raising and lowering ph

[ganjah shaman]

i think you guys are misunderstanding,First im growing in soil not hydro so my range should be between 6.2 and 6.8,all my plant like about 6.5 so that is my target ph 5.5 would cause me all kinds of lock out im not trying to be an ass but all the info is contained in my post by res i mean holding tanks for my nuets not for growing in but for water and feed,what i am really looking for is an organic alternitive to using ph up that is water saluble,and somthing stronger so i dont have to keep waisting money.Ive been researching this for days and im not finding any definitive answers.Im not trying to raise my soil ph its fine i need to raise my nuet/water ph.

 

[Midnight Tokar]

How many times do you want people to tell you?
LIME!

 

[ganjah shaman]

How many times do you want people to tell you?
LIME!

as many time as it takes to get a correct answer lime has a pH of 2.0 to 2.3 how are you gonna raise pH with that?
so either im misunderstanding what you mean by lime or you dont know crap,so how about explaining it or quit giving advise that is wrong

 

[One Love 731]

Sorry bro, I was confused, I should of read a lil closer. Hope someone with solid info comes along. I didn't know it was a must to PH your water in soil, thought the soil/peat and lime set the ph itself. Ive herd it both way. I grow coco, don't know how I missed this was a soil grow. Ive never had such a hard time adjusting my PH, I shouldn't of commented. I feel like an ass. Peace pot and karma. One Love

 

[Midnight Tokar]

No, not lime as in the fruit but lime as in Dolomite Lime! Pretty much self explanatory!

 

[stihgnobevoli]

not trying to be an asshole but this is a really dickhead thread.

you have high ph in your water? yes? around or above 8?

when you add nutes the ph drops to like 5.5? correct?

if you want to raise the ph ADD MORE WATER!

you claim you need 7.5 quarts of ph up to raise 32 gallons of water from 5.5 to 6.5?

shenanigans. it takes like 2 drops of ph down to go from 8.5 to 5 in 1 gallon of water for me. how could it possibly take 1000x more ph up to do the opposite?

and once again adding water will raise your ph.

and to reiterate what was said before

USE SOME FUCKING LIME IN YOUR SOIL.

it will take any high ph or low ph and bring it back to around 7.

we're trying to help you, its up to you to actually listen.

 

[ganjah shaman]

hey im not trying to get in a pissing contest and im not trying to dis anyone off but stighnobevoli you obviously didnt read my post,why in the heck would i use 7.5 qrts of ph up?and as far as being a dick head post looks like your the dickhead,and unless somone says dolomite lime is water soluble and will raise your pH in water then the question is not adaquetly answered and left open for interpretation and one love you rock no offense taken and i hope none given.
midnight
its not self explanitory if you have never encountered the information then you dont know.Ive been growing in humbolt for 12 yrs and i grow the cron,the only time ive ever used dolomite lime is to balance the pH of the soil never water,now im up on a mnt and i cant just pop into town and ask the guys down at the many supply stores what the deal is and since ive never encountered the problem before,i thought i would post on here and see if somone had any info or suggestions,ignorence of a subject dosnt make you a dick head just lacking in sufficient knowledge concerning that subject,and if i didnt get an adaquate responce ill keep asking the question untill i do

 

[ganjah shaman]

you want me to ad more water? my res is 32 gal my nuets are mixed at 32 gal there is no more room to ad water and to do so would require changing my nuet concentration,which would screw up my feed,the object is to raise the ph with out changing the volume of water or nuets, this is self explanitory.

 

[Sgt.Stedenko]

Shamen,

You need to chill. People here are trying to help you. You don't bite the hand that feeds.
Maybe if you could coherently phrase a question, we could better understand your problem(s). There's a spell check button in the reply tab. Try using it.

I have a few questions for you.

What are you using to test your pH?
Why do you have a 32 gal res if this is in soil? A res is for hydro. Is it for Blumats?
Why are you using SOOOOOO much pH up/down. My bottle is less than 1/8 empty and I've had it for 4 years.
Have you tested the alkalnity of your water?
Is your water municipal, well, storm?
Have you tried to bubble your water after adding nutes to raise your pH?

I suggest you sit down this weekend and do some IC reading on water chemistry, soil growing and soil pH buffering. Maybe then you might understand the use of dolomite lime with your pH probelms.

If you are using close to a bottle each time you mix nutes, you are doing something wrong.

