When do you pH? Water or Solution?

Discussion in 'Advanced Growing Techniques' started by jakrustle, Jun 17, 2010.

  1. Yeah, I know we have been through this a million times, but bare with me. When do you pH your fert/nute solution - before or after you add the nutes to the water.

    I have been so concentrating on getting my water right that I couldn't believe I had not thought of this before. I have pH up and down. So, when do I adjust? When the ferts are in solution or before?

    Thanks.

    JaK
     
  2. After the nutrients go into the water. I don't mess with the water (RO) until I have mixed the nutrients into it (I do the Lucas Formula). After adding the Micro & Bloom, the PH begins to drop. I let the solutions sit for 24 hours before adding PH up. If I adjust the nutrient solution before letting it sit, then I don't usually get it right. I like to be right around 5.8.

    Good Luck!
     
  3. Whobe, thanks, man. You know every time I think I have no more questions I find something else I am unsure about. That's the great thing about growing anything. A lot to learn. Thanks for the info, bro.

    JaK
     
  4. No problem.... That's what I like about growing... it's a continual leanring experience.

    Good Luck!
     
  5. Always adjust after adding your base nutrients to the water. Some nutrient lines recommend adjusting pH after adding base nutrients but before adding certain additives to the mix.
     
  6. As WhobeBoo says, that is the right pH level for hydro, if you are growing in soil the solution should be around pH6.5 (give or take).

    Only use the pH up if you really have to, if you add more water to the solution it will rise the pH level of the solution, remembering to add more nutrients to the value of the water you added.
     
  7. Guys, thanks for the advice. I am starting to retain some of this knowledge being passed around on here. This is great.

    Thanks

    JaK
     
  8. I agree with these peeps here. Micro first, mix very well, then your base ferts like grow or bloom (or both), then pH adjust. Sometimes nutes change the pH around a bit so it's best to wait. It's good to keep notes of exactly what you are adding, what order, and how much so you can make easy adjustments.

    Have fun!:D
     
  9. Guys, it has been working great with the mixing then testing of pH. Even 3 days later things have been right on. Thanks for the help. My plants are happy too. Just hope they are both fems. Alright if only one is, whinch I thing is where I am headed.

    One has great great nodal growth, with perfect 1" internodal spacing. I think these might be indicas. Indicas are the outdoors, right?

    These are bagseed, but I am so happy growing whatever they are.

    JaK
     
  10. Growers prefer to grow indica indoors, they tend to be shorter than a sativa, to save space. Most germinate and flower faster than sativa, and most produce a larger yield than sativa.
    Sativa are a taller thin plant, with thin stems and leaves, they may not produce a bigger yield in the same flower period as indica, but potentency may make up for the lost yield, some sativa strains have over 3 month flowering period, whereas some indica have a 6 week flowering period.

    Nice to hear your plants are healthy.
     
  11. Well put THCooper!

    I think we have gotten to the age where there are a lot of very sativa dominant indoor strains like Trainwreck, the Diesels, and other crosses. I think the Indica indoor and Sativa outdoors rule has mostly gone by the wayside in the last fifteen or twenty years.

    It's crazy to have a 50 day flowering sativa dominant plant, but my trainwrecks and my white rhinos are done in 50-55 days under 1000s, and they are as sativa as plants come! Gigantic yields too! Both have Afghani components, but are mostly sativa. Thank goodness for hybrids!:hello:
     
  12. I have been testing Ph of my water then adding nutrients then feeding. The other day I noticed my Ph dropped to 5.2 after adding nutrients. I then tried to add Ph up to solution to bring it up to 6.5 and noticed that Ph did not move like when adding(Ph up) to plain water. Is Ph harder to adjust in nutrient solution? Should I account for this(have higher Ph) when i test my plain water? Thanks for you time.
     
  13. I assume your tap water is pH7, and you're growing in soil.

    There is a pH buffer in most top brand nutrients. This should lower the nutrient solution to near the required pH level, giving that your water pH is neutral (pH7).
    If the nutrients are for soil, the pH level should lower very slightly. If the nutrients are designed for hydro, then the pH level will lower quiet a bit (to pH5.5-pH6). This could be your issue, are your nutrients for hydro or soil?
    Adding more water to the nutrient solution raises the pH, pH up should be only used if really neccessary.
     
  14. yea we are in soil. we use the condensate water from our ac units. it comes out a little low (around 5.6) so we bring it up to 6.5 then add nutes. We use to have rusting on leaves and some spots, but this has stopped this ever since we started testing Ph. The reason we test only our water is because we use phenol water test and after adding nutes we can not test due to color change in water. Have Hanna Ph tester just having a tough time believing it's true. It seems to jump all over place and not be consistent. Going to get new Ph tester any suggestions? Thanks for you valuable time!:D
     
  15. I haven't used water from an A/C, so i wouldn't know much about the pH level. I'd worry about copper poisoning from using A/C and dehumidifiers water, but as i said, i haven't used that kind of water to comment on that either.

    I agree with you, if your pH meter is giving out wrong signals, replace it. I think Hanna provide a good pH meter, i have a Hanna pH meter around 3 years now, i believe i changed the probe twice within that period (but that was my own fault for forgetting to leave the electrodes in the storage solution when not in use). When not in use, remember to keep your pH meter electrode in storage solution, or any water as long as it's not RO or distilled water.

    Yeah, the last thing you do before feeding your plants is correct the pH level of the nutrient solution. You actually don't know the correct pH level from the way you are doing it at the moment.
     
  16. Thanks Tom. We have used a/c water for awhile and haven't had any problems. I just bought a new hanna ph tester. Guy at store said this one was a step up from ours. Also going to change to home and garden nutes. store said ph is more stable when using these products. Thanks again Tom. Hopefully with new tester and nutes we can get this ph thing figured out.;)
     
  17. Guys, thanks for all the tips. One thing I did find out was how good baking soda works for pH Up. About 1/8th teaspoon adjusted my pH from 6.0 to 6.8. This was after the nutes were in the Brita water over night.

    Put in the 1/8th tsp, shaken up real well, then pH'd. I tried pH Up and Down and it sucked. 20 drops would not even adjust my water at all.

    JaK
     
  18. just curious, do you have an EC meter? that's just as important. it will tell you how strong your solution is essentially, in terms of electrical conductivity. since all life is electro-chemical in nature, we have learned that marijuana prefers a certain range of EC. it's also important to measure your EC out as well as in. collect your runoff and check th ec and ph. you will learn what is going on in the root zone. ph is only a fraction of what you need to know. and remember NPK numbers are ratios only, they don't tell much about strength.
     
  19. oh....use advanced nutrients ph down, it's the strongest crap on the market. it's about 10-20x stronger, no joke. costs a little more, but goes a long way. it's the one AN product i will never stop buying. i just posted a thread on technaflora ph down, it's made from nitric acid instead of phosphoric. it's in this forum....look for it, it's very interesting...
     
  20. Midnight, thanks for the suggestions. I am definitely going to get an EC meter. I have one picked out on a site called eseasongear.com. Great selection of meters, good prices and free shipping. They also have all the calibration, storage solutions a guy will need. Thanks, again. I will check out the AN pH down. Whatever I bought at the Pet Store sucked.

    JaK
     

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