pH question

[Smokin4fun]

Can I water/feed with lower than ideal ph to help balance grow medium ph OR do I always have to water/feed with ideal goal ph?

I have read about what amendments to add to lower ph but don't want to disturb the plants at this point and haven't found anything about using the water to adjust the grow medium ph.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[CouchlockOR]

You can help balance the medium by adjusting your solution pH. Some folks here will try and disput this technique but it does work and I've used it for 10 years with excellent predicted results. If my soil pH was low from excessive nutrient buildup (salt build up) being left in the soil then the pH would drop. I would counter this by adding a high pH solution during watering. To test for pH you could use a shitty soil probe but they are highly inaccurate. I simply pH some water to 6.5 and water until I just start to get runoff. Collect that and test it with a digital pH meter. So for example if my soil pH was 5 and I wanted it to be 6.5 I might try to pH the water to 8 to help raise up the soil pH to 6.5. I do this all the time to help balance the soil pH and it works. Good luck.

 

[Smokin4fun]

You can help balance the medium by adjusting your solution pH. Some folks here will try and disput this technique but it does work and I've used it for 10 years with excellent predicted results. If my soil pH was low from excessive nutrient buildup (salt build up) being left in the soil then the pH would drop. I would counter this by adding a high pH solution during watering. To test for pH you could use a shitty soil probe but they are highly inaccurate. I simply pH some water to 6.5 and water until I just start to get runoff. Collect that and test it with a digital pH meter. So for example if my soil pH was 5 and I wanted it to be 6.5 I might try to pH the water to 8 to help raise up the soil pH to 6.5. I do this all the time to help balance the soil pH and it works. Good luck.

Thanks so much. I thought it would make perfect sense and seems to have worked. Posted this on the newbie forum first and only response I got back was a stupid question about whether my soil was really organic.
I do appreciate an actual answer to my question.
Thanks again. All seems balanced and going to add nutes officially for the first time today. (We had a very late start)