opinion on ideal PH?

So i was looking at this chart for hydro and i know most places i read say the ideal PH is around 5.6-5.9 somewhere in that range. it seems to me that (according to the pic) the ideal range would fall more into the 5.0-5.3 range?

you can see around 5.5 to 6 range the nitrogen, potassium, calcium and magnesium begin to taper off, as does phosphorus but from the other end of the spectrum.

it appears that, unlike soil, right around the 5.0-5.3 ph range, nearly everything is available at near peak levels. phosphorus is near a peak, nitrogen peaks back up after its taper off, calicium and magnesium do the same. everything on that chart is near peaked except molybdenum which is at the lower end of it's taper off spectrum.

I'm in my 2nd round of DWC right now and have always been a soil grower years prior, so i'm in my beginning learning stages of hydro and everything related to it involving PH levels. does anyone have any thoughts or input as to my thoughts that i should run my ph around 5.0-5.3 range instead of the hovering around 5.6-6.0 range? and becuase most people run in the 5.5-6 range could that possibly be why a lot of people feel they need to supplement with calmag (not because there is not enough in their nutrients, but because their PH range is not ideal for cal/mag uptake as it chokes off big time in this 5.5-6 range)

here is the pic:

between 5.8-6.4 in soil

i think that your leaving out an important detail and that is drift, unless your ph`ing daily.
in veg i like to start mine in veg at 5.2 and let it drift up to 5.4-5.5. in flower i start in the mid 5`s and let it drift to 5.8-5.9
i know some like to do dwc that like to go to 6.2, but i haven`t seen any benefits from it.
your plant needs different nutes at different stages of growth and your ph has a great effect on that as your chart shows.

5.8

when i was using dutch master nutrients in DWC for my first round the PH never changed. i didnt have to adjust ph at all. RO + nutrients dialed it right in in veg at 5.9 and in flower at 5.6. and no matter what PPM's did it stayed there. now that im using maxigrow/maxibloom powder we'll see if it has a different effect. i imagine it will becuase i have to use ph up now since its very acidic stuff.

My PH drifts down over a couple of weeks, always has. Start at 6ish and change res at 5.6-.7ish. What would make PH drift up? I just assumed it always will drop with higher concentration if nutes in water.

sidewing said:

when i was using dutch master nutrients in DWC for my first round the PH never changed. i didnt have to adjust ph at all. RO + nutrients dialed it right in in veg at 5.9 and in flower at 5.6. and no matter what PPM's did it stayed there. now that im using maxigrow/maxibloom powder we'll see if it has a different effect. i imagine it will becuase i have to use ph up now since its very acidic stuff.

Click to expand...

thats interest about the dutchmaster they must have changed their formula some because i used in the way back and it wasn`t that stable at all. i didn`t think they had much of a buffer in them. they must have done some improvements, good to see companies keeping up with peoples needs. i`m also interested how that maxibloom works out, i`am wanting to go with the dry stuff of some kind due to its ease of use.

waterdawg said:

My PH drifts down over a couple of weeks, always has. Start at 6ish and change res at 5.6-.7ish. What would make PH drift up? I just assumed it always will drop with higher concentration if nutes in water.

Click to expand...

nute uptake and evaporation make the ph go up. it does drop as nutes are added because the nutes have buffers in them to help keep the ph incheck, but it doesn`t drop far. now additives can change the whole dynamic because most don`t have the buffers and some will run the ph up.

SnapsProvolone said:

5.8

Click to expand...

snaps dude i love some of your posts they are direct and to the point. for the most part you give little explanation unless asked, i this case he ask what was perfect and you gave that. so how is it that you work with your ph?

So far with maxibloom and maxigrow I've noticed they are not buffered in my opinion. With ro the ph drops to about 4.0 when mixed. I had to go buy some AN ph up cuz I've never had to adjust up before. So I took it up 5.8. After near 24 hours it drifted to 6.2. So I think next time I'm going to adjust to 5.3 and let it drift up to ideal range. Will see how it looks tomorrow, if it goes any higher I'll have to readjust with down slightly. Ec looks pretty much the same, maybe close to a little lower. It's teetering back and forth between 2 numbers. But plants are very perky and some of the yellowing is going back to green.
On Dutch master I was using their 2 part gold line. Extremely stable, but I feel overall the plants always wanted more nitrogen even at ec levels that it should have been fine. I also had to use calmag even though they claim their product has plenty. We'll see how the dry stuff does. I had a grow log on thegrowcorner that was near 20 pages but that forum seems to have died cuz it just says database error for past month. I tried to make a log here but got no interest, so I'll be documenting it on ic.

