Anything that has to do with PH has always been hard for me. Especially when it comes to ppm’s and numbers. I’ve never once checked my ph and that definitely no doubt has affected my yields but yet I still ignore it. I’ve been doing research today and slowly understanding the basics. I also took a picture of the lab results of our tap water in my city. Is it good, bad, or just in the middle?
nothing in that report that would alarm me or keep me from using it but I would like to know other parameters that I did not see on that sheet. Unless it was in front of me and I did not see it. I would like to know ph, calcium, arsenic, magnesium, iron, etc... its good to know what in the water. I am on a well and after I had my well water tested, I immediately got an RO unit. Water was garbage. My plants and I love our water now.
PH'ing your water is actually one of the easiest things you can control. Forget expensive PH pens, or litmus paper. Buy the kit where you drop a few drops of whatever into a small sample of water and the color tells you exactly what your PH is. You then use an eyedropper to add PH+ or PH- until you get 6.5. The PH test kit cost maybe like 8 bucks or so.(been awhile ,I forget, but dirt cheap) and whatever you need ph up or down is also dirt cheap. Also after years of testing my PH it has never changed, so I rarely check anymore, maybe once a month or every 6 weeks. I just add the same amt. of ph down as I always do. The only word of caution that I'd give is that all bottles of PH up or down are not equal. My second bottle of PH down is much stronger than my first one was, so I had to adjust the amount used.
lead as well. So flint michigan. I seen the water . brown stinking nasty horrible . Better to drink dog piss. Those people that drank it were total idiots. They were surprised to learn it was not safe to drink and caused cancer. Even bathing in there water was causing cancer . Honestly if you seen this water you would know you were better off being pee on , That water i would not use for plants lol.
If you have good water from a tap, count your blessings. I've seen tap water so full of clay & iron it was hard to see the bottom of the sink & before bottled water??? I never boiled my water but would let it sit in the frige to let it settle. I can't imagine what "less developed" countries are drinking.
Not sure if you knew this, but water was free for them up until recently. 5 (10?) years ago it made the news that Michigan residents were stunned and unbelieving when they started getting water bills. Water had been free, and they had no idea that everyone else has been paying water bills. Having 4 of the 5 great lakes on it's border seemed a no brainer to them. A lot of them actually thought it was a joke, lol.
Dang. That’s horrible. Just imagining it is sad and insane that people have to go through that every single day. Sorry for your water as well. I’ve yet to see any brown water randomly in my city. I have a few times, but it was only when they did construction on the pipes outside.
Here is MI . I played golf with a person. Retired from detroit water . He said they really cut down on the water standards . He drinks bottled water now. The water comes from detroit river The river looks so blue and nice today. There is a issue old dock from ww2 where we made atomic bombs. That dock fell into the river ! All that old bomb garbage radiation is only a few thousand feet away from the input pipe that sucks the water to be filtered . They said ow the dock is down stream so its not an issue lol . Former radioactive site collapses into Detroit River, raising drinking water safety concerns | CNN Anytime this stuff is dumped expect cancer in 10 to 20 years . My health is so screwed im not worried about it . Only thing keeping me alive is all the weed liquor drugs and radioactive water
gimmick. Most liquid nutrients will not change the ph of the water all i have used . All power nutrients i have used changes the ph. I have used hundreds of different kinds and brands . Even back when kmart was in business used to sell a very good bloom booster . Perfect numbers really good stuff . A hydro store sold the same with different brand costing 20 times the cost. Ph perfect. You still have to ph the water no matter what I bought then entire shipment off the truck. Damn the old days. Im getting old !
Dang. I knew it was too good to be true lol. So pretty much there worthless since we have to manually adjust the ph anyways. What if the waters ph is perfect before the nutrients get added?
Like i said if liquid odds are they wont change the ph of the already adjusted ph water . All liquids i seen wont change the ph water . Even Cheap nutrients like Miracle grow .
i use flora bloom and it drastically changes the ph fwiw. I have to lower the PH if I use flora bloom and that is with a water ph of 6.8 to start. After I add flora bloom, my ph hits 8.1 ish. I say PH any solution you put into your garden, even if plain water. Until you get familiar with the additives you use and how they affect ph, I would PH everything. I resisted doing this bc i was using soil but since I have ph'd everything, every time, my results have been much more consistent and improved.
I guess there is a minority of experienced growers that never had pH problems. I’m with you @storz. Managing pH is part of my growroom protocol. Water can be different each time it’s drawn from the tap. Combining elements can swing a pH. In hydro or soil as plants suck needed nutrients from a solution the composition of the elements change in concentration possibly sifting pH. Stay away from products like Perfect pH. Use a pH pen or drops and the color chart. Lots of us are hoping to grow like @bryan oconner but can’t get there.
I no longer grow . Retired . But thanks for that . I now only started a few autos for entertainment , Actually in the living room . Its nice having a bright light going all the time in the dark nasty winter .
This photo shows my pH monitor and dosing system. Most of the time my pH slowly swings down during the week. As you can see the pH up system is activated. The system senses a slight change and will dose a small amount of pH up to keep it at 5.9+\-. I change out my solution weekly during my grow, except the first 2 weeks of veg, that a 2 week mix. The pH dosing system along with a fresh water tank that delivers water to the nutrient reservoir to replace evaporated and transpired moisture via a float valve keeps things constant. With this set up I can leave in the RV for 7-10 days, when I return I find things are pretty normal. Blue’s Small Shed Grow
I have not needed a drop of Ph up EVER (3 YEARS NOW), Ph down EVERY TIME. 1 tablespoon of gh's Ph down per 5 gallons of ro water puts me at 6.7ish that I rarely check the Ph anymore. (bad lazy habit) Dr Frankenstein would be proud of your set up Co BG.