Does RO need pH’d??

Star Dog said:

I use hydro but from what I've read, no water does not have to be ph,d

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I'm with you. Maybe PH the hydro solution, but TBH, I haven't bothered PH'ing in years. Depends on medium too. My peat pots are healthy enough it doesn't matter what PH solution I pour in, the soil maintains a PH of ~6. H20 days, the plants get whatever the tap is at that day.

dbz said:

Earth Juice Naturals has ph products that dont affect the microbial life in organics. You still might want to ph despite well buffered soil if your source water is way out of whack. I don't adjust but my water is good enough.

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what pH range of RO would you consider "out of whack"

I heard it was impossible to ph RO water and get the right reading, I know for sure my pen couldn’t give me a accurate number, it just kept going down so I just never used it again and things turned out Ok

Raspberrykiwi said:

Don’t ph if you’re growing organics. Organic means NO BOTTLED NUTRIENTS! You pretty much feed the bacteria in your soil(water) and they go to work breaking down all the organic matter(poop, bark, moss, etc.) in your soil. You can mix in some molasses to your RO water to help feed the microbes better. But if you’re using bottled nutrients at all, then you should probably ph. If not, don’t ph and enjoy!

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I use honey....plan on getting some molasses

Raspberrykiwi said:

FFOF has enough organic matter in it. If I were you, I would go buy some organic worm castings and organic compost to mix into some soil. That’ll provide more food and nutrients to be broken down and absorbed by your plants

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my first mix was organic generic potting soil, couple of handfuls of ewc, coco, and perlite....60-20-20 .. i used liquid nutes at a low dose and was pleasantly surprised. still learning.

my current blend in a 5gal fabric pot is FFOF, couple of handfuls ewc since theyre just lying around here, some Myco, and tbsp or 2 of biochar and watering with compost tea 1-2x a week and plain 1-2x a week. ..... hope its enough! hate to wait 4 months for nothing

appreciate the advice

Pacoson71 said:

I agree,
If you put un PH water that's 8ph in soil that should be 6.5, will it not raise the soils ph.

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It's never raised the PH in my peat mix. The run-off always comes out right around 6. And when I feed GO, that stuff is like ~4ph and has never dropped PH in my pots. Run-off is always around 6 even with the GO acid bath nutes. Freaked me out at first and I was using tons of PH up to get the solution to 6. Caused more harm than good. Now I don't worry about it and the ladies are as happy as can be.

If un-PH'd water brought soil PH up, then we'd all have dead lawns and golf courses would be made of artificial turf. How could farmers even grow anything since they use that horrible high PH well water.

If you're in a pure hydro system like rockwool, clay pellets, perelite, etc, then your solution needs to be spot on. In soil, coco & peat, PHing is waste of time and money.

That said I do PH my cloning solution to 6.

dbz said:

Thats true. Its also true that using salt nutes can f up the microbial life as well. So if you're going organic or soil just wanted to make sure you were adding nutes healthy for the soil as well.

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I used FF soil blend and Tiger in one pot and FF soil blend with RAW bloom all-in-one in the other...great harvest imo with 4 decades exp... all at 1/3 dose or less....

I want to go straight organics with no nutes added. just compost tea. if I see a deficiency ill address that when time comes but goal is just tea, dirt and light

SnoopyDoo said:

I'm with you. Maybe PH the hydro solution, but TBH, I haven't bothered PH'ing in years. Depends on medium too. My peat pots are healthy enough it doesn't matter what PH solution I pour in, the soil maintains a PH of ~6. H20 days, the plants get whatever the tap is at that day.

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what medium do you use?

Dopesmoka said:

I heard it was impossible to ph RO water and get the right reading, I know for sure my pen couldn’t give me a accurate number, it just kept going down so I just never used it again and things turned out Ok

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hhhhhmmm.... there have been times ive cussed my pH pen because it was acting so squirrly..........

SnoopyDoo said:

It's never raised the PH in my peat mix. The run-off always comes out right around 6. And when I feed GO, that stuff is like ~4ph and has never dropped PH in my pots. Run-off is always around 6 even with the GO acid bath nutes. Freaked me out at first and I was using tons of PH up to get the solution to 6. Caused more harm than good. Now I don't worry about it and the ladies are as happy as can be.

If un-PH'd water brought soil PH up, then we'd all have dead lawns and golf courses would be made of artificial turf. How could farmers even grow anything since they use that horrible high PH well water.

If you're in a pure hydro system like rockwool, clay pellets, perelite, etc, then your solution needs to be spot on. In soil, coco & peat, PHing is waste of time and money.

