoff is just under 7.0 . Nutes or not it shouldn't matter, as long as the solution is pH adjusted before you use it. If you make a drastic change to the pH suddenly your plants will undergo pH shock, and it will take them several days to resume normal growth. So don't try to water it with some acidic solution expecting to bring it down to the desired level in one swoop. Obviously, you know that the desired pH for the soil is slightly acidic, 6.5- 6.8 is perfect. Once you get the soil or runoff to the slightly acidic level, start watering with 6.5 - 6.8 water and forget about checking your runoff pH. Your runoff PPM is more important.
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kewl, thank you!

I have been doing just that, watering with 5.8-6.2 floranova nutrients at 6-700ppm and the runoff does seem to have dropped just below 7. I have been running the drippers for mad extra time tryin to drop it a lil bit and it seems to have worked. regularly I am running the drippers 6 times a day for 5 minutes a time, total of half gallon of a little under 1/2 gal of water per gal of soil per day.

friend said I should water it with 5.0 and I kind of grimaced at him and told him that sounded like a bad idea haha I bet it was.
 
papasamba

papasamba

Member
Maybe it wont fix your problem for this grow but u should think of using Dolomitic lime in right proportion it keeps your soil at pretty steady Ph apparently
 
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dbo24242

New Member
papasamba said:
Maybe it wont fix your problem for this grow but u should think of using Dolomitic lime in right proportion it keeps your soil at pretty steady Ph apparently
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I'm not sure if it really is a problem but it does need to be lowered... the plants are still really healthy.

dolomitic and hydrated lime are usually for calcium and buffering pH to 7.0 I'm trying to go lower though >.< some of the soil already has dolomite in it (works) mostly wondering about to the methods I should use here because I have grown much more hydro than soil.

the slow change is working. drippers just came on... brb
 
papasamba

papasamba

Member
U seem much more experienced than i do so I bet u'll find a way, i was wondering if Ph is that important, I heard 90% of the quality and yield comes from the strain and 10 % your garden skill, Does controlling your Ph is really the CORNERSTONE of growing like gradenknown says.. what are your experiences with bad Ph? Just a quick question dont want to invade the thread
 
SIV3L

SIV3L

Well-Known Member
Could he not just flush away the nute problem in the soil with plain old Distilled Water for the next 2 feedings?
 
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dbo24242

New Member
A flush? I donno if that would help unless it were pHed and even then, thats what I'm already doing.


mmmm I had some bad pH to DWC before the plant really just dies if the pH is bad.... my girls right now look really healthy but I just keep reading everywhere that pH should be around 6.0 not around 7.0
 
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dbo24242

New Member
smallclosetgrowr said:
spinkle some agriculture sulphar onto the top soil , id will bring it down after a few flushes , but as that guy said u will shock your plant if u do it to quick so do it over a few days
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this does have some merit to it. apparently it lowers pH, I thought the other way around. I have phosphoric acid to add later on... already changed the runoff pH by 0.2 in the last day though.
 
dutc2006

dutc2006

Well-Known Member
papasamba said:
Does controlling your Ph is really the CORNERSTONE of growing like gradenknown says.. what are your experiences with bad Ph? Just a quick question dont want to invade the thread
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It is extremely important to adjust the pH of your nutrient solutions, unless you are just watering with the same plain water the whole grow, and never adding ferts. If you water one day with plain tap water, unamended, and let's say it has a pH of 7.5. Then 3 days later your plant needs watering again, this time you water with your fertilizer solution that you didn't pH adjust. One of my solutions I use during flower is around 4.5pH before I adjust it. So let's say you used that, that would be a difference in 3 on the pH scale, which would cause SEVERE stress on the plant. An abrupt change of 1 increment is very stressful, let alone 3. Not only that, but with such acidic soil the plant would be locked out from taking in certain essential nutrients. So it is a double-edged sword. The plant would exhibit the pH twist, twisted gnarled looking newer growth, and would be stunted for several days until the problem is adjusted. This is a common reason new growers fail there first time growing is not recognizing the importance of pH.
 
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dbo24242

New Member
yes I seem to have gathered that sudden changes at the 10x mark is when it starts to stress it. 10x acidity or alkilinity would be 0.1 on the pH scale. 1.0 is 100x more alkaline, so 8.0 is 100x more alkaline than 7.0 and 200x more alkaline than 6.0. fluctuations should be within a very small range. however, keeping it from 5.8-6.2 has never given me problems in hydro but other radical pH changes have.
 
Mr.GreenJeans

Mr.GreenJeans

Well-Known Member
papasamba said:
U seem much more experienced than i do so I bet u'll find a way, i was wondering if Ph is that important, I heard 90% of the quality and yield comes from the strain and 10 % your garden skill, Does controlling your Ph is really the CORNERSTONE of growing like gradenknown says.. what are your experiences with bad Ph? Just a quick question dont want to invade the thread
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Actually, that is backwards, IMO.
90% of the quality and yield comes from the "gardening skill"(environment included) and 10% from the genetics. A good grower can grow some top-shelf smoke with average genetics, but give a crappy grower top genetics and he'll still grow schwag.

Soil growing is MUCH more forgiving of Ph variations than , say hydro is, but it is still VERY important. If your Ph gets too far out of the desired range you will have nute lock-out issues, regardless of your growing medium/method. But as someone stated in one of the previous posts, don't make a huge sudden change in Ph or you'll shock/stress the hell out of your plants!!!

Judging from the OP's comments, I think he is on the right track and will be just fine.
 
DaveCoulier

DaveCoulier

Well-Known Member
dbo24242 said:
I'm not sure if it really is a problem but it does need to be lowered... the plants are still really healthy.

dolomitic and hydrated lime are usually for calcium and buffering pH to 7.0 I'm trying to go lower though >.< some of the soil already has dolomite in it (works) mostly wondering about to the methods I should use here because I have grown much more hydro than soil.

the slow change is working. drippers just came on... brb
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While dolomitic lime and hydrated lime do help buffer your soils ph if used in the correct amounts, it can not lower the ph of your soil.

If you use too much your soil will become alkaline, and you pretty much are fucked as trying to flush it out is near impossible in my experience.
 
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dbo24242

New Member
DaveCoulier said:
While dolomitic lime and hydrated lime do help buffer your soils ph if used in the correct amounts, it can not lower the ph of your soil.

If you use too much your soil will become alkaline, and you pretty much are fucked as trying to flush it out is near impossible in my experience.
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ya thats why I said i'm tryin to go lower though.. runoff is still ranging from 6.8 up to 7.3 accross the girks, but at least its a little lower than before.
 
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