Baking Soda for ph up?

Discussion in 'Growing Marijuana Indoors' started by bcharley2010, Mar 15, 2011.

  1. i have read that i can use baking soda to bring up the ph of my soil. it is currently around 5.5..i do plan to get some ph up and down this weekend, but untill then, how much baking soda should i add to a gallon of water with a ph of around 6?
     
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  2. nope, don't use it, contains sodium, plants are not huge fans of sodium. Better to use lime, contains magnesium and calcium. Quicklime will very quickly raise pH, perhaps too quickly, and regular garden lime will slowly bring pH back to correct range, see my post on lime.
     
  3. thanks for the info, im going to check out ur post now...do u think my plant can wait till saturday to adjust the ph with ph up(3 1/2 weeks into veg), or should i grab garden lime asap.ph is currently around 5.5
     
  4. Lowes always carries garden lime, it's like $5 for a 50 pound bag, but it's better to mix it with the soil. You can put it on the top of the soil so that any acidic water that you water with from now on will get neutralized. For the quick fix, quicklime will work (I think it's calcium hydroxide), but you gotta be really careful. 5.5 isn't all that bad, it's a bit low for soil, I would say it can wait, unless your plants are showing signs of stress. You can also mix lime into soil and transplant, this will help things out.

    Using baking soda wouldn't be the end of the world, but I would rather risk 5.5 pH in soil than putting in sodium, just my 2 cents.
     
  5. I've always used baking soda. I mix a batch up in a 2 liter bottle and use it in combination with my ferts when I water. Never hurt a thing. I also use Apple Cider vinegar as a ph down when I need it. You can spend 4 dollars on a bottle of vinegar and a box of baking and have all the ph adjustment you need for many seasons.
     
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  6. I also use baking soda to PH up, and when i need to PH down i use reverse osmosis water... She seems to be very happy with it.
     
  7. Looks like I stand corrected. I'm no botanist, I had just always thought plants were not fans of sodium ions. Looks like I am either wrong, or the concentration of sodium ions is low enough that the plant can shrug it off. Also, if there are flushes with pure water, this will remove the sodium, so that salt buildup is negligible. Thanks for the info, guys!
     


  8. hmmm i water with RO water, the jugs i get always have a ph of around 6, not acidic enough for me to use for ph down, unless ph is very high but problem solved just made the trip and got some ph up and down
     

  9. Very true, RO sits at a pH of 6 pretty. I am dealing with soil though so I usually run a pH around 6.8 after adding nutrients. If you wanna drop below 6 try lemon juice :cool: it'll help with flavour also(i've heard, no direct experience as of yet) Anyone with experience using lemon juice? or orange juice to ph below 6? :smoke:
     
  10. #10 NtothePtotheK, Apr 24, 2014
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 24, 2014
     
    Yeah.  I found that lemon juice (the juice of one hand-squeezed lemon per gallon of H20, with some pulp naturally - I don't buy the fake shit) makes a handy pH-Down but it is BUFFERED so it continues to lower pH after you apply it.  I overshot and it was hard to get it back up all the way to the end of the grow.  I would only use it again to combat something else that was consistently raising my pH like a nutrient (I've noticed Big Bloom raises pH, though most of my nutrients severely lower it) I wouldn't use orange juice too much sugar attract bad bacteria or bugs
     
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  11. Thanks for the thread!
    I recently used a pinch of baking soda on 1.5L of water to raise my pH from 5.0 to 6.1. Worked great!
     

  12. Hey! Just hopping in on this one, been watering at 6.6-6.7 and just tested my runoff at 5.2. A couple of my plants are starting to show mag deficiency "I believe due to nute lock" wanna try the baking soda method but don't wanna use to much! Currently in 3 gal pots if at all possible can you describe a pinch lol around a tsp or tbsp for reference. Thank you in advance! Sounds like the amount you added is close to what I need.
     
  13. Give it a good flush after 3 days, worked for me with my first auto flower grow
     

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