how important is ph for soil grow??

if i use straight water from the faucet is it really that bad for my plants in soil??

depends on the ph. especially after you add nutes. Nutrients usually lower ph quite abit

General water from tap is pH balanced to be as neutral as possible. However, calcium and other deposits that buildup in water lines can and will affect your pH. always check your pH before and after adding nutes to your watering solution, and always check your soil pH to avoid nutrient lock or nutrient burn. Also, if you can, run your water through a filter and then let it sit out in bright sunlight for a minimum of 6 hours for ultraviolet sterilization and chlorine dissipation.

Remix said:

if i use straight water from the faucet is it really that bad for my plants in soil??

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The water isn't that bad. its the fact that nutrients are soluble in a certain ph. For cannabis in soil the best range is 6-7. anything above or below that makes the nutrients unable to be taken up by the plant. so to answer your ? about how important is ph? how important is it that you eat? that is how important ph is to a plant.

LolipopCrop said:

The water isn't that bad. its the fact that nutrients are soluble in a certain ph. For cannabis in soil the best range is 6-7. anything above or below that makes the nutrients unable to be taken up by the plant. so to answer your ? about how important is ph? how important is it that you eat? that is how important ph is to a plant.

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Some plants like a low PH of 5.5 in soil...YES soil, not hydro. Most of greenhouse's strains thrive in 5.5-5.9 soil, as well as other breeders strains...it's more of a general rule to use between 6.0-7.0 to be safe...my god budXwhite rhino likes it at 5.8 for best intake.

homegrownboy said:

Some plants like a low PH of 5.5 in soil...YES soil, not hydro. Most of greenhouse's strains thrive in 5.5-5.9 soil, as well as other breeders strains...it's more of a general rule to use between 6.0-7.0 to be safe...my god budXwhite rhino likes it at 5.8 for best intake.

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it all depends on how u feed. u have obviously adapted your feeding to suit a lower ph. i would imagine your soil is loaded with access potassium, as it is barely soluble at anything below 6.5.

Actually, i started my plants at 6.4 water...and noticed that the lower I went in PH, the nicer and faster my plants grew...side by side comparison with clones from the same mother. My runoff though is always at about 6.5.

I used Deer Park natural spring water and its PH is approx 7.5 but after adding nutes, its at 6.5ish. My tap water is about 8.5 and without adding PH down, its around the 7.5 range after adding nutes + it contains all the municipial shit like chlorine, flouride etc... If your gonna use tap water, put an air stone in the container and bubble it for 24 hours to let the shit evaporate. Then add nutes and test the ph. You can get ph testers very easily and cheap. Wal Mart, Pet Smart just to name a few.

homegrownboy said:

Actually, i started my plants at 6.4 water...and noticed that the lower I went in PH, the nicer and faster my plants grew...side by side comparison with clones from the same mother. My runoff though is always at about 6.5.

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yep, u struck on a very important part of PH. the ph reading of the water u add is no where near as important as root zone PH or runoff PH. if u are adding 5,8 water and coming out with 6.5 u are doing it perfect! pending on your medium and your nute build up in the medium, the ph will fluctuate once the water reaches that point. the more minerals and nutrients that you have built up, the harder it will become to get that ph to change by adding water with a proper ph.

Well said Loli. We have to take the entire picture into account when dealing with pH.

And you need to constantly check pH if you are using tap water. The pH of my tap water went from 8.0 to 7.0 over the last month. I'm not sure why it changed but I ended up with some unhappy plants because of it. It was sloppy not to check it every time. Lesson learned.

P.S. Lolly, Lolly, Lolly's get your adverbs here...

homegrownboy said:

Some plants like a low PH of 5.5 in soil...YES soil, not hydro. Most of greenhouse's strains thrive in 5.5-5.9 soil, as well as other breeders strains...it's more of a general rule to use between 6.0-7.0 to be safe...my god budXwhite rhino likes it at 5.8 for best intake.

