Adjusting your pH when growing in soil damaging your plants!

girlsgrow2 said:
My well water is ph'ing at 7.4 now, which is a full point higher than it was before. And I tested some distilled water (which should be neutral, 7.0 from what research I've done) and it's coming up at like 5.5 or so.
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Tap and well water pH can change easily.

Too clean water can f up the pH meter i believe. It will make the read inaccurate, and the value is not really relevant anyway (since the water is so clean). Use the pH buffer solutions to test/calibrate the pen.

You can measure soil pH by letting some soil sit in about 2x the volume of clean water for few hours, then measure the pH of the liquid.
Don't think you can calculate it from the water and runoff pH especially with distilled water.
 
I'm not using distilled water for watering, only tested it because it's what I'm supposed to rinse the meter with and I know it's supposed to be a neutral ph, so I tested it to see if the meter might be broken.

That's the method I've seen pretty much everywhere....on every forum and most websites I've looked up about trying to get the ph of your soil. But you're saying you can't do it that way? By taking the ph of the water and the ph of the runoff and averaging them to figure out the ph of the soil? That doesn't work?
 
I didn't know that well water could/would change ph that dramatically over just a few days. I should've realized that's possible, of course. I'll start testing it every time, just to see what comes up.
 
girlsgrow2 said:
This thread is awesome, tons of great info. I've got kind of a weird thing going on, wondering if any of you might be able to help shed some light on it?

I have never really tested the PH of my water or soil, but I wanted to get a bit more good stuff into my soil mix, so I bought a Ph tester. When I first tested the water coming out of my well, it was a little bit high (depending on who you ask), but the nutrients lowered it right down to where it needed to be, so I didn't mess with trying to raise or lower it. The ppms are low, totally normal. I was worried I'd have hard water, but it doesn't seem to be the case.

However, I started making some different soil mixes so I could test the ph and make sure that I wasn't gonna kill my babies when I put them into it and I'm running into some weirdness. I'm wondering if my ph monitor could be broken? I've only used it about 4 times, could it need to be calibrated already? If so, I think that sucks...is that normal?

My well water is ph'ing at 7.4 now, which is a full point higher than it was before. And I tested some distilled water (which should be neutral, 7.0 from what research I've done) and it's coming up at like 5.5 or so. So the water is testing higher than it used to and the distilled water is testing lower than it should. Wth? hah that seems all kinds of broken

I started out with a mix that was 2 parts moss, 2 parts potting mix, 3 parts perlite and 1 part compost. The run off came out at 5.5, which would have meant that the ph of the soil is 3.6. SUPER low. So I threw one more part compost into it to see what would happen and the run off came out at 6.5, which would put the soil at 5.6. Those calculations are correct, right? 5.6=x+7.4/2 which calculates to 3.6. Can't believe I actually used algebra!! Crazy.

If not, I need to add something more until I get the ph of the soil up a little bit still by adding or subtracting something, right? Adding lime or ? Or should I raise the ph of the water to start with? What's weird is that when I ADDED more compost, the ph of the run off went up a full point. So maybe I should just add more compost?

Sorry if I wasn't clear enough, hopefully I explained that properly. I'm just worried about burning my plants when I move them to 1 gallon pots for vegging with this new soil mix. I used to just use a potting soil mix and perlite mixed together, that's it. I'm adding the moss and compost to the deal to see if my babies can be even better than they are now (which is pretty darn good, finally!)

Fyi, this is my first post on this forum...I've been growing for years with partners and I'm in week 2 of flower for the first crop I've done 100% on my own. I just added a separate veg room so I'm doing perpetual grow now and I'm just trying to refine and perfect things. I've added co2, reflective material on the walls, am watching the temp of my room a lot closer and just generally trying to do things the "right" way so I don't experience fluctuations in yield like I have before when growing with partners who didn't pay close attention.

It wasn't unusual for us to have a crop that yielded 4 oz. per plant and then the next crop to only be .5 oz. I don't want that to happen ever again.

