Help pH'ing my water please!

hexone

hexone

Member
Hey guys. Im sure you're all sick of answering this question but I had a problem pH'ing my tap water for growing cannabis.

I just bought a pH Up-Down kit. When I test my water after adding Botanicare Pro Bloom, my pH is very low at about 5.0 or lower. Its takes over 25-30+ drops (maybe even more) of pH Up to get it close to 6.5-7.0. Doesnt that seems like alot of pH Up??? Im not sure if Im doing this correctly. Im afraid to add more pH Up even though runoff is LOW. Like 4.0 pH.

Im using untreated tap water (its my only option at the moment) Ocean Forest soil with no additives except Cal/Mag & my plants dont seem very healthy/happy. Any help would be appreciated. I feel as though Im adding way too much pH up but I dont know. Thanks in advance guys.
 
hotshotisdashit

hotshotisdashit

Well-Known Member
It shouldn't take 30 drops of ph up to balance your water. Usually one to two drops brings mine up a point in a one gallon of tap. Maybe if you have the cash u could invest in a ph pen. What brand of ph up/down are you using?
 
B

BongboyMMA

Active Member
^^ in my little dwc it takes like 2 drops of either up or down 25 drops of up in my 1gal would put me super basic. I absolutely hate matching the color. The pH pen was the same price as GH pH kit. It got here today and I'm so relieved. I would deff get one if I was you
 
mike4c4

mike4c4

Well-Known Member
what are u using to test with? how old is the kit? dont know if this will help but i dont measure mine in drops, i use ml and fer a 5gal bucket mine takes 3 to 4 ml.
 
vostok

vostok

Well-Known Member
hexone said:
Hey guys. Im sure you're all sick of answering this question but I had a problem pH'ing my tap water for growing cannabis.

I just bought a pH Up-Down kit. When I test my water after adding Botanicare Pro Bloom, my pH is very low at about 5.0 or lower. Its takes over 25-30+ drops (maybe even more) of pH Up to get it close to 6.5-7.0. Doesnt that seems like alot of pH Up??? Im not sure if Im doing this correctly. Im afraid to add more pH Up even though runoff is LOW. Like 4.0 pH.

Im using untreated tap water (its my only option at the moment) Ocean Forest soil with no additives except Cal/Mag & my plants dont seem very healthy/happy. Any help would be appreciated. I feel as though Im adding way too much pH up but I dont know. Thanks in advance guys.
Click to expand...
A soil grower concerned with the Ph of his water?
this is a mis-nomer???
with water you should be concerned with PPM (parts per million)
or the level of shit in the water, not weather the water is acid or alkaline
as the soil itself buffers any ph ?
think about that
ps use RO water ​
 
Nullis

Nullis

Moderator
hexone said:
Hey guys. Im sure you're all sick of answering this question but I had a problem pH'ing my tap water for growing cannabis.

I just bought a pH Up-Down kit. When I test my water after adding Botanicare Pro Bloom, my pH is very low at about 5.0 or lower. Its takes over 25-30+ drops (maybe even more) of pH Up to get it close to 6.5-7.0. Doesnt that seems like alot of pH Up??? Im not sure if Im doing this correctly. Im afraid to add more pH Up even though runoff is LOW. Like 4.0 pH.

Im using untreated tap water (its my only option at the moment) Ocean Forest soil with no additives except Cal/Mag & my plants dont seem very healthy/happy. Any help would be appreciated. I feel as though Im adding way too much pH up but I dont know. Thanks in advance guys.
Click to expand...
pH 5 is not very low. You are adding way too much, as 0 drops of pH Up should be required in this case.

Fussing with pH is for hydroponics, where the media used provides no CEC or buffering capacity (or where there is little to no media at all). What you should have done is mixed additional lime into the Ocean Forest to ensure neutralization of any reserve acidity in the mix over a longer period of time. Garden lime also provides calcium (calcitic limestone, oyster or egg shell flour) and may also provide magnesium (dolomitic limestone). It can keep releasing minerals and neutralizing acidity for months, while pH up is only temporarily effective.

Depending on your water source, using dolomitic lime can also forgo any/most need to for Cal/Mag products unless you are using RO\distilled or pure rain or purified bottled water (which will be low ppm).

