Maintaining a constant pH

I don't know if anyone has thrown this out there but anyone into hydroponics might be interested in this.

If you don't want to worry so much about having to fiddle with the pH you can create an acid-base buffer. Without getting to technical a buffer can maintain its pH even with the addition of acid/base.

Human blood is buffered at about 7.5, so even with the addition of acid/base the pH will not change drastically...keeping us alive.

If anyone is actually interested in learning a little more about this just let me know, i'm planning on using a buffer for my first grow.

so i dont know how this post got put into harvesting and curing, i'm a little new.

what kind of a buffer are you reffering to?
I understand the term and Biology of human.

Its hard to know what you wanna hear because the the simple way of saying it would be its the combination of a weak acid and a weak base. The combination of the two basically absorbs the impact that an acid or base would have on the container of water.

In a bucket of just de-ionized water the addition of either an acid or base will effect the pH pretty drastically.

In a buffered solution the the acid part will neutralize any additional OH- molecules and the base will neutralize any additional H+ ions. As long as the ratio between acid and base stays relatively the same the change in pH will be very minor.

If Hydrochloric acid was added to a liter of water the pH would plummet to around 1. If the same thing was added to a correctly buffered solution you could end up with a change in pH of less than .2

so how do you make one of these buffers? is it cheap?

A buffer solution is one in which the pH of the solution is "resistant" to small additions of either a strong acid or strong base. Buffers usually consist of a weak acid and its conjugate base, in relatively equal and "large" quantities. Calculations are based on the equation for the ionization of the weak acid in water forming the hydronium ion and the conjugate base of the acid. "HA" represents any weak acid and "A-" represents the conjugate base.
HA(aq) + H2O(l) --> H3O+(aq) + A-(aq)
Ka = [H3O+][A-] [HA]

A buffer system can be made by mixing a soluble compound that contains the conjugate base with a solution of the acid such as sodium acetate with acetic acid or ammonia with ammonium chloride. The above equation for Ka can be rearranged to solve for the hydronium ion concentration. By knowing the Ka of the acid, the amount of acid, and the amount of conjugate base, the pH of the buffer system can be calculated. [H3O+] = Ka[HA] [A-]
pH = -log[H3O+]

i seriously doubt anyone is gonna understand that unless they already know what a buffer is. But yes it is VERY cheap, all you would need is something like acetic acid and something like calcium acetate. You could actually make a buffered solution that contains an ion like calcium that your plant needs anyway.

Also, this would really only work on a hydroponics grow. If you indeed would like to try this out just tell me how much water you have in your resevoir and what you would like the pH buffered at....probably 6.5. I'll do the math and tell you exactly how you could make it with something simple like acetic acid and calcium acetate.

My ph stays at 5.8 to 6.0 without any adjustments need. I add a little ph down first day and nver have needed any since its a constant rate everytime.

I've never had to adjust my pH, it's at the optimal range all of the time.