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Greenhouse grows in a hydro setup. which is why they use a ph in the 5's. I believe they use rocwool. Not Soil !!!!! Plants in soil should maintain a ph between 6.2 - 6.8 for best results. Ph should be taken after adding nutes and then adjusted to the correct ph.

My tap water ph is 7.0 summer and spring and 8.5 in winter.

dam good replys, thx for the tips...

Hi lolipopcrop

Is it possible to advise me whey those 2 ph figures are near perfect as I've be doing some research on ph readings and run off readings but the more I read the more confused I'm getting.

I grow in soil but don't know the ph of that soil.
My nutes are set to ph 5.9-6.0 and my ec is set to 1.6.
My run off figures in a 19 ltr pot are ph 6.6 and ec 1.8.

Now I thought that final ec level should have been going down not up but wasn't sure if my ph level was correct.

Could you shed some light on this matter for us.

Cheers

I set my shit to 6.4 during grow, and 6.2 during flowering.

Everybody jumps all over me about this but i say fek PH. Its a fools errand. Do you think the farmers are phing the rain water? Or the lake water in the irrigation?

Wait for it.....now somebodys going to post that stupid ass picture of everything that gets "locked out" when the ph is off like the roots are just going to turn away nutrients that are all around them because the ph of the water that wizzed by it for a minute was at a 5.1 ph instead of 6.2. Fuck that. The difference between a couple points up or down makes a difference but its tiny. The difference bettween perfect and say 8 will make a difference but its not as big as alot of people think. Yoir plant will still grow just fine and youll harvest good product. When people say " your ph must be off" its usually because they dont have a clue whats wrong with your plants. Figure out what and when to feed them and how much, and youll be way better off than following some stupid chart written by the same people that sell the ph up and down that your buying

Alienwidow said:

Everybody jumps all over me about this but i say fek PH. Its a fools errand. Do you think the farmers are phing the rain water? Or the lake water in the irrigation?

stupid chart

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Dude... I totally agree.... I laugh my ass off every single time a new soil grower, will ask what his PH should be....
Soil is a buffer... like a PH Filter...
Checking soil run off, is well...
A waste of time...
Plant green... in soil... it's all good...

Soil PH... Say: "Honest to gawd"

Sand4x105 said:

Dude... I totally agree.... I laugh my ass off every single time a new soil grower, will ask what his PH should be....
Soil is a buffer... like a PH Filter...
Checking soil run off, is well...
A waste of time...
Plant green... in soil... it's all good...

Soil PH... Say: "Honest to gawd"

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Nice, theres alot of us out there, we just dont care to argue with all the guys saying, adjust your ph and flush and itll straightn out in no time. Ive grown dwc in buckets that start at 8 ph and rise to 10 before rez change and still yield almost a pound a pland of dank.......but if you check that stupid chart that would be impossible because the plant would explode into flames and die after it passed ph of 7.

If you live close to the ocean you might also want to check the salinity of the water, I've heard that high levels of sodium (>50ppm) can make it hard for the plants to uptake potassium. I thought I was having ph problems because the tap water is about 8ph, but problem stuck around even after ph adjusting the water. I live a right near the beach and our tap water averages 76ppm sodium, with a range of 66-100, so I switched from tap water to a mix of spring and distilled or r/o water, which was pretty much the same ph but had pretty much no sodium, and ever since the switch I have seen a huge improvement. Just my two cents

Thats alot of sodium, i bet those babies are likein the change

Alienwidow said:

Nice, theres alot of us out there, we just dont care to argue with all the guys saying, adjust your ph and flush and itll straightn out in no time. Ive grown dwc in buckets that start at 8 ph and rise to 10 before rez change and still yield almost a pound a pland of dank.......but if you check that stupid chart that would be impossible because the plant would explode into flames and die after it passed ph of 7.

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and yor last grow was 1.1 gpw ,you first grow was 12 ounce plants and u nvr post pics of yor grow- az u often like to say'pics or didn't happen" bad bad troll