Do you PH water when growing in soil?

[Guest 351408]

Hey guys I know this has been asked a lot with varying answers but do most soil growers PH their water before watering or not?

I have just put my seeds into soil. I checked the PH of the water and it was 7.8. I know ppl say 6.8 is optimum for soil but others say that a PH level like what I have is fine as the soil will buffer it.

I am currently growing in Biobizz light mix. The label states it has a PH of 6.2

As much as I would like to water some plants with room temperature tap water and water some others with water PH'ed to 6.8 I just don't have the time to be doing a lot of testing and since I'm growing from seed I don't want to put seedlings under any unnecessary stress

I have not added any nutes to the water yet but I'm sure that will change my PH again.

So, in closing.
Would you PH the water or leave it as it is until the plants show that they don't like it.

Peace out
Manticore

 

[dank.frank]

Soil doesn't naturally buffer unless it has the proper inputs in it. Ie, lime, sulfur, EWC, rock dusts, etc and high microbial life...

If using bottled nutes and water, you should adjust your pH.

If you've properly built a fully organic medium, it'll buffer itself.



dank.Frank

 

[supermanlives]

i have an organic based soil with all the goodies. i dont ph my water but i do drop it a bit as i know its high from the tap.if your ph is really high or low it makes sense to me and try and get it close to where it should be and let the soil do the rest. i dont even have a ph meter anymore.

 

[Guest 351408]

Soil doesn't naturally buffer unless it has the proper inputs in it. Ie, lime, sulfur, EWC, rock dusts, etc and high microbial life...

If using bottled nutes and water, you should adjust your pH.

If you've properly built a fully organic medium, it'll buffer itself.

Understood. Thanks for that. Well the biobizz light mix is organic but I don't think it would have those inputs, as it is just a light mix.

I'll be feeding with biobizz nutes (also organic) when needed.

I might just water some soil and ph the run off to see what results I get.

I have some garden lime lying about so I could easily put in a small bit if the run off is too high.

i have an organic based soil with all the goodies. i dont ph my water but i do drop it a bit as i know its high from the tap.if your ph is really high or low it makes sense to me and try and get it close to where it should be and let the soil do the rest. i dont even have a ph meter anymore.

I'm of the same mind set as you supermanlives. One question though. You said you don't PH your water but you do drop it a bit as your tap water is a bit high. How do you do it then? Some lime, ph down or something else

 

[supermanlives]

well i did once did hydro and took notes of ph and such. i use ej products that are acidic to drop ph to more suitable range. i dont need ph up or down . ph up would be silicon ,ph down is ej products which are all acidic. just a tiny bit will do ya. alot of organic ferts are acidic not just ej. adding lime to an already high ph is problematic. think an iron deff showed first if i remember right when i tried it way back

 

[Guest 351408]

well i did once did hydro and took notes of ph and such. i use ej products that are acidic to drop ph to more suitable range. i dont need ph up or down . ph up would be silicon ,ph down is ej products which are all acidic. just a tiny bit will do ya. alot of organic ferts are acidic not just ej. adding lime to an already high ph is problematic. think an iron deff showed first if i remember right when i tried it way back

Cool, thanks. I'm probably getting ahead of myself anyway. But prevention is better than cure and such.

I think what il do is water wit tap water and water with Ph'd water. Check the run off of each and adjust as needed.

Probably the best thing to do (unless someone can tell me otherwise)

I'll be doing this test on soil with no plants so should give me accurate enough results.

 

[Explicit1]

Do you use pots with drainholes? I would then check the ph in the water after putting in nutes and adjust it to around 6,7. Then you can water the plants through and check it again from the bottomwater from the container too see how much the soil has changed it. The water that comes out should generally be somewhere around 6-6,5 I think.

 

[GMT]

I don't use organic, I use cheapo supermarket soil, but do use biobizz grow nutes. I'm lucky in that my tap water comes out of the tap at ph7. The biobizz drops that a tad, so I give them a range of roughly 6.5 when feeding and 7 when just watering. But because I know that, I don't bother trying to test ph. No idea what the run off would be, never measured that. I like the idea of giving them diff ph water each time as it gives them the best chance to take up everything they need throughout the grow period.

