New Grower Do Nutes Make One's Water More Acidic??? (Help!)

[Brother Sweetleaf]

I'm about ready to give my outdoor potted Autoflowers their first full feeding of nutes-- an organic fish-based high Nitrogen solution (since they're still babies and need stem and leaf growth right now). I just added my ferts (only a half the recommended dose) to water that was balanced at about 6.3ph, and after testing the final solution I see that the ph is now way below 4, what might be seen as far too acidic.

These are Autoflowering plants, and it seems they would thrive best with water somewhere between 6.0 and 6.5, ideally.

Do nutrients typically throw the ph all out of whack???

After a high Nitrogen fertilizer has been added, is a ph rating of 4 or lower typical and therefore OK???

My girls really need this food badly (they're starving and in need of growth), so if please pipe-in if you know what's going on here.

 

[Dazed]

WOW hold on bro! How much did you add? 4 is WAAAYY too low bro. That seems like a real big drop-you need to bring that back up to what it was before ideally.

Not sure why that solution would drop the pH so low, but you need to get it up somehow, I would not risk that if it were my plants.

Dazed..

 

[namvet25]

Make sure you always add your nutes first,than check and adjust your ph if needed.Nutes will change your ph so this is why we check ph after adding nutes.

 

[CanadianHigh]

Do you check ec before or after adding supplements?

 

[jokidd]

what will happen to ur plant if ph is wrong ? v and what can u give them to raise/ lower ph?

 

[namvet25]

You could run some correct ph water through them and this should help.You need to buy some ph up and down usually from Gen Organics to use to correct your ph.

 

[Trapper]

To my knowledge, most, if not all, nutes will "acidify" your solution...make it go down, numerically. That's why we use buffers to bring it back up into our desired range.

IMHO - for soil growers, desired soil pH is anywhere from 6.1 or 6.2 to 6.7....the reason we buffer our feeds is to maintain that range.

Most folks use General Hydroponics pH UP and pH DOWN to adjust our solution pH. Others, such as Organics Only growers would use other natural items...

Garden Lime mixed into medium to begin with is a way a lot of growers maintain desired soil pH's as well...as Garden Lime gently adjusts pH up.

The pH of the soil is important because it dictates which micro/macro nutrients and minerals the root system can and will absorb for the plant's requirements.

pH's out of optimal range will "lock out" particular micro/macro nutrients and minerals, they won't be absorbed and the plant will exhibit deficiencies

Those deficiencies will adversely effect the plants health, cause stunting and/or jeopardize the plant's life.

 

[hecno]

ph

To my knowledge, most, if not all, nutes will "acidify" your solution...make it go down, numerically. That's why we use buffers to bring it back up into our desired range.

IMHO - for soil growers, desired soil pH is anywhere from 6.1 or 6.2 to 6.7....the reason we buffer our feeds is to maintain that range.

Most folks use General Hydroponics pH UP and pH DOWN to adjust our solution pH. Others, such as Organics Only growers would use other natural items...

Garden Lime mixed into medium to begin with is a way a lot of growers maintain desired soil pH's as well...as Garden Lime gently adjusts pH up.

The pH of the soil is important because it dictates which micro/macro nutrients and minerals the root system can and will absorb for the plant's requirements.

pH's out of optimal range will "lock out" particular micro/macro nutrients and minerals, they won't be absorbed and the plant will exhibit deficiencies

Those deficiencies will adversely effect the plants health, cause stunting and/or jeopardize the plant's life.

Trapper , I to have been having a PH problem with my first photo grow , now please bare with me , with the Hydroponic UP and Down it can be used in soil ? and how soon doe's it take effect ? also would you use it just by itself or can it be used when you are feeding . Thank you Hecno .

 

[Trapper]

No, it can not be directly applied to soil, to my knowledge it must be introduced in a solution either a water-only watering or a nutrient feed.

We are talking drops of pH UP or pH DOWN per gallon to sweep 2 or more points...so it's a concentrate.

As to time of effect, depends on the size of adjustment you're attempting and the conditions in the soil that are causing it's existent numbers...as well as the size of the pot.

It has been my experience not to try anything too drastic but to make incremental changes and observe the effect.

 

[Dazed]

If you are growing organically, which I presume you are as you are using organic nutrient, using pHup/down solution that is not organic will most likely kill your soil (they are basically potassium hydroxide and phosphoric acid). Just a heads up, you should be looking for what Namvet suggested..