 

[Highlight]

Deleted

 

[Midnight Tokar]

In another thread you didn't mention if you were doing hydro or soil so when you mentioned a 32 gallon res I assumed you were talking hydro. Never heard anyone use a res for soil before unless they were setting up a auto watering system for vacation.
Most people who grow pot when lime is mentioned pretty much know we are talking about dolomite lime. In stead of arguing with everyone here when you were told to use lime all you had to do was search here for lime. There are literally hundreds of threads here discussing using lime to raise PH, buffering with lime, using lime in water etc.
I just wondering why you came off with the attitude to people trying to help you especially when there is so much info here, all for the reading.
Take care

 

[ganjah shaman]

like i said im not trying to get in a pissing contest.Ok ill answer your questions.i have a digital tester and yes it is calibrated correctly,by res i mean a 32 gal tank that i mix my nutrient solution in and a 32 gal tank that i put my clear in,both have air stones in them 24/7
why am i using so much ph up,i cannot answer that question as i do not know the answer my water is 8.3 to 8.5,when i ad my nuets it drops down to 5.3 to 5.5,now at 32 gal it takes 3/4 of a 1 qrt bottle of general hydroponics ph up to raise my ph,this is in my water not my soil my soil run off is 6.3 which is good,now my plants dont have a problem,people say use dolomite lime well in soil this takes about 1 yr to totally biodegrade i have found NO information that says it will bio in water,now it might but it is going to take a long time,unless there is a water salable form that i can use,so do you see my delima.and as far as chilling out im chill but people should actually read my post before they call me a dick head and accuse me of shenanigans and i really dont think my spelling is so whack that you cant read it,and i aint no spelling wizz to begin with.but ya i do appreciate peoples input,just not the negitive bs

 

[Midnight Tokar]

As to whether lime works right away or not there are different opinions about that. Some say 6 months to get the most from it some say it starts working immediately if needed by the plants. Now that is for the Cal/Mag in it but as a PH up it's instant.
Try taking some of your nute water in a cup, test it for PH and then put a pinch of lime in it and stir well, now check your PH!

I have no idea what's going on with your res but something ain't right. I think if it were me having that much problems with it I would stop for awhile and just mix my water as needed until I could get the PH under control.

BTW, I posted part of Burn One's sticky on organic soil about lime and flushing in the other PH thread. It has some good info.

 

[ganjah shaman]

i appreciate it midnight and i apologize if i offended you just seemed like people were giving me shit and all i wanted was a simple answer that i could comprehend like i said i never ran into this problem before and ya it seems something is not right,ive tried making my water neutral before i ad the nutes and i get the same result,i called my buddy and the only thing he could come up with was that my air stone might be evaporating the ph up before it has a chance to really work,so im gonna let it sit and mix before i start aerating it and see if that works

 

[Sgt.Stedenko]

Lime will buffer the soil pH immediately.
It may take up to 6 months to release all the Ca and Mg.

Unless you have extremely high alkalinity in your water, it shouldn't take but a teaspoon or two of pH up/down for 32 gallons.
I use 5 to 10 drops in a 2 gallon res.

The spell checker is not in the quick reply, btw.

 

[cirric]

Whos tried the House & Garden PH Stabilizer?

Whos tried the House & Garden PH Stabilizer?

Its a 10-Day PH stabilizer! Great. No more checking the PH 4 times a day! They also got it in GROW and BLOOM PH.
Sounds like thats all you need!
Only reason I use GH Flora Nova is for the PH stabilizer in it. Seems its only one foreign web sites! Hard to find...

Check it out:
http://www.house-garden.com.au/products_additives_pH_additives.php

 

[ganjah shaman]

ok what about this it only takes a cap to lower the ph with ph down even if its crazy like 9 but for nuets it takes a lot more than ive ever encountered and that;is wierd and strait up ive grown a lot and worked on a lot of other peoples grows,thats why i cant figure this shit out,now ive been using excessive amounts of ph up so its like 200 bucks a grow i would like to get this down to like 20 bucks a grow,and i feel like an ass cuz i had no idea you could use dolomite lime in your water to rais ph,so one more dumb question: do i need to get a special kind of lime crushed powder water soluble?,and ya im not trying to offend anyone just find a solution to my problem that dosnt require experimentation,im 15 days into flower and my plants are already packing at least an oz each and the big watering res is for 40 plants,so im not trying to screw that up ya know.Again i appreciate everyone patience and advice.
smoke on

 

