This question relates to indoor grow in soil. If the runoff solution measures 7.2 ph, what do you do? Do you wait or do you take immediate action? Either case, what do you do?
Question is hypothetical, say input is 6.7? Main question is do you add more solution right away and if so at what ph - if ph is still too high, then what? If you wait for next water/fert, what ph do you adjust the input to? And what happens if the runoff is still high? Is there some rule of thumb??? My first two grows were failures and I think this is the reason - I don't know what to do to adjust the runoff ph.
you amend it. I'd top dress with either Lime ( up ) or Coffee Grounds (down), then use water that's been adjusted with my hydro pH up/down, for the next 2-3 watering
if you're in soil and having problems with pH you may want to swing by the Organics section here BTW. those guys never even check their pH anymore, they've got it down so well.
If your runoff pH is too high then you need to lower your input pH, simple as that. No matter what your current input pH is, it needs to be lower than that in order to bring down the runoff pH. There isn't an exact formula that says if your input is X and your runoff is Y then you should adjust your input to Z. It's trial and error, but if your pH is off by only a little (like yours is, off by about a half a point) then I would try lowering the input pH by about a half a point from where it is now, and see how that does. It could be not low enough still, or it could be too much, or it could be just right. That doesn't mean it isn't important, you just got lucky and naturally had proper pH. Just because you didn't have a problem doesn't mean pH isn't important, that's like saying I drove my car without wearing my seatbelt and then I arrived at my destination without injury therefore seatbelts are pointless. Just not true. The pH level allows the plant to uptake nutrients. Each nutrient has its own pH range where proper uptake can occur, if you let your pH stay outside of that range for too long then the plant will suffer a deficiency in that nutrient, regardless of how much you may be delivering to the soil.
Checking PH and figureing out what to do is easy. No ones pissfarting about it. You have a very narrow band of proper PH and outside of those you can have some serious issues. Being that it takes all but under 5 min to test and correct for it then why not?
Thanks toastybiz. I'll try that. So if it's not off too much, like down to 5.5 on the low side, or 7.9 on the high side, you just wait for the next watering? I figure that's what you're saying? Anyway, thanks all.