Do You Let Your pH Fluctuate or Hold Constant?

I would just like to put in 2 more cents real quick..

When the pH swings super far from that happy middle point, certain nutrients are more soluble, but others are also less soluble.. so the goal with the swing I'm guessing is to go back and forth making the various elements extremely soluble for the plants, so that they can pick them up in bulk..

--This would be like a human eating a whole bunch of meat one week, and then a bunch of salad after that, and then nothing but fruit the third, followed up with a ton of sweets in wk 4 so that he can call his diet well-balanced at the end of the month.. which is not how it works, you eat a well balanced diet every day so that your body can carry out the proper metabolic processes.. consistently, minute by minute, and day by day...

which is exactly how a plant works (different processes obviously).. but it's using a wide range of those elements constantly and would be able to do so more readily if the nutrients are ALL readily available.. Keeping that mean value pH just ensures a "proper balanced diet" so to speak

-But hey experience is everything, if you think that your plants do better when the pH fluctuates then stick to it.. I've been keeping my pH at 5.8 for years and years and have seen the difference myself when I don't... so if someone told me I should change it I'd probably tell em to F-off.

Happy growin guys

Japanfreak said:

I don't care who you work for, doesn't have much to do with the conversation. Experienced growers like the drift more, usually more like a .5 drift and it's not very hard to do at all depending on which nute line you use.

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of course doing abigger drift isnt hard. in fact takes no skill at all..just dont ph..how hard is that, skill to keep it tight, and has nothing to do with a nute line..any nute can drift if the gyy dont care enough to feed a ballanced diet like above says also

just because 1 elemnent is more avail at a certain ph then another dont mean we need all at full levels..is why we dont make a 20/20/20 food anymore. we learned more to a plants needs by testing it weekly to what it ate or didnt eat. more to just testing the thc levels. this is why we aim for the right ph for the macro elements and not the micros. besides those being chelated to open the ph availability more

-But hey experience is everything, if you think that your plants do better when the pH fluctuates then stick to it.. I've been keeping my pH at 5.8 for years and years and have seen the difference myself when I don't... so if someone told me I should change it I'd probably tell em to F-off.


thats the bigest problem i see online is that the old news has been around so long we get told we are wrong with new info. not often we get a nute co coming online as a grower to help to be able to use the foods as they where made to be used....they`ve enjoyeed the many many proifits from the over use of foods so far.

do tell what is going on with ph going down and ppm going down?

Medi 1 said:

of course doing abigger drift isnt hard. in fact takes no skill at all..just dont ph..how hard is that, skill to keep it tight, and has nothing to do with a nute line

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Well most tend to drift up but some drift down so I'd say it matters.

You know the question comes to mind...

What is your Ph Really???...Not what your meter is telling you....what is it really .

What is the ph of the water in the invisible res (you know the hydroton, the rockwool, the plumbing)

What is the ph being held in your medium right now? Surly it isn't exactly what your meter says.; that's just the water in you res. Look at what you have to go through to ensure rockwool is ph balanced. You got to soak it in 5.5---so that it (hopefully) gets to 5.8, but i know that it never works that way for me...im always starting to soak the shit at 5.1 to get to 5.8. But i may use a different Ph down than you. The variables that effect ph are all over the place.

That ph number might be accurate for the water in your res....but that may or may not be what your plants are drinking.

Heck, humidity can change the ph....unless your humidity is made of 5.8 balanced ph RO water that is.


But we all get away with it...because of the generous range MJ thrives in. But no one knows absolutely what their plants ph are100% of the time. I guarantee it

Just a fairly good idea most of the time (at best) of what the ph level is.

At least if you keep it tight....it would help to combat that problem. But not cure it.

powerslide said:

do tell what is going on with ph going down and ppm going down?

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a guess as we arent in your room to see what you do is most likely your getting a fair bit of run off but keeping the medium to wet also. so the food is washing out the bottom but from the medium being constantly wet the ph has dropped out to. ...1 of many reasons it could be