I always keep my hydro at 5.3 to 5.8(it does move around) and the plants seem to like it. Get the ph dialed in fast because there is no buffer with water and the plants will respond to ph flux quickly.
I have been having ph problems for the last week and my plants suffered, But they look fine now except for some burnt leaves.

Working on it. I just want to give it another day to make sure if it's gonna keep drifting or if it was a one time drift while the res got settled. Cuz an overnight basically .5 drift is pretty drastic. That's one reason I bought the ro was to get away from drift like this that I had with tap. I'm ok with a slow drift but .5 in 24 hours is a problem IF it turns out to be a daily thing. Unless they're just eating like crazy

sidewing said:

Working on it. I just want to give it another day to make sure if it's gonna keep drifting or if it was a one time drift while the res got settled. Cuz an overnight basically .5 drift is pretty drastic. That's one reason I bought the ro was to get away from drift like this that I had with tap. I'm ok with a slow drift but .5 in 24 hours is a problem IF it turns out to be a daily thing. Unless they're just eating like crazy

Click to expand...

One thing I notice is if you use both PHU/PHD at the same time you will have drift. Try to use just one or the other and if you have to use both try to get it right the first time and don't keep bringing it up and down, If you do then flush if you have to do it a couple of times because you are just driving up the PPM.

Yeah that was my concern also as I've read not to use both either. I change res every 7 days so if tomorrow ph is still the same I might just leave it and ride it out and know where to adjust for next week. If it drifts higher I'll try lowering it once, if I have issues I'll just drain and start over

sidewing said:

Yeah that was my concern also as I've read not to use both either. I change res every 7 days so if tomorrow ph is still the same I might just leave it and ride it out and know where to adjust for next week. If it drifts higher I'll try lowering it once, if I have issues I'll just drain and start over

Click to expand...

I have been doing this for a while now and I don't measure anymore I just pour lol. You will in time have it figured out to the point where you won't need the down PH/U at all. I know that a flush is a frigging waste of nutes but it is better of to use clean water rather than heavy water.

sidewing said:

So far with maxibloom and maxigrow I've noticed they are not buffered in my opinion. With ro the ph drops to about 4.0 when mixed. I had to go buy some AN ph up cuz I've never had to adjust up before. So I took it up 5.8. After near 24 hours it drifted to 6.2. So I think next time I'm going to adjust to 5.3 and let it drift up to ideal range. Will see how it looks tomorrow, if it goes any higher I'll have to readjust with down slightly. Ec looks pretty much the same, maybe close to a little lower. It's teetering back and forth between 2 numbers. But plants are very perky and some of the yellowing is going back to green.
On Dutch master I was using their 2 part gold line. Extremely stable, but I feel overall the plants always wanted more nitrogen even at ec levels that it should have been fine. I also had to use calmag even though they claim their product has plenty. We'll see how the dry stuff does. I had a grow log on thegrowcorner that was near 20 pages but that forum seems to have died cuz it just says database error for past month. I tried to make a log here but got no interest, so I'll be documenting it on ic.

Click to expand...

you know it may work gh`s hard water micro, it takes time for it to stabilize. i liked the corner but it was hit with some admin problems and it just kinda died. i`ll ck you out at icm.

Hoping to be there no more than a month. Yesterday was my first mix with these particular nutes (maxigrow/maxibloom). Prior with dutchmaster nutes I stopped checking cuz I was at that point.

Hoping it'll be the same ph tomorrow which means I just need to put it at 5.3 and watch it drift into 5.8. The plants like the nutrients though. They look extremely happy

sidewing said:

Hoping to be there no more than a month. Yesterday was my first mix with these particular nutes (maxigrow/maxibloom). Prior with dutchmaster nutes I stopped checking cuz I was at that point.

Click to expand...

And how is those nutes working for you? I myself am an "AN" person and I also use "Jake's Fertilizer" as well.

I do have another plant later in flower that I gave some cultured solutions bud finisher (basically high pk powder). That is made for hydro and it's stabilized. That res I did 3/4 strength maxibloom and full strength cs. And adjusted to 5.8 and its still 5.8. So it seems to stabilizer in that product is doing a good job.

Time will tell with maxi products. But first dose I like it. Plus a fifteen dollar bag will last me a couple cycles. One part nutrient, nothing wrong with that. I just wish they would've buffered it better

My line up is Advanced nutes Jungle juice(3part non ph perfect), AN Big Bud, AN Bud Candy and Jakes Fertilizer 3part.