what is the CORRECT way to test the PH of the water

iNFID3L

iNFID3L

Well-Known Member
do i test it BEFORE it goes in, or as it comes out ?

and what is the ideal ph ? im thinking around 6.5 ?
 
scunkworm

scunkworm

Active Member
The bset way of testing the ph is with a digital ph meter' u can also get test tub ones which u put a drop of this stuff and it turns the water a colour and just match it to the chart, plus theres other ones about. like pravius said for soil you want your ph at 6.5, Everything you do before ie. put nutes in the water then, then you find out the ph and if its abit more than 6.5 you use ph down to make it to 6.5, and if its lower than that use ph up to get it bang on 6.5. You can test the run off of your soil but someone said to me on here not to worry too much about that, but just make sure you ph everything to 6.5 before you give the plant it, hope that helps and gives you a better understanding of it.
Hope your grow go's well scunk
 
Pravius

Pravius

Active Member
iNFID3L said:
im not testing the soil, im testing the water that goes in & the water that comes out, so my question still stands....
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Yea I figured that you were doing that l, like I said if you are using like spring water, etc it should have a neutral ph of 7. If tap water than yea get a ph meter or a tube as mentioned above. The run off really does not matter unless you are recycling or something which I would recommend against.
 
Pravius

Pravius

Active Member
Well when you add it to soil it is dilluting it and depending on your soils ph levels could raise or lower the ph in the soil. That's why normally I just water, test ph in soil, then adjust up or down depending on soil levels.
 
iNFID3L

iNFID3L

Well-Known Member
ok so my next question is, how do i test the soil ? im just about to buy a digital PH test meter for water, but as far as testing the SOIL goes i have no idea ?
do i use the same thing ?
 
Pravius

Pravius

Active Member
Yea basically the meter comes with a large probe attached to it an you just take the probe and dip it into the soil, wait for your reading and there you go!
 
PakaloloHui

PakaloloHui

Active Member
If you are doing a organic grow, then a pH of 7 is fine. The fungi in your soil helps to lower your pH, the bacteria raise it.

With organics you have a broader range of pH to work with, since the microbes in the soil work hard to break things to where the plant will uptake the nutes when available. And if you look at a nutrient uptake chart, you can see that nutrients become available to plants in different pH ranges.

I water my plants sometimes with organic tea's that I do not pH but have had a pH of 8.0 or slightly higher with no ill effects on the plant.
With tea's you have 3 types you can make: Fungi dominant, Bacteria Dominant, or Balanced.
Adjust and make your tea's to what your plant needs. Fungi: to lower the pH. Bacteria: to raise the pH. Balanced: when o.k.
When you first start your grow get your fungi population up high. It takes a little longer for them to get to a good stable population, bacteria explode and populate very quickly, so give your fungi a head start.
 
iNFID3L

iNFID3L

Well-Known Member
im not doing organic, i grow in soil that comes with a few weeks nutes added and im adding my own nutes also, thanks for the info , but im not prepared or ready to start using tea in my plants...
 
iNFID3L

iNFID3L

Well-Known Member
Pravius

Pravius

Active Member
iNFID3L said:
that shows about 20 different ones ?
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Yea really the only difference is price and brand. Just go with a decent inexpensive one but not too cheap, as with anything you get what you pay for. I think I paid $20 for mine American.
 
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