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

[Dazed]

Get a journal going bro, with pictures, much easier all round.

Dazed..

 

[GodAmJT]

After all is said and done, my current, miserable grow appears to be a mishap involving pH stability, and I'm using rockwool, not soil, so naturally, this is a bit of a surprise to me until I realized that pH meter AND my pH drops were bad.. Talk about a double whammy.. The only reason I know is that I picked up another pH pen today (higher end HM model), calibrated it, and used it, and sure enough, my pH was in the mid 6.5 range.. For hydro, that's murder... Soil, you'd be fine!!! What sucks though, is that I'd been pH'ing my water with the pen, and for some reason, I decided to double-check my results with the drops.. The drops gave me a whacky #.. Pen said 5.7, drops said it was in the 3.0-4.0 range.. At that point, I said, "Shit.. Time to ditch this stuff.."

So now, I'm weeks, almost months into a grow that has been spoofed for the last few weeks, all because technology sucks a little sometimes..


Tip of the day: Never rely on a single piece of technology or a single device to measure your precision quantities. This single-point-of-failure could cost you an entire grow in a matter of a day or so.. I just picked up more pH drops and will store them in the dark in my house somewhere, and will also be picking up another pH pen/EC pen just to be sure, because I won't do that again..

 

[Trapper]

Yeah...bad data is WAY worse than no data, because it elicits a response that causes more problems due to it's inaccuracy.

 

[hecno]

Ok , I have found a product called Flairform , organic PH up is 60% w/v potassium carbonate , what do you think , would this be better to use and better for the soil .

 

[Dazed]

If its organic bro, and you are sure its organic, then yeah use it. Tbh, if you're new to growing and trying organic-different rules apply, I found out the hard way, I would suggest hitting the Organic stickys, it's a whole different ball game buddy.

Good luck, start a journal!!!!!!


Peace.

 

[Dazed]

https://www.autoflower.org/f5/fds-guide-growing-hefty-autos-small-places-206.html

This thread rocks.

 

[jokidd]

so if im useing regular potting soil i could use either a organic or chemical ph up

 

[Brother Sweetleaf]

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... 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.

Thanks for your answer, Namvet25, and thanks for your suggestion towards the organic Ph-Up/Down. I added half of the recommended amount, which is what I understand is best for Autoflowers. Directions say, "For Container Outdoor Plants: Mix 1 Tablespoon per gallon of water for every cubic foot of soil." So, I've added 1/2 a Tablespoon per gallon of water...

The water from the tap tested over 7-- too alkaline, appearing as medium to dark green in the testing vial... So I added some Ph-Down, and brought it to a nice 6.3 or so, a nice yellowy-green. Then I added my ferts-- only about 7ml, or 1/2 a Tablespoon... Tested the ph, and the color was orangey-red-- redder than the dark orange at the end of the chart!

When you say "You could run some correct ph water through them and this should help", what do you mean?

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.

Sounds sensible, Namvet25, thanks! That's why I checked my ph after adding my nutes, just to be sure... I just wasn't expecting to find it THIS far out of whack, if at all. I've grown before, but apparently never checked ph after adding ferts to the water. So having ph alter this drastically after nutes is common then???

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.

...Organics Only growers would use other natural items... Garden Lime mixed into medium to begin with... gently adjusts pH up.

The pH of the soil is important because... 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... will adversely effect the plants health, cause stunting and/or jeopardize the plant's life.

Wow, lots of great info there! Thanks for your helpful post, Trapper!

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..

Thank you, for potentially saving my crop! I had already bought non-organic Ph-Down (which is what I used to lower the ph of the water originally, before adding the ferts), and would have used it on my plants, if not for your blatant warning. Kudos!

Get a journal going bro, with pictures, much easier all round.

Better than that, Bro... I've been filming all the steps along my way, and will be editing it together for a video series on Autoflowering In Late Summer Through Early Autumn!

 

[namvet25]

By using plain ph water I meant to flush her good to clean out bad nute dposits or salt buildup and don't use any nutes for awhile.