chasing ph

[cgc1776]

Can Mycorrhiza or Amino Acids cause a rise in ph? I'm in DWC and I've been having a time trying to keep ph below 6.2, Ph'd water to 5.7 last night, woke up this morning to 7.4. I'm using RO water.

 

[Mañ'O'Green]

Can Mycorrhiza or Amino Acids cause a rise in ph? I'm in DWC and I've been having a time trying to keep ph below 6.2, Ph'd water to 5.7 last night, woke up this morning to 7.4. I'm using RO water.

Absolutely yes. Live organisms can and do change the PH of water and soil also but the effect in soil is minimized by the buffering of the soil elements. In a Live hydroponics reservoir you are always correcting your PH. They make automatic dossers to monitor and correct PH. They are expensive so I will check and make corrections to my res at least twice a day. Often I check many times a day.

 

[LabRat]

Can Mycorrhiza or Amino Acids cause a rise in ph? I'm in DWC and I've been having a time trying to keep ph below 6.2, Ph'd water to 5.7 last night, woke up this morning to 7.4. I'm using RO water.

Personally I use AN pH Perfect 3-part nutes when I do DWC and don't mess with pH ever. I run sterile tho I doubt it matters as I use the same nutes with DynoMyco and organic inputs in a base of ProMix HP for my potted plants and never check the pH for that either and the plants are happy.

Before I got the pH Perfect nutes I'd top up with RO water every 3 days then check ppm and pH after letting it run for 30 min to settle everything down and stabilize. The pH would be around 6.4 and I'd lower it to 5.4 with a few drops of conc. sulphuric acid then do it again 3 days later. I'd add small amounts of nutes in the same ratio being used at the stage of growth the plants were at to remain in my target range. Many of my 50 or so DWC grows were done without changing nutes even once from clone to harvest but I would try to do a change after the stretch when I would change to feeding Lucas Formula style. No Grow and half as much Micro as Bloom. A 0-1-2 ratio using 3-part nutes.

It's quite likely that those supplements are messing with your pH pen so I'd try running it for a while without adjusting pH and see if you notice anything weird start to happen to the newer growth which will be the first to respond negatively if the higher pH is really an issue.

I would not recommend a pH doser unless you want to go thru lots of pH Down and likely Up as well as those things try to micromanage the pH to precise settings. There may be better units out there that aren't so anal about keeping it fixed on a 0.1 range but I haven't seen that many in operation. Most pH down is phosphoric acid and if a lot is used it can supply too much P and more than anything that helps give pot it's 'chem' taste.

Good luck and good growing!