As for pH pens... liquid indicator/drops (typically phenol red) or litmus paper are generally just as, if not more accurate, than all but the most expensive/fine tuned and calibrated electronic instruments. If the color of the solution is an issue, litmus paper can be used instead.
 
Triplec

Triplec

Well-Known Member
When PH, you have to give it time. Take a gallon, add some drops. Wait 15-30 mins, test again. If you don't have a good digital PH meter, get one. And yes PH matters. 6.0-7.0 is optimal for soil.
 

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crawlintbss

crawlintbss

Well-Known Member
Honestly dude it sounds okay to me...

Im using distilled water with Botanicare Pro bloom and calmag. Almost all my 1gals of distilled ph to 6.3 from the store. once i add 20ml bloom 5ml cal it drops to around 5.00ish. i initially add 25 drops of ph up before shaking. then shake and test. usually has it sitting around 6.2ish or so after that. THen i add 5 at a time to get up to 6.5. ( using a ph pen of course ) ppms end up at about 1050ppms which is what i want to be sitting at. no problems with my plants at all and i add botanicare in every watering like bottle says. soil sits around 6.5ish but i dont even bother checking soil anymore once ive phd the water to 6.5.
 
hotshotisdashit

hotshotisdashit

Well-Known Member
I have to agree with triplec. Ph does matter. In a previous grow using happy frog soil early in veg it was consistently 6.5 That's also what I ph'ed my water at. Half way through flower I developed ph problems. Oh of about 5.0 Caused several deficiencies. But as Nullis mentioned I now add two tbsp of dolomite lime and ph stays consistent throughout my grow. But I'm still learning so no disrespect to anyone.
 
Triplec

Triplec

Well-Known Member
hotshotisdashit said:
I have to agree with triplec. Ph does matter. In a previous grow using happy frog soil early in veg it was consistently 6.5 That's also what I ph'ed my water at. Half way through flower I developed ph problems. Oh of about 5.0 Caused several deficiencies. But as Nullis mentioned I now add two tbsp of dolomite lime and ph stays consistent throughout my grow. But I'm still learning so no disrespect to anyone.
Click to expand...
There are so many different ways to grow and most of them work if you do the basics right.
 
grasscropper

grasscropper

Well-Known Member
I had ph issues as well in soil. Flowering phase. Tap water is 7 (yes ph pen was used). Run off 4.8. Read up and using Jack classic throughout with the high nitrogen was probably causing this. Salt build up etc. so I flushed. I did buy ph down for my hydro plant that is a test run. I purchased a 20% phosphoric acid and yes add more than less because of that. You could try flushing.
 
Nullis

Nullis

Moderator
Most potting mixes aren't like soil at all; they're designed to simulate soil to an extent. The materials used tend to be acidic on their own, as in sphagnum and to a lesser extent coco coir. Typical pH of a potting mix\soil out of bag is 5.5-6, as although the materials are limed, products are often formulated for use with a wide variety of plants as well as for use in hydroponic setups. Therefore many soil/container growers add more lime for sustained effect. However, a lot of people also like to add copious amounts of perlite to their potting mix, which further detracts from any tendency potting mix has to behave like soil.

pH matters in the rhizopshere, at the root-soil interface where nutrient absorption actually occurs. What people fail to understand is that in environments akin to soil the plant itself has domain over it's own pH. With healthy activity in the soil which can include that of arthropods and microbes, pH is maintained all by itself so long as things were set up properly.

If you look at a better pH\Nutrient Availability chart you'll see that within the range of 6-7, most nutrients are more or less available: they are not all perfectly available.
pH-Nutrient-Avail.jpg

The point therefore is that to whatever extent pH may matter to the plant, in soil there are various influences which add complexity and make pH matter that much less to the grower. Aside from plants and microbes being able to influence the pH of their environments, certain microbes work directly with plants to seek out and make available nutrients which otherwise would not have been. There are also substances produced by plants & microbes, and already present in decayed organic matter (humus) in the soil which sequester nutrients and help ensure they remain available even if the pH of the overall soil solution falls below 6.

This is why all kinds of plants and entire forests once grew all over this Earth... without God adding a drop of pH up or down to the clouds.
 
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