That said I do PH my cloning solution to 6.

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excuse my ignorance but what is GO?

SnoopyDoo said:

It's never raised the PH in my peat mix. The run-off always comes out right around 6. And when I feed GO, that stuff is like ~4ph and has never dropped PH in my pots. Run-off is always around 6 even with the GO acid bath nutes. Freaked me out at first and I was using tons of PH up to get the solution to 6. Caused more harm than good. Now I don't worry about it and the ladies are as happy as can be.

If un-PH'd water brought soil PH up, then we'd all have dead lawns and golf courses would be made of artificial turf. How could farmers even grow anything since they use that horrible high PH well water.

If you're in a pure hydro system like rockwool, clay pellets, perelite, etc, then your solution needs to be spot on. In soil, coco & peat, PHing is waste of time and money.

That said I do PH my cloning solution to 6.

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so no need to pH even in Coco??

going to try hydro with a dwc and one plant for a trial run but Ive been gardening a long time with good results in the dirt so for now it will be my bread and butter.

Okiedog said:

what medium do you use?

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Might not be the right product for you. There's no nutes in it. I use the lucas formula 2 days a week and either water or organic fertilizers the rest of the time. Works pretty good for me. I started doing hydro ebb & flow and then wanted to switch to organic, but that didn't work out too well. So I came up with my hybrid organic/hydro feeding schedule. I use Great White and molasses because the synthetic fertilizers are rough on the mircrobes.

Raspberrykiwi said:

That’s earth juice... they have their own product that they sell.. not knocking them, but if you’re making your own tea and you’re not feeding a bottled nutrient, don’t ph. Ph is not needed if you’re doing organics right. My single plant has been growing for about 6 months now, and I added not one drop of PH up or PH down. I got all my water from a RO filter and watered straight in. I fed one compost tea my whole grow and just top dressed with more soil and EWC and compost. My plant never showed a sign of deficiency or toxicity. My plant has not burnt up or anything

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ok! thanks. So is it normal to only use one tea? is there a rule of thumb in that regards with a rich soil.

Raspberrykiwi said:

This doesn’t explain the science of it, but it does give you an idea of what’s going on.

How do I grow organic marijuana? | Grow Weed Easy

So you want to grow organic? Learn how to mix up your own organic super soil! Just add water and grow...

www.growweedeasy.com

even has a good soil mix that you can replicate!

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love those girls

Okiedog said:

excuse my ignorance but what is GO?

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General Organics nute line

Raspberrykiwi said:

Don’t ph if you’re growing organics. Organic means NO BOTTLED NUTRIENTS! You pretty much feed the bacteria in your soil(water) and they go to work breaking down all the organic matter(poop, bark, moss, etc.) in your soil. You can mix in some molasses to your RO water to help feed the microbes better. But if you’re using bottled nutrients at all, then you should probably ph. If not, don’t ph and enjoy!

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I was going to run FF nutrients when the time comes. I have a bag of happy frog dry fertilizer I was gonna top feed with, and then go with the FF trio. Still organic?

Techno from Bluelab on PH testing.

Pfortyseven said:

I was going to run FF nutrients when the time comes. I have a bag of happy frog dry fertilizer I was gonna top feed with, and then go with the FF trio. Still organic?

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If you use any bottled nutrients you’ll have to ph and that’ll kill your microbiology. If you want to do organics, I recommend not using anything bottled. Buy a bag of dry amendments. 4-4-4 all purpose for veg and 2-8-4 for bloom. I use Dr earth all purpose and dr earth flower girl!

Okiedog said:

ok! thanks. So is it normal to only use one tea? is there a rule of thumb in that regards with a rich soil.

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The richness of the soil does not matter. Your plant isn’t up taking nutrients directly from the soil. Instead, the microbes eat the organic matter and shit out the mineral form of the nutrients. The mineral form is then attracted to colloids in your soil and the roots feed off of the colloids! That is cationic exchange.

So as far as tea goes.. Tea is not food for the plant, tea is food for your microbes. You’ll be adding millions of microbes to your soil, and adding simple sugars that will feed the microbes. Imagine feeding the tea and all of your microbes go crazy! You’ll see lush green growth with any tea you feed. You can do weekly teas, or whenever you feel the plant needs it. Teas can be fed straight to the soil or foliar spray. Teas help against bugs and anything that can make your plant sick.

Don’t be afraid to feed with tea even if your soil is “rich”. A rich soil is just more food for your microbes! Good luck friend