Thanks for the help and I look forward to learning more here :Namaste:
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Well where to start... ok when it comes to soil I always use a light mix... the soil ph should always be written on the bag, after that I just give my nitrogen and make sure that when the solution is mixed up it has a ph oh 6.2.. It should not vary much from that.
I would used a buffer solution to calibrate my ph or EC tester, with PH testers (sometimes dedicated to the digital ph tester you have) some are buffer 7 and some are 4 from what I have seen out there...
once you have watered with a solution of 6.2 more than a couple of times the soil will only be containing the ph you have given it.. you can check the run off after a couple of weeks while in veg to make sure that all is well but apart from that I think you have to give it a little time before you start to check the run off.. give the nutrient rich Ph corrected water time to take effect in the pot...
Apart from the ph the most important thing from what I can gather is the EC the electromagnetic conductivity... which is just a fancy way of saying water with enough shit for nutrients to bind to... the plats EC requirements will change throughout the lifetime... and depending on weather you are using seeds or clones development will be slower or quicker so you will have to compensate for that, but you will have to vary the EC either way.. as I believe nitrogen is the most fundamental of these when if veg... so make sure your ph is about 6.2 and will start at week on with a EC of say 1.2 but after say 2 weeks in veg get is to 1.7 all the way through to end of week 3 of bloom phase.. thereafter the EC should be 1.7 for 3 weeks, so to the end of week 6 and then for the final 2 weeks the EC should be no higher than 2 or so, all the while keeping your PH at 6.2... I think this is the most important thing, EC levels first and then adjust the Ph... oh yea and when it comes to calibrating EC or PH meters never ever trust them straight out of the box... never! always get a suitable already make up calibration fluid... I'm not saying you cant do a DIY job... but can your really afford to get it wrong?? Same with the soil and the nutrients and anything else that you depend on.
Anyway, if you have been reading the previous posts you might have read that I was in some disarray myself regarding appropriate PH levels and so on.. but I tracked down an expert and believe me when I say I have followed their instruction to the letter of the law and I know that it works :thumb:
So I hope this is of use... best of luck with things and shir if you got any comments, questions or queries or even some advice to give back... sharing is caring is my motto!
 
i have a question been growing in soil and all i do is add water when it needs it its been growing good starting to bud now but my leaves are starting to turn all yellow and stems r purple is there something i should b doing for the plant been growing naturaly out in sun all day and sometimes i leave it out at night buds look good its just the leaves and stems ty
 
,,,finally got a definitive answer...i was growing indoors and have switched to outdoor...still in that indoor grow mode,and was wondering about the pH...thanks for the information....RB
 
I have been advised more than once to keep the water to 6.1 to 6.7 for my indoor soil grow. The trouble is that the water here in this area is very alkaline. Right out of the taps here at my home the water measures 7.5, 8.0 and sometimes even higher. I have never seen it coming out of the taps any where near 7.0 let alone 6.5. So I use ph Down to bring the ph to 6.5 sometimes a little lower around 6.2. Again, this advice came from experienced growers. However, I have grown outdoors with the water from the hose and the plant did okay. As for bottled water, whether I buy distilled water or spring water, in this area I always end up with alkaline readings, 7.5, 8.0 and higher right out of the bottles. So my question becomes how can I have any luck with such high alkaline water supply?

I should also add that even when I collect rain water, the readings I get are 8.0 and higher. I guess it's just this area of the country.
 
...you probably should consider a RO machine[reverse osmosis],indoor tap water isn't a good idea if you are a indoor grower...and rain water,for me that would not be a option either...i grew indoors for awhile,but not to go into details,that didn't work..i now grow outdoors,i use a inline garden filter and a debri trap my water coming out the hose is reading a ph of 7.1...and tds of 215 ppm...buying bottled water can be pretty expensive,the only time i use it is for making bubble hash so it is a clean product..i myself would look into reverse osmosis,they work well...this should take of your water purity problem...
 
