So I did a TON of reading and I'm still very confused about the PH. I'm a soil grower and my tap water is around 7,5-8 PH (liquid test). I read many articles about PH and soil and half of them is saying to adjust PH to 6,5 before watering and half is saying not to bother with PH and just water them. I don't have any problems adjusting PH (2ml of PH- in 10l - 2,5 gal of water adjusts it to 6,5). Should I adjust the PH or just use untouched tap water to water my baibies?
Adjust the PH -- you should know this if you did a TON of reading. Let me know if you need the explanation
If you're using inorganic nutes, AN or a lot of supplements, then yes, definitely pH everything. If you're just using simple water-soluable inorganic ferts you don't really need to. I've done many, many grows without ever pH'ing anything but for optimal yield, you do want to pH. But then again, my city does an extremely good job cleaning the water and your city may have hard water or excess chlorine in it.
Adjusting pH is unnecessary, and I believe it to be counter productive. The Cation Exchange Capacity of soil buffers pH naturally. pH is a measure of H+ ion concentration of a solution, nothing more. My water has a pH of 8.1. When I quit adjusting it about a year and a half ago is when I began to realize better results from my grows. http://www.soilminerals.com/Cation_Exchange_Simplified.htm
Agreed! I provided a link that explains the chemistry of C.E.C. and how it relates to a soils pH level. I'd like to hear shag's "explanation" as to why the pH of water added to SOIL needs to be adjusted. JAT, did you read the link?
In soil ph isn't really something I concern myself with. I only use distilled water and only use organic nutes also that might make a difference idk. Everyone should be using distilled water if they don't have an RO system. I won't drink the water I can't expect my plants to. I hope to get an RO soon my salt water tank is costing me a fortune without one I don't mind 85 cents a week for the garden though.
That might be fine in an organic rich soil that has natural organic PH buffers in it but if he`s using chemical based nutes or additives then one may not get the same results.
Had this problem myself. But for me I said fuck testing my water before watering, just test the run off. And it seems like alot or at least my nutes are pH balanced anyways so its completely dummy proof. Just add nutes, and water, test pH. I stressed myself out way too many times.
It don't think it matters, tplat. The point I want to make is that trying to monitor and control pH levels in soil will only serve to drive you mad (insane). It fluctuates constantly. Regardless of whether you're using chemical fertilizers or gardening organically, the process of nutrient-ion exchange (or how a plant "feeds") is the same. Plants and microbes utilize hydrogen cations (H+) and hydroxy anions (OH-) to exchange for nutrient cations (ammonium, calcium, potassium, etc...) and nutrient anions (nitrate, chloride, sulfate, and phosphate). These hydrogen and hydroxy ions in solution, and their concentration in relation to each other, are what drive pH. So things like what the plant is "eating" at the time, microbial actions, adding fertilizer to the water (force feeding), plain watering, using pH adjusted water, the amount of moisture in the soil, soil temperature, and myriad other things can and do effect what your pH reading will be at any particular time that you take it. Clay particles (as well as Soil Organic Matter) provide soils with Cation Exchange Sites (the "natural organic pH buffers" that you referred to). C.E.S. are what adsorb free H+ ions (as well as other positively charged nutrient ions) from solution, stabilizing the soils pH. Now something worth mentioning is that commercially bagged soils most likely will have low Cation Exchange Capacity, because companies that sell soil and bottled fertilizers want you to buy as many of their products as possible. Bagged soils (organic or otherwise) are not built well (low S.O.M.), or cycled properly for nutrient availability (it's time consuming, and we all know that time is money, right?). This is the reason why so many bagged soils burn seedlings and young clones. So low C.E.C. of commercially bagged soil will have less ability to adsorb H+ ions from solution (as WELL as nutrient ions) because they have fewer C.E.S. with which to do so. If pH levels get too low (or high), nutrients left in solution will not be absorbed by the plant or adsorbed out of solution by C.E.S. When this happens, nutrient ions begin to react with each other, forming precipitates (solids) which CANNOT be flushed from soils (or used by the plant) without using a diluted nute' mix to redissolve some of the precipitated minerals. Many of you will recognize these reactions by the more commonly used moniker, "lock out". This is why I always suggest that soil growers using chemical fertilizers use diluted ratios and more infrequent application. Over fertilizing and using pH down formulas fill the few available C.E.S. prematurely, and when these applications continue, there's no way for the soil to buffer pH out of solution. Lock out ensues, and it's practically impossible to fully recover from the effects of this. Testing runoff is the worst indication of a soils true pH. It only lets you know now much H+ is in solution at the time, and usually will read much lower than what the true soil pH is. This is why companies that test soil samples for pH and nutrient content dry the soil out before they run the tests.