Using GH Ph down in soil?!!

Med68w

Med68w

Well-Known Member
So I have very hard tap water with a Ph that fluctuates between 8.2- 7.5 and using FFOF soil. I’ve been using general hydroponics Ph down and read that it can kill the beneficial microbes in the soil. I’m using the age old organics line so I’m not too worried about the plants not getting what they need, I just hate finding out if I’m doing something that’s counterproductive since I do use teas and EWC. It’s an easy fix, just start using earth juice natural ph down or something similar. Question is how bad is phosphoric acid for the beneficials, or is it not a big deal and I’m worrying about nothing. Next run I’ll just prep the soil with some dolomite garden lime or some other buffer
 
macsnax

macsnax

Well-Known Member
I only do organic outdoors but I think the ph down isn't going to help you much. If you're organic why are you worrying about ph? I would at least wait until your plants tell you something is wrong before adding ph down.
 
smokebros

smokebros

Well-Known Member
Med68w said:
So I have very hard tap water with a Ph that fluctuates between 8.2- 7.5 and using FFOF soil. I’ve been using general hydroponics Ph down and read that it can kill the beneficial microbes in the soil. I’m using the age old organics line so I’m not too worried about the plants not getting what they need, I just hate finding out if I’m doing something that’s counterproductive since I do use teas and EWC. It’s an easy fix, just start using earth juice natural ph down or something similar. Question is how bad is phosphoric acid for the beneficials, or is it not a big deal and I’m worrying about nothing. Next run I’ll just prep the soil with some dolomite garden lime or some other buffer
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I would assume the the chlorine/chloramines in your tap water would would have just as much/or more impact to the microbe colonies as the PH down.

I'm sure both have an effect on bennies.

FWIW - if you're adding beneficial microbes you typically can become more "lenient" about PH since the microbes breakdown the nutrients and make them more available for the plant to uptake in a wider PH range.
 
NaturalFarmer

NaturalFarmer

Well-Known Member
I would personally be using peat to bring down your pH. Im sure the pH down it is not the worst thing to use, but nutrient interaction and lock outs are hard to identify and fix sometimes. A handful of peat is usually enough to bring it down some.
 
Med68w

Med68w

Well-Known Member
I was seeing brown/yellow spots on the leaves indicating I was having a ph problem and the runoff was 8.0 or higher before I started using the ph down. I bubble the water to remove the chlorine and luckily municipal doesn’t use chloramine or I’d be looking for an RO filter
 
Med68w

Med68w

Well-Known Member
So since my tap water’s ph is 8 what would be a good recipe to amend the FFOF soil and do it right the next run. Just add the correct amount of peat?
 
W

Wetdog

Well-Known Member
Med68w said:
So since my tap water’s ph is 8 what would be a good recipe to amend the FFOF soil and do it right the next run. Just add the correct amount of peat?
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A Bud that has similar hard water issues uses garden sulfur to keep the pH in check. Very little is needed and it's pretty much a once/season fix.

The peat will also work well. It's mostly up to you to decide what works best for your situation.

Wet
 
Kushash

Kushash

Well-Known Member
Med68w said:
So I have very hard tap water with a Ph that fluctuates between 8.2- 7.5 and using FFOF soil. I’ve been using general hydroponics Ph down and read that it can kill the beneficial microbes in the soil. I’m