Ph is crazy!?

I got my ph tester in today and calibrated with the liquid to 7.0. I tested my water and its 8.1. I then ran water through one of my pots and tested the runoff and it was 3.7! I checked the calibration and it was 7.0. Checked the runoff and it was 3.8. Is this normal? Im using a organic mix of sphagnum peat moss, vermiculite, an perlite. Is this normal? That means the mix is like 1. Am I doing this wrong?

I only got about 2 oz of runoff from an 8-12 oz pot. Should I gather more?

When you calibrated you ph tester in a solution of 7.0 did you also calibrate it to 4.0 or 10.0? im pretty sure you need to do the 7 and one of the other 2 for a true calibration....i had to for my bluelab ph meter

paramountads said:

I got my ph tester in today and calibrated with the liquid to 7.0. I tested my water and its 8.1. I then ran water through one of my pots and tested the runoff and it was 3.7! I checked the calibration and it was 7.0. Checked the runoff and it was 3.8. Is this normal? Im using a organic mix of sphagnum peat moss, vermiculite, an perlite. Is this normal? That means the mix is like 1. Am I doing this wrong?

I only got about 2 oz of runoff from an 8-12 oz pot. Should I gather more?

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If the meter is correct. You need to flush till you get your runoff to 5.8 ph. 3.8 is way to low. Peat is considered a soil-less medium so you want a range of 5.5 to 6.1 . Here is a chart View attachment 3037539

Well I just read that peat is usually 3-3.5 so this makes sense. I'll added some of the ph + to my water to gradually raise the ph. I should have checked the ph before starting the new seeds. Hopefully these two make it and I can clone in proper ph soil.

What you want to do next before you put a plant in the medium is get you a bunch of 5.8 water ready. Then flush the medium till the run off is 5.8. Then slap your plants in there or seeds. Really what you have now needs to be flushed to the proper PH. @ 3.5 your locked out so the plants will suffer till you get the proper PH or maybe even die. You really need to flush with 5.8 or 5.9 water till your run off is correct. good rule of thumb for flushing is 3 times the pot size in water. So i would PH that amount of water to start off with might take less water you can stop once the correct PH is reached. Then let them sit at least 3 days before watering again. Make sure you measure the run off right when it comes out of the medium for the most accurate reading.

Thanks, I decided to just get soil that met my need ph wise and found Jiffy seed starter and its ph when mixed 50/50 with 8.0 water is 7.0. So now I just have to amend it slightly to get it to the proper range. Hopefully my two original plants will come to life but Im not expecting much at this point.