Ph levels for dummies

Can someone direct me to a discussion/page/site that will break down PH levels for soil growers and how to raise/lower them, etc? I've looked through here, but I can't find anything so far. I've found where it describes how to figure out if your ph is off, but not how to fix it.

My levels are off (WAY too high) and I need to figure out how to stabilize them. I understand the basics of what they mean and where you want them to be, but can't quite figure out how to fix them once you've established they're not where they're supposed to be.

You use Ph up and Ph down to alter the level. this can be bought in any aquarium shop, hydroponics shop or online shop for a couple of dollars.

If your Ph is reading 8 and you want 6, then you use Ph down, add a few drops, stir in, test, add more if it is still above your required level.

ph for soil typically wants to be around 6.5.

Just google Ph Down, there will be plenty available.

google "PH Manifesto" and read it, while it is for hydro it completely explains ph

and instead of saying way to high tell us what it is

I use apple cider vinegar to reduce mine

Bonus! I have all that stuff already from an old aquarium setup I took down a few years ago. I have the aquarium stuff, but I didn't know if you could use it on soil. I didn't know if it had stuff in it that wasn't good for the plants. That old box of crap leftover from my aquarium days came in handy (yay for packrats!).


right now my ph on my two purple powers are high 7's-pushing 8. Maybe 7.7 or 7.8. They're in FF Happy Frog. They're both about 4' in 5 gallon pots and they only get watered distilled water. The plants are definitely suffering. It's about 3 weeks into flower and the new growth is skinny and folding down. We have purple bud growth, but you can tell it's not all it should be.


So.... if it's in the high 7s and I want to get it down to the high 6s, do I make the water high 6s, and the soil will become what the water is, or do I lower it more, like in the low 6s to get an average? I guess what I'm asking is, is the current soil ph a variable? do I need to counter it by making the water ph lower than what I want the final outcome to be?

Also, do you lower the level slowly over a few days? Will an instant drop shock the plants? or do you level it off all at once?

riddleme said:

I use apple cider vinegar to reduce mine

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Thank you. I will read up on that.

For the apple cider vinegar, what ratio per gallon do you use?

you must check ph and add a few drops and check ph again untill you get it where you want it, there is no formula as water and ph are different for everyone

you will want to do this fairly slowly. plants don't like major ph swings any more than they like it too high or low. what i want to know is how exactly you came up with your soil reading. did you test the runoff or use a probe? testing the runoff is the best way if you don't have expensive and fancy testing supplies. if your dirt is 7.7 i would ph the watering solution to about 6.5 or so and let the ph change gradually (this will not instantly turn the soil to 6.5). if you throw some 5.4 water in there they are not going to like that. also you did not mention whether they have been fed anything. 3 weeks into flower is definately way past dinner time. you may also have a deficiency if they have not been fed. a lot of nutes will change the ph of the soil when they are added/break down.

i'm no expert but if it were me i'd lower it to 6.2 with the next feed watering and leave it at that level i'm in soil and i vary my p.h from 5.8-6.5 changing up and down every feeding i'e monday 5.8-6.1 wednesday 6.2-6.5 saturday 6.2ish tuesday 5.9-6.1 i only lower the ph to the top end of the 5s once a week because from my understanding the plants will absord different nutes at different p.h levels

Total Head said:

you will want to do this fairly slowly. plants don't like major ph swings any more than they like it too high or low. what i want to know is how exactly you came up with your soil reading. did you test the runoff or use a probe? testing the runoff is the best way if you don't have expensive and fancy testing supplies. if your dirt is 7.7 i would ph the watering solution to about 6.5 or so and let the ph change gradually (this will not instantly turn the soil to 6.5). if you throw some 5.4 water in there they are not going to like that. also you did not mention whether they have been fed anything. 3 weeks into flower is definately way past dinner time. you may also have a deficiency if they have not been fed. a lot of nutes will change the ph of the soil when they are added/break down.

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sorry, yeah, I guess I should have said that. I have a probe for moisture/ph/light. Is that not the right thing to use? I never had luck testing runoff water because the soil dust/particles alter the color of the water, making it hard to accurately read.

I just flushed the hell out of it with distilled (reading of 7) and the probe read high 7s.

