Soil PH Advice

[kosherkush]

Hello, lately i been checking my runoff as im still waiting for my accurate8
This is the first time im handling the ph that much in my grows, maybe its an answer to alot of my unsolved thoughts..

i checked the PH of the water before adding nutes its around 8.3 mixing water+nutes reduce ph to 6.0-6.4 and ph of the run off was 7.0-7.5 almost for all of my plants. @ any thoughts?

 

[CanadianHigh]

Whats your soil mix? Is their a ph buffer in it? I used dolomitic lime to regulate ph a bit, it helps, but im not a soil guy. I tried it. I burn my plants everytime. So I stay coco. I'm bad.

 

[kosherkush]

Whats your soil mix? Is their a ph buffer in it? I used dolomitic lime to regulate ph a bit, it helps, but im not a soil guy. I tried it. I burn my plants everytime. So I stay coco. I'm bad.

premium mix soil based on peat mixed with perlite+vermiculite+humus

i`d like to go coco myself we just dont have a quality coco around here plus im fully loaded with soil for a whole 2 years

I was just wondering if iron, manganese, and phosphorus are less availabled between my soil ph levels? as we already suspected ph fluctation or phosphorus problem im clueless
i know that soil ph 7.0 is neutral but readings of 7.0-7.7 can be tricky for me? what should i do! cheers?

 

[CanadianHigh]

Doesn't sound like a hot mix. But theirs no ph buffers in it. I guess a pro would help rather then my rambling.

 

[CanadianHigh]

Soil or Soilless Mediums

• After you've determined the ballbark figure for the current root pH, you know whether your pH is too high or low.
  
• Mix up plain water (no nutrients) with a small amount of pH Up or pH Down. This plain pH'ed water should be at a lower or higher pH to help move your pH to the range you’re looking for. Using plain water will help leach out extra stuff affecting the pH.
  
• Unfortunately there’s no exact formula to adjusting pH, because factors such as growing medium, nutrients, drainage and growing setup have a huge effect on pH. There's also no completely accurate way to measure the current pH, making things even less exact. Unless you're growing in hydroponics, there's no exact way to maintain pH, you're just going for as close as you can.
  
• You will need to use trial and error to figure out what amount of pH Up or Down works for you in your setup with your nutrients. Remember that pH changes depending on the nutrients you’re using! Vegetative stage nutrients tend to bring pH down compared to flowering nutrients (but not always).
  
• If you’re new to adjusting pH, start small with pH Up and Down, and only work your way up to bigger amounts after you’ve gained some experience. Most growers will be able to figure out their personal measurements within a few waterings.
  
• Avoid ever using pH Up and pH Down in the same container
  
• Test runoff pH consistently during your first grow using liquid nutrients. Make sure you're testing pH at least once every watering or two.
  
• There's no easy way to know the exact amount of pH Up or Down, but use as little as you can until you get a feel for how it will affect your water.

Tips For Soil & Soilless Growers

• pH problems are sometimes caused by over-fertilizing (giving too many liquid nutrients or supplements). If you believe this is the case, flush the growing medium.
  
• Flushing means giving your plants 1-3 times the volume of it’s container with plain, pHed water. This helps wash out extra nutrients. After the flush, water plants with a light nutrient solution. It’s normal for plants to droop when they’re overwatered (such as after a flush), but the drooping will go away as soon as the medium begins to dry out. After the top inch of growing medium has dried out, water the plant as normal and test the runoff water to see if the pH has corrected itself.
  
• Many new growers provide too high levels of vegetative nutrients. These nutrients contain a lot of nitrogen, and this can cause the pH of the growing medium to go down. Using time-released nutrients (such as Miracle-Gro original soil) can add nitrogen to the soil when you don’t want.

3.) Test pH again soon! Learn if you need any more adjustments.
If you’ve recently adjusted the pH of your growing medium or hydroponic setup, or made any other major changes, it’s important to keep testing pH regularly for a while until you know how the changes are affecting the pH.

 

[TaNg]

If your worried the mediums PH is high flush with water at your desired PH and it should stabilise the soil.

 

[blue]

Yo TaNg

His soil PH is around 8 from the readings - I'm curious here to what you would do?

Would you keep throwing 6.5 water in there until it was coming out 6.5 and then give a light feed?

Or would you try and gradually bring it back by going way low like PH 5.5 and tickle it back into range?

(always learning ^_^ )

 

[kosherkush]

Hey thanks guys,

With your premission i would like to shoot another question bugging me.

Can i use atami/hesi ph down and up on the same water?
lets say i tried to balance 6.5 and it went 5.8 can i use the ph up? or this is not allowed?

 

[kosherkush]

If your worried the mediums PH is high flush with water at your desired PH and it should stabilise the soil.

i ran a check i flushed the medium with balanced 6.0 no matter how much i flushed my runoff reading still show 6.5
could be my medium is buffering??

 

[hugeyields]

I'm sorry, does anyone know how I can post a question to get people's advice. I can't figure it out.