If you use ProMix or a bark based soil the pH is naturally low and you will in fact lock out all of the nutrients if you do not pH your nutrient solution. If you use it straight from the bag with Perlite and add nutes to your water bringing them into acidic pH your soil pH will dip half way into flowering and stop root growth. From past experience I can tell you that if you have not added Lime as your buffer you will run into nutrient troubles when you hit flowering, but you are absolutely correct about not adjusting water if you have a stable soil mix. Outdoor soil is much more suited to handle the nutes as it is naturally well buffered
 
If you are using a soil straight from a bag with a pH of 6.2-6.5 and you add a nutrient solution of 4.5 ph honestly what do you think it does? Nell is right on the money. If you do not adjust and you run 30 days veg and 70 days flower your plants will be absolutely nuked before you are done, unless you have added Lime as a buffer. Known from experience.
 
Question for anyone growing in soil and using bottles to force feed their plants:

Why in the heck are you pouring a nutrient solution into soil anyway? Just grow hydro.
Pouring that shit on soil is terrible. Research people! Don't follow, and don't settle.

Anyone know the PH of the soil in the jungle? How about in the rainforest? How about a natural meadow in BC? Who cares??!! Plants grow lush.

Here's how you PH adjust your soil, you cook it for a month or so after mixing up and amending it. Boom!, good to go and PH adjusted.

I just wish people were more informed so these scamming lowlife company's like AN or GH or FF wouldn't be able to make money.

How about thinking of soil as more than just a medium, rather as a living, breathing ecosystem to nurture. Then you can compost your PH meter, lol.

Rant complete.
 
TLO, but at the time it was not an option. If you are using liquid nutes, they are hot and dramatically change pH. I know that now, but most inexperienced growers don't know about cooking their soil, you dump from a bag into a pot and go. You need to have the ability to be cooking your soil also. It is great that you can, but many are unable to
 
If TLO is your route you may wanna watch out for a new book coming out soon. Apparently the Rev will be changing some of his recommendations. It may work better.

I ran TLO for a year and a half and liked it. After lots of research I made the switch to LOS (living organic soil). You can google your way to lots of info on that.
 
Thanks. Definitely for the new guys this is a warning. My experience was this. Promix soil supposedly dump and go, a shake of bagged topsoil, and perlite. The Promix is supposed to feed for up to 3 mnths, so lets just assume you get 1 mnth. If your starting soil was in the mid 6's and I have 6.3-7 pH RO water with an average of 6.6 this puts you right at optimal at the beginning of planting. Everywhere that I have read says as this heavily barked soil decomposes it becomes more acidic, so for anybody that reads that they need flowering nutes, when you add it to 6.6 water in a gallon it turns it pure acid, so without a buffer in the soil, when you water with flowering nutes and you haven't adjusted your water accordingly it only makes sense that you are going to drop your pH well below range and lock out PK along with all kinds of other micros. What happened to me is long stretching and tiny crispy buds. Beautiful the first 2 weeks of flowering then the bottoms started dying and the buds shocked and quit growing. It also locks in all the nutrients the plant was absorbing. Made it taste like bitter death
 
...thanks "mikey 2809" on the question of ph in soil,i apologies for not being a bit clearer...when i was growing indoors,until authorities thought differently,and well you can figure the rest out...i decided to grow outdoors in the ground[non container],and comply with the CA.laws regarding medical marijuana...Me and my ex-partner still close friends had a disagreement on in ground ph,he said adjust and i said do not my argument was since i incorporated 10-12 bags of "Fox Farms Ocean Forest mix" and good old Mother Earth,that the adjustments of nutes was not needed,because of the wide spectrum of growing area,and the soil was within a balanced PH...your thoughts please....RB......so far my "girls" are bursting,and looking forward to the harvest...I used that old adage K.I.S.S [keep it simple stupid] and do a lot of research,and read the labels.
 
No need to adjust nute solutions outside as you are correct. Mother nature looks after that job for you. K.I.S.S. is something that must always be remembered. You are not direct feeding nutes to the roots as you would be in a hydro grow either and the ground works at neutralizing things
 
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