Ok first off sorry if this is a dumb question, butt I do not have a ph meter or the funds to purchas one right now.that being said, I am using distilled water and I've been told the ph is about 7 on distilled, how many drops per gallon of ph down should I add to make the ph correct? I'm using ffof soil,400w hps, day 31flowering botanicare bloom nutes. Thanks in advance
I have heard not to use ph-down, never tested it, i use lemon juice. You probably dont want to mess with it at all until you get something to check the ph with. You can get dipstrips or the dropper thing for less than 10 bucks, if you dont have 10 bucks you aint going to be able to grow anyway.
Funny you say that.until I get paid I literally don't have 10 dollars.and still... day 31 flowering.lol. but as for the test strips would the color really decifer between 6.8 and 7.1?
The distilled water I buy from the shop has a ph of 6.5 everytime so no adjustment is required on my part.
hmmm... maybe I just won't mess with it, everthing seems to be fine except slight discoloration at tips of leaves.ill cuut back on nutes and see how it looks in a few days
Indeed this. If you got the strips, use them. There is no "set" pH distilled water will be. It can be a big range. And adding nutrients can severely change the pH of the solution. For example, when growing with Fox Farm nutrients the vegging nutes will hardly change your pH. But, when you switch to tiger bloom, 2 teaspoons (the recommended amount) will drop your pH about 1 whole point. I actually end up having to use a whole lot of pH up when flowering to keep it stable. Point is, you might be able to get the pH right if you use the same exact water every time, when you feed using ONLY water. But when you add nutrients, things will change a lot.
walmart distilled water usually has a fluctuating ph of anywhere from 5-7, and adding nutrients to that will drop it even lower. i'd advise against using lemon juice because i've read the effects are very short lived and the ph will rise quickly after using it. also, lemon juice is acidic so it won't balance the ph against nutrients, it'll just lower it in conjunction with the nutrients. Tap water may actually be better to use than distilled since the ph is higher and has more crap in it to buffer the ph from sinking too low when using nutrients. Make sure to see if your local water supply uses chlorine or chloramine, and if it uses chloramine, get some fish tank water conditioner that removes it (or if they use chlorine fill a container and let it sit out 24 hours to let it evaporate) It's probably a good idea to invest in a ph meter to know for sure, and watch your plants for signs of deficiency until you can afford one. As long as you're giving nutrients and you're showing a deficiency, you can guess what the ph is by the symptoms associated with a lack of that certain nutrient and looking at the "nutrient availability chart" (google it)