PH adjustment with potassium silicate

I use 18L jugs of water to do my mixing with, problem is that it is way too sensitive to my my PH+ and -. so by the end of it I have a lot of potassium silicate in the water and it forms a gel over the plants and turns the soil to a white chalky looking stuff and urine like colour..if anyone has any experience with using this as ph adjustment please let me know if this is normal.

You don't want to use more than 1ml per 1000ml with Potassium Silicate. In your setup that'd be up to 18ml you could use, and it really shouldn't take that much just for a pH adjustment.

Use a dropper and work slower. It's that simple.

I've seen the precipitate you are referring to. I usually see it after I mix it in in a ribbon of the stuff. Once I mix the reservoir it should dissolve.

What other nutrients are you using?

whats wrong with a gal of ph down for 20 bucks? is your potassium silicate of food grade quality? lot's of things work but are they safe to use?

Distilled white vinegar is like $2 a gallon. ::shrug:: =)

Potassium Silicate is a pH up, not a pH down. Instead of using Bicarbonates the plant benefits from the additional silicon.

Snow Crash said:

Potassium Silicate is a pH up, not a pH down. Instead of using Bicarbonates the plant benefits from the additional silicon.

Click to expand...

ph up is the same price and will last a very long time, is the potassium silicate of food grade quality? i use plain water for ph up. if i really screwed up i have used baking soda.

Again. Bicarbonates.

The standard pH up is usually Potassium Bicarbonate. Baking soda is sodium bicarbonate. I mean, of all the things to add to your reservoir... Sodium and Bicarbonate? Really? Sure, it raises the pH... but it fucks with your nutrient chemistry too much to be considered a good addition.

Sometimes just a little more water is all you need to bring the pH up that last 0.1 rather than trying to drip in more adjuster.

but it sucks cause I leave watering and nutes all till last minute and I let my water sit 24 hours before mixing/watering. my nutrients include advanced nutes 3 part grow micro bloom (bloom is lower grade but same shit) Cal mag, b-52 and root 66 and awesome blossom when needed. I also have the BC 3 part grow bloom boost but haven't used it yet, I think its pretty much same.

and thanks for all the tips, the gel does go away but it leaves white powdery residue and wasn't sure if this was affecting soil or anything. it hasn't been so bad for this past water refill I got it 1 drop ph down 1 drop ph up and it worked out.