I'm feeding them fox farms. They got FF Grow Big ever other watering during veg/ then I alternate either Big Bloom or Tiger Bloom every other watering in flower. I water a little every day to just keep not thirsty, but every other day I really give them a drink. Every other big watering they get either big bloom or tiger bloom.

I'm not making sense. lemme see.....

one day water a little (just a trickle)
water a lot
water a little
water a lot w/ big bloom
water a little
water a lot
water a little
water a lot w/ tiger bloom
water a little
etc etc etc


will flush w/ a gallon of 6.5 water to each and reread. This helps, thank you.

really bad water schedule, water for plenty of runoff and then wait till they want water again

RAMBLER420......To get the full effect of Fox farms YOU HAVE TO use big bloom and tiger bloom TOGETHER....the act as one when put together....just look at the feeding chart...your doing it all WRONG...

no tiger just gb and the other stuff feed with phed stuff every time not to much but every time so you can ph ur gallon thats part of my best way frog is good so is lw and distilled

Dr. Greenthum said:

RAMBLER420......To get the full effect of Fox farms YOU HAVE TO use big bloom and tiger bloom TOGETHER....the act as one when put together....just look at the feeding chart...your doing it all WRONG...

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um, damn. Okay. got it. doing it wrong. copy. wow. wrong, wrong, wrong

Here is one of the girls. She was moved to the bathroom for the flushing....she doesn't live there full time. We definitely have a curling issue of some sort going on. The purple is starting to show through, but we most definitely have problems. It's odd that these two are the only ones showing problems. They're the only two purple powers though. It must be a strain thing. All other strains are fine.

I had similar questions just recently, and also found it difficult to find good info. I am fairly experienced with water PH/alk/KH, and their relationship, but I found that when I started dealing with soil, some of it is applicable, some isn't (The PH of substances doesn't change, but the way that water and soil react seems very different). For instance, I found a lot of info on how to regulate the PH of your water, but took a lot more research digging to find out how difficult it is to modify soil PH with water additives, and find information on achieving proper soil PH before planting. After talking to a master gardener friend (not just my opinion, she is certified or something...), and reading some whitepapers she had, the prevailing horticultural opinion seems to be that adjusting water ph is a temporary solution, that real results are going to depend much more on soil ph than water... Keep in mind she doesn't grow the plants we're talking about specifically, but I have a lot of faith in her ability to give input that is applicable to our plants.

In short, I would suggest looking into water PH chemistry, which you can find tons of info online about, as a short term solution, but I would also dig deeper to information specific to soil which will give you the info you need in the future to properly resolve ph issues.

Edit: You might find good info looking at advice for keeping azaleas and rhododendron's in alkaline soil. I found tons of info on these plants, which need more acidic soil, and since I was in the same range you are near (7-7.5 soil, 7 water), it was very applicable to my situation.

it's actually pretty easy something like peat moss added to your soil reduces ph and dolomite lime increases ph, they buffer over time

folks make way more out of ph than is needed if your in soil

i have the same type of meter. the moisture and light functions are fine, but the probe ph test is completely useless. mine reads 7 no matter what i do to the dirt. you should get a decent reading with drops after watering with plain water. based on how you water and those pics i would say your watering schedule is your biggest issue. i saw no evidence of ph or nute damage from those pics but a shitload of moisture stress. mj doesn't like to sip drinks. you need to water so that the whole soil mass is equally wet, and don't even think about watering again until your moisture meter starts dipping into the red or bottom of the green when stuck all the way down. if the soil starts to separate from the walls of the pot it's way too dry.

you dont even need 10x the bull its so easy to grow perfect with fox farm. riddleme would have you cfling a compost pile man dont listen to half his shit. you may try some cal mag, the curl ive seen with fox farm when the plant is green curls up not down but can be fixed with calmag. urs curls down but check it out type in ganja gurillas hall of mj plant abuse for good pics of problem descriptions

riddleme said:

really bad water schedule, water for plenty of runoff and then wait till they want water again

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Thank You for this put into simple terms for my simple mind : P shagrin! This does help me learn proper watering...well said riddleme

Grasshopper

thanks for the input...will water less.