[greenmatter]

every time i think i have a grip on this thread i lose it. anyone with me on that? ganjah please understand that we are not trying to f#$k with you , but i still can't say for sure if you are growing in dirt or hydro. maybe i'm missing something. please clarify

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

...people say use dolomite lime well in soil this takes about 1 yr to totally biodegrade

That's when you add more lime. I've limed my outdoor garden in fall before planting in spring. But indoors, I usually moisten a batch of soil mix, dolomitic lime and turn it occasionally over a month or so before planting.

i have found NO information that says it will bio in water,now it might but it is going to take a long time,

It'll raise your water pH immediately. The only problem, it's not made for water because you can't judge the application amount like you can with soil.

unless there is a water salable form that i can use,so do you see my delima.

hydrated lime

and as far as chilling out im chill but people should actually read my post before they call me a dick head and accuse me of shenanigans and i really dont think my spelling is so whack that you cant read it,and i aint no spelling wizz to begin with.but ya i do appreciate peoples input,just not the negitive bs

You're right, some don't read as closely before they respond. I saw one question you'd answered in the preceding post, lol. I know it gets aggravating.

With the proper amount lime, your mix will act like a buffer. To an extent, lower pH water won't cause the root environment pH to dive to lockout levels. Nute buildup needs to be avoided because high EC will sink pH. But with lime in your mix, you've got a significant advantage.

BTW, your mix will dominate the pH of your root environment, not what you're pouring in. You can measure the pH of your runoff and get a better idea what you've got. But it's tricky to measure runoff. Too much buildup in the bottom of the pot [and] too little amount of runoff might measure 3 or 4, not necessarily what your mid and upper root zone measures.

As long as you keep your nute buildup in check, ~15% runoff should give you a ballpark pH reading for your root environment. If your grow is too big for that much waste, you'll have to do the best you can with visual symptoms of deficiency or toxicity.

ok what about this it only takes a cap to lower the ph with ph down even if its crazy like 9 but for nuets it takes a lot more than ive ever encountered and that;is wierd and strait up ive grown a lot and worked on a lot of other peoples grows,thats why i cant figure this shit out,

It's the difference in the EC. Your plain water has little buffering capability and it doesn't take much pH down to lower it to proper levels. Your nutes water is so strong that it takes lots of (General Hydroponics) pH up. Plus the fact you have so many gallons of nute water.

IME, Lucas with GH Flora takes almost twice as much pH up as Floranova. I like Lucas better and add the additional pH up. But I also feed a lower EC because only nute hogs need label strength.

now ive been using excessive amounts of ph up so its like 200 bucks a grow i would like to get this down to like 20 bucks a grow

Advanced nutrients Ph up is cheap and very very strong. like use drops

and what makes advanced nuets any different than general hydroponics?

oops you didn't read that one too good, gs... just kidding.

Advanced Nutrients pH adjustments are much more concentrated than GH.

and i feel like an ass cuz i had no idea you could use dolomite lime in your water to rais ph

You had lots of confusion early on. Peeps were offering lime juice for water as organic pH down. Dolomitic lime has to be used in soil, mixed in prior to planting. There just aren't that many organic pH up amendments for water. Hardwood ash is a good soil buffer too. But like mineral lime, hardwood ash is hard to measure in water because it releases relatively slow and can be easily over applied.

so one more dumb question: do i need to get a special kind of lime crushed powder water soluble?

For your mix, powdered dolomitic lime is good, peletized is cool too.

Rather than adding lime to your water, consider top dressing your soil pots with dry lime and water through. It's not as good as a pre-plant mix but sometimes it's better than no lime at all.

and ya im not trying to offend anyone just find a solution to my problem that dosnt require experimentation,im 15 days into flower and my plants are already packing at least an oz each and the big watering res is for 40 plants,so im not trying to screw that up ya know.Again i appreciate everyone patience and advice.
smoke on

Then you definitely don't want to mess with dolo lime in water. Consider it a last resort. Best wishes and hope you get everything worked out.

 

[!!!]

If you're going through multiple bottles of pH up/down in a single cycle then you're doing something wrong.

Go out and buy GH DRY pH up/down. They comes in small plastic tubs and last practically forever.

Then buy two sturdy plastic bottles (preferably your old pH up/dn bottles) and mix a very strong solution of water + the GH powder. It comes out to maybe $1-2 per bottle.

Don't use baking soda, vinegar, etc. This hobby isn't that expensive. In fact, this hobby PAYS you to continue doing it. Sell 2 grams of weed and you made back the cost of the pH up/down and $20 for munchie food and some gas.