Proper way to check run-off pH?

Take your plant pot size and multiply it by 3, so if your using a 3 gallon pot flush with 9 gallons of water is what I read. I would test towards the end of the flush. What kind of soil are you using? As for your tap water if its that high I would look into a cheap RO system on Ebay or Amazon or let your water sit out for a few days before PH`ing it. You can get a cheap fish tank air pump, some tubing and use it to pump some air back in the water for a short period of time before watering to get some oxygen back in the water. I bought several 3 gallon refillable water jugs from Wal Mart. I prefer the 3 gallon one because they are easier to handle and mix nutes in.

 

Here is the way I do it.

Water the plant well, close to a flush. Let all that drain away.

Let it sit for 1/2-1 hr.

Add just a bit MORE water. catch and test this when it comes out the bottom.

The water being in contact with your soil for a time will give you the most realistic pH reading.

Wet

 

imo, checking run-off is a waste of time. as long as you properly ph "everything" you put in/on the plants, ph should never be an issue. run-off carries built up nutes from the medium, out of the container. so logic dictates, that run-off will be of the incorrect ph for whatever medium you're using. as long as your plants aren't displaying any issues/problems, why would you even care what the run-off ph values are? wait for your plants to tell you they have a problem, and then respond.

 

id suggest just making your own soil rather then using mg.

if you cant get foxfarm anywhere, as thats probably stressing your plants with all the un-necessary nutes and such.

 

Did anyone figure anything out on this topic? I've got tap water at 7.8 Ph. The run off is 6.0. They're in MG soil. Should I get the tap water down to 6.0-6.5? Will the MG soil lower that Ph down even lower? I frankly don't care about the run off and I do realize that the wrong Ph will inhibit the plant to take up its nutrients but they all look green and lush and healthy. The thing is I let the soil feed the plants and after talking to a friend of mine who is all old school I came home feeling guilty about not feeding them so I mixed up some tiger bloom diluted solution and got the Ph down to 6.5 and by night fall every leaf on every plant had little burnt tips. Talk about pissed off? Immediate just going to keep doing what I originally have been doing. Forget all that crazy shit. If they don't look deficient I'm not putting anything but water on them. My concern is if I lower the Ph of that water will it be lowered even more by the soil and be of no benefit to the plant. Any input is appreciated

 

If your Miracle Grow soil has time release nutes in it then yes it will lower the soils PH run off and if you PH your water going in even lower then your PH run off is going to be even lower. If you want to use cheap soil at least go with Kellogs Patio Plus at Lowes or Home Depot at $5.00 for a 1.5cf bag its actually not bad a deal for a organic soil that is OMRI certified. I`ve used it for a buch clones a number of times with no problems. How bad did the leaf tips get burned. If its just the very end tip of the leaf that got a little nute burn I consider that kind of a good thing, to me it means the plant is getting plenty of nutes and to just lighten up or skip the next feed. Just a little bit to much is better then not having enough and your plant becoming nute deficient.

 

Thanks man. Why does everybody keep saying that MG soil is cheap?
I've had nothing but good results and I don't have to supplement with nutes all the time saving money. The tip burn wasn't severe but it did burn the very tiny tip of every leaf on every plant. So should I keep lowering the Ph of the tap water or just let the soil do it for me?

 

Miracle Grow is more of an all purpose soil that covers a wide variety of different plants and if you want to get the most out of what your plants can produce then using soils, nutes, additives or even custom soil mixes that are more designed for what pot plants need can get you much better results. Not saying MG stuff wont work but if you want to get the most out of your plants there is better stuff out there to use.

 

Yeah, that's what everyone is saying. Idk. I'm a gardener and only recently turned my interests in a different direction. These big soil companies make a product that would work with 98 other plants. Basically plants need N-P-K and all of the macro and micro nutes. So I'm doing for these plants what I would for all of my plants. I just feel like from what I see all of these people are getting sucked into the conglomerate companies and throw a bunch of money unnecessarily into all of these products that are sold out there when in actuality one cold get super results by treating the plant as any other plant. Where the soil feeds the plant? Then I put water in their trays and they drink when the want to. Its really the least amount of stress to the plant to do it that way. I just haven't had any good results adding nutes on top of what's already in the soil they're in. This isn't the first time I've had these burnt tips. This is the specific reason I wasn't nuting in the first place where I first came home after talking to a friend and felt bad for not feeding them. I let my friend get inside my head. I came home and fed them and by nightfall there were the burnt tips. I'll figure something out eventually thanks for you input.

 

Well that's what I'm starting to do now. I'm researching, put it that way. I hope to make an educated decision on what to mix with what. OK, let me ask you this...if you were to fill a 5 gallon bucket, do you know the portions per whatever you're mixing in with what? And what are you starting with? Give me an example...for 5 gal bucket

 

Thanks for the link. Here's another one for you. I have a transplant that's runoff is 7.5 or more, this is the only ones who's doing it out of the whole garden. Every other is great. This ones chartreuse in color and is very small for her age. I'm thinking she's got lock out because her soil is to high or acidic. I've tested the soil in all the others and they're testing at 6.5. How can I quickly getting the soil Ph down? I've got the water down to 6.2-6.5 but this one pot is testing off the chart. I flushed her all afternoon with much water and its still testing 7.5 or higher. Any help there?

 

I meant to say that the soil is too alkaline. I'm thinking about getting a new bag of soil and transplant her again. I'm going to try to get some soil other then MG.

 

that's too incriminating for pix. The "tomato" plant that I'm talking about came from a plant that's nodes were really close together like an inch apart all the way up the stalk and it never did really get too tall. So in its infancy its about 22 inches but its more than 2 months old. Also it changed colors of its foliage, it went from nice darker green leaves to right now its almost a chartreuse like green yellow but except for that it looks fine. Its not drooping, curling, sagging or anything else but Im trying to figure out why this bizarre bright yellow green leaves and why its not growing while another tomato plant from the same plant sitting next to it is big, and a lush green. And it may not matter at all but after testing the Ph of the water that ran off every other plant and all but this one plants Ph is 7.5 or more and its the one who's definitely having something going on there I can't help to think that there's something going on here with this plant particularly . The number's may not mean anything but I think its a strong indicator that its Ph is off and perhaps its not able to uptake the nutrients it needs ergo the funny looking color of its leaves. I'm going to the store tomorrow to buy a different kind of soil and transplant it and try to save it.