 

[dank.frank]

I've never owned a meter. Love organic soil!


dank.Frank

 

[BrownThumb]

I use tap water without worrying about PH, but do let it sit for a day before using most of the time. I guess that means if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

 

[Granger2]

Manticore,
To be clear, lime will raise the pH, not lower it. Lots of people grow in soil with organic nutes and never worry about pH, and have great results. I would worry much more about the pH of the mix before you apply it than the runoff. If your water is pretty extreme like mine, it won't hurt to keep the pH of the nute mix close to optimal. May not be necessary with your soil and water, but won't hurt. To me, pHing is a pain in ass, so I wouldn't do it if I didn't have to. I'm in coco so it's different than soil, even though I'm growing organically.

I would say to check pH in the beginning, and when you change ferts, etc. just to get an idea of what you're dealing with, and try to get away without pHing, but be ready to start if you see any signs of lock out of defs. -Good luck. -granger

 

[Neo 420]

PH pen.... I remember those things....

In your case you better PH.

 

[FunkBomb]

As long as your soil has some kind of pH buffer, you don't need to worry about it.

-Funk

 

[alx1234]

Hey guys I know this has been asked a lot with varying answers but do most soil growers PH their water before watering or not?

I have just put my seeds into soil. I checked the PH of the water and it was 7.8. I know ppl say 6.8 is optimum for soil but others say that a PH level like what I have is fine as the soil will buffer it.

I am currently growing in Biobizz light mix. The label states it has a PH of 6.2

As much as I would like to water some plants with room temperature tap water and water some others with water PH'ed to 6.8 I just don't have the time to be doing a lot of testing and since I'm growing from seed I don't want to put seedlings under any unnecessary stress

I have not added any nutes to the water yet but I'm sure that will change my PH again.

So, in closing.
Would you PH the water or leave it as it is until the plants show that they don't like it.

Peace out
Manticore

with organic nutes no, with chemical allways

 

[s00thsayer]

Anytime I've messed with trying to control the soil pH my plants freak so I just leave it alone now. Even when my tap water was around 7.5 my plants did fine with it. I say don't mess with it unless your plants give you a reason to.

 

[Jnugg]

When you go to water be sure to water very slowly,just a little at a time as you want your ph'd water to mix with the soil...gather just the first few drops of runoff to test runoff ph.If your soil mix is supposed to have a ph of 6.2 then adjust your water to 6.2 ph.If runoff ph is greater then 6.2 then you have a salt build up and should flush with ph corrected water.

No matter what method I use (hydro,hydro-organic,organic) I always adjust the ph of my plain water and/or nute mix to that of the soil/grow medium...always better to be safe than sorry.

 

[Jnugg]

When you go to water be sure to water very slowly,just a little at a time as you want your ph'd water to mix with the soil...gather just the first few drops of runoff to test runoff ph.If your soil mix is supposed to have a ph of 6.2 then adjust your water to 6.2 ph.If runoff ph is greater then 6.2 then you have a salt build up and should flush with ph corrected water.

No matter what method I use (hydro,hydro-organic,organic) I always adjust the ph of my plain water and/or nute mix to that of the soil/grow medium...always better to be safe than sorry.

 

[Guest 351408]

So ive tested my PH 4 times over the past two days and its coming out of the tap at 6.9-7.1 now.

Im hoping that I got a wrong reading the first time round. I calibrated my ph meter before checking so not sure how it happened.

I watered with it and the run off was at 6.2. Which is the PH of the BioBizz light mix soil.

All seems well anyway with the seedlings and ill stick with the consensus of if it aint broke but don't fix it (but be prepared if sh1t hits the fan )

 

[Snow1]

Throwing out my two pennies but I would say it depends on your water quality IMO I know with my states water there is so much crap in it I wouldn't be surprised if the lights went out and my plant was glowing. I would say if its RO water don't worry about it as it will be about 6.2-6.8 ball park anyway. As for bio buzz I haven't worked with but the notes that I have we're out of this world PPM readings using my tap and nutes. I started with hydro so I ph everything since then and most of the time if I have a problem it's overwatering but I have gotten a lot better.

 

[nukklehead]

as above .. i am ALMOST all organic... I dont like to start a match with the other organicers but IM sorry.. If you live with water that has a ph of 8.0-9+ I dont care how much organic "stuff" you have , you will run high on your runoff and your plants will show.. Getting mine dialed in now with a squirt of lemon juice in my 2 gallon jug. Dont even have to check the ph anymore.. just know my girls, soil, and situation.. everybodys water is different, everybodys setup is different, everybodys body is different in how it all reacts to an environment.