"Runoff pH is useless" or "Keep an open mind"?

PJ Diaz

PJ Diaz

Well-Known Member
simpleleaf said:
Just because you and some other RIUers believe that's the case, no one on your side has proved it, rather just stated their beliefs and practices. When I say prove their case, I mean linking to a peer-reviewed science journal which states "runoff pH is useless" or similarly states it has "absolutely no use at all."

I have posted a link to a horticultural journal (way upthread) which I believe is peer reviewed which uses "runoff pH" as a data point, thus proving it has some usefulness. I have also posted a link way upthread to another grow site in which a poster who claims to be a scientist says runoff pH is a needed data point. But those links and the information in them have apparently not convinced you or your fellow believers that runoff pH as a data point has at least a little usefulness.

I'm reminded of the saying, "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make 'em drink," though in this case, it might be more appropriate to say "You can offer a person a lit joint, but you can't make 'em inhale."
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That study appears to use greenhouse runoff to feed floating treatment wetland systems, and the study is about how the ftws work differently given different pH runoff feeds from the greenhouse. This is not the subject you are discussing.
 
Flowki

Flowki

Well-Known Member
As I finally realised, you will never know what the plant is consuming in each specific element, so you will never know what specific element is too high or low, creating the cycle of build up, lock out and ec/ph swing. As cliche as it is, keep the ingoing ph/ec in good range/ratio and water with good run off, or at-least don't let the medium dry out if no run off.

Even if a reader could tell you what specific elements are too high or too low in the run off, not all plants are the same, along with varied growth stages, the grow environment will also factor in. It would still be complicated af to truly control and adjust from readings, forget ph/ec run off, basically.
 
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