New grower learning to balance the pH of his water

[yankeetransplnt]

Vinegar is just fine for downer amd baking soda for upper....DO NOT run out asap amd pay the industry for over priced nonsense.....I have been growing for 30 years and vinegar and baking soda have been used by many (and myself) for decades....same with your feeding program...a quality single use nute is all u need for a successful crop....I prefer the Dyna grow and bloom....that and keep ur pH im check and hour growing....tap water is usually a little alkali cause of purification addatives...pH ur tap water (gal) add some say a 1/4tsp of vinegar and chk it again...in a few mimutes u will know how much to add for ur target...
Flower nute also lower ur ph cause lots of phosphorus acid (middle number of NPK, and needed for fowering)...alway set ur ph AFTER adding ur nutes...
Was bored and visited the new growers forum to see if I could answer a question or two..
Careful where u do get answers from....ur in a newb forum and newb will probably try to answer u...enthusiastic and just trying to help but maybe not fully qualified...
Hang in the the hydro forum and maybe pickup good stuff....and no question is a bad one...we all started at some time....peace out...YT

 

[Boyd Crowder]

If you are in soil, you really need to build a good blend from scratch , which will result in a balanced ph soil. If you used a ready mixed soil, you need to mix up a cup of soil and a cup f water, let sit for 30 minutes and test the ph for what you need to do next.

if you are in hydro, get a good ph pen, some gh calibration soultions and some gh up and down. ezpz

 

[yankeetransplnt]

Hey q3corn...thought I would check back in and see what ppl are telling u about pH adjusters....I though I would attach a pic of my current grow which gets vinegar EVER watering to adjust my pH (as I have done for decades)....white widow extreme and these are 6 weeks into flower now....vinegar is organic and only 5% acidic and works PERFECT for a downer....anyone one telling u that it does not is probably quoting something they heard and obviously never used it as such.....ppl will blame ANYTHING but themselves when something goes wrong and I see some are using vinegar for that here...lol
Heres a few pics of how bably my white widow is suffering from vinegar pH adjustments...

 

[Wendull C.]

Buy a book

 

[Floridian]

Man poor newbie, I'm damn sure lucky I came up on overgrow( not to belittle the great growers here. Man I'd be confusing myself with all these household items for PH up or down and I'd guess you would need a pen to take your reading since you have no indicator for all those concoctions.Damn Bro,General hygroponics test kit is what you want and need.Talk to experienced soil growers about GH Ph test kit.Think its about 15 20 bucks for at least 5 grows.Forget vinegal and baking soda,next think you'll hear is fuck nitrogen fertilizer use 10 to 1 urine mixture on your vegging plants.I'm not saying it doesn't work although with the myriad of great ferts I don't know why someone would piss.Point is you are new and people are hittin you with a bunch of unhelpful (in my opinion) and confusing crap.Just get your GH Ph test kit and I will walk through it with you.It will take 2 times and you will be hittin and stickin like Popeyes chicken

 

[Floridian]

Id like to know when you use Ph down in the process.I don't think I've used any except to bump down the PH to 5.5to soak the RW cubes to stabilize PH in the cube.I thnk its hogwash,but it is a reason to use ph downlol

 

[Xray Kimono]

Ph down is necessary with a lot of bloom boosters...

 

[Floridian]

So some bloom boosters will bring up the PH?I'd still use a skosh of fertilizer to get it back down.I'm interested because I've never heard of any fert or booster that would actually raize the PH.What are some?

 

[Eighths-n-Aces]

silica

 

[Floridian]

Maaaan my old lady jugs are filled with that spensive shit..so its good for plants too huh?

 

[Eighths-n-Aces]

not gonna comment on the old lady's jugs, but yeah and in a round about and twisted stoner kinda logic it gives the plants a stiffy. i'll never think of silica the same way again

 

[LostTribe]

General hydroponics Ph test kit is all you need to use for beautiful plants in soil.It consists of PH up,down and indicator.You'll learn to love that bright light lime green color which indicates about 6.4 PH.Its really all you need forget anything else,seriously.

I actually think I grew better plants when I used the GH ph test solution. Now I am rocking a bluelab ph meter. Still superb however I used a simple test solution for years and it worked like the charm!

I used to have a milwaukee ph pen but it hit the floor one time and the glass probe shattered and I went straight to the gh stuff.

 

[ceausescu]

Ph-ing the water is overrated in my opinion.Ph down solutions always caused problems for me especially with young plants.My tap water is around 7 as well and its fine plants love it no need to lower ph.

 

[jesbuds]

Ph-ing the water is overrated in my opinion.Ph down solutions always caused problems for me especially with young plants.My tap water is around 7 as well and its fine plants love it no need to lower ph.

I like your style.

 

[Floridian]

I didn't think this was about water PH I thought this was a nutrient PH post.I see you overrate PH ing water but what about your nutrient PH?You cant take that as casually.Use something like tigerbloom without PH up and see how your flowers turn out.A.d why would PH down cause you a problem I still have the first bottle from my first grow in 2002.In the unusual situation you would need to bring your nutrient PH down a skosh of fert will do it

 

[jesbuds]

*passes the joint back to you*

I guess my query really comes down to balancing the ph of my tap water.

 

[ceausescu]

I didn't think this was about water PH I thought this was a nutrient PH post.I see you overrate PH ing water but what about your nutrient PH?You cant take that as casually.Use something like tigerbloom without PH up and see how your flowers turn out.A.d why would PH down cause you a problem I still have the first bottle from my first grow in 2002.In the unusual situation you would need to bring your nutrient PH down a skosh of fert will do it

In my experience nutrients lower ph so no need for ph down.
When i mix my nutes with the water it lower ph just enough.
Maybe you give to many nutes if your water gets to acidic.
Anyways i had lots of problems with ph down solutions just sharing my experience.
This is where i found out what was wrong with my past grows hope this helps some guys having the same problems
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqxJMcUewiE

 

[ganjygav]

Biobizz brings my water down to 6.5 perfect. That's with grow,bloom,topmax and heaven. I never used to think I needed to adjust the ph of my water but got lots of problems. When I add food I don't need to adjust but my tap water is 7.6, I think the fluctuations between giving feed and just plain water is what was messing my plants up.
This time I got a pen and ph down, I make sure everything going in is 6.5 and my plants look great.

 

[Floridian]

gangy my tap is real high out of the tap,so I don't use the tap.You would see a world of difference in your grows using R/O water.Ph is nice and simple most people over look PPMs of all the crap from the tap.

 

[ceausescu]

I would really like to see a side by side soil grow with clones.
Half of the plants watered with ph corrected water and half without.
And it depends on one`s tap water but if its ok to drink it should be ok for the plants to.