nutrient solutions 3.5 pH and lower?

[supermarkio]

checked the pH after mixing nutrients up and its very low like 3.3. My meteris brand new so I've never before checked it but I ALWAYS HAVE pH trouble. Been adding pH up a few tblspn at a time n it's not budging I directly checked the pH of the nutes and its like 3.2. I've jus never read or heard anything about needing a half pint a gallon of pH up every time you feed? Thanks for any feedback on what's probably a dumb question

 

[supermarkio]

The ec is .9 so its not cud I was too heavy with the nutes

 

[zeke99]

We are talking about your reservoir of water and fertilizer right?

What is the source of this water?

If it's well or tap water and I'm understanding you, it sounds as if the alkalinity level in the water is EDIT: LOW (SEE BELOW). Alkalinity is basically a measurement of the ability of the water to resist changes to the pH.

 

[supermarkio]

talking about a nutrient solution to water plants in soil. It is well water pH 6.8-7 and doesn't register on ec meter. Is there a way to test and adjust the alkalinity?

 

[supermarkio]

If it was too high then wouldn't it NOT be affected by the low pH of the nutes or do I misunderstand.

 

[WelderDan]

Have you calibrated your PH meter? Most hydro shops will calibrate a new meter for you for free, but if you got it online, or haven't had it calibrated, it is the first thing you need to do before using it.

 

[supermarkio]

yes I calibrated it my first thought was that I had messed up but its right on and I triple checked everything

 

[supermarkio]

I went out and bought few gals of ro water curious to see what happens

 

[supermarkio]

Jus mixed 4 parts RO water 1 part nute mix the RO water was 6.8 pH it reads 3.7 pH after... I'm lost

 

[Elements001]

Maybe your meter is a dud, or just not working properly. Some of them have 3 different points of calibration and you may have accidentally calibrated it on the ph 10 setting with ph 7.0 calibration fluid, causing it to give false readings.

I would suggest maybe buying some of the little shaker testers. They're really cheap, and give accurate results. You can't really tell anything past say 6 or 7, nothing past .0 (no tenths or hundredths). I would see what that comes out to and if its still saying around the 3 range then something seems off. Could be a bad batch of nutrients as well possibly.

 

[supermarkio]

I have 4.0 and 7.0 fluid and its reading right on I've got few different bottles of nutes i been playing with all night keeps comin up below 4 as soon as ANYTHING goes in the water

 

[zeke99]

I just realized that I'm severely confusing things got it backwards from the start.

going to try to rectify:

Your water did not resist the acid of the fertilizer that was mixed in, therefore the pH dropped severely and it resisted pH up.
This tell us the alkalinity of the water is low (much less of a potential problem than if it was high). Alkalinity is a measure of how much acid it takes to lower the pH below a certain level, i.e. the acid buffering capacity.

The reason that I brought this up to begin with and this is highly counterintuitive, is that the alkalinity of the water (and the type of nitrogen in the fertilizer) has a much larger influence on the pH medium than does the pH of the water (+ nutes). You can read more about this here if you'd like: http://www.greenhousegrower.com/cro...ant-nutrition-irrigation-water-alkalinity-ph/

What type of fertilizer are you using? If the type of nitrogen in the nutes matches up with low alkalinity of the water, than you shouldn't have much too worry in terms of the pH of the medium that the plants are growing in.

 

[zeke99]

Jus mixed 4 parts RO water 1 part nute mix the RO water was 6.8 pH it reads 3.7 pH after... I'm lost

This is normal, the fertilizer is acidic. But mixing it with the RO water, the pH UP should work. Did you try that? If it does not, then I'm probably wrong about your water source.

 

[supermarkio]

I jus bought 3 gallons of RO water and I'm having the exact same results thank you for the info I'm very interested in learning more about it but this is making me think its something else

 

[acridlab]

I've seen general organics do that with well water.. and have been told the molasses based organic products in the g.o is what screws with the ph meter?? Not positive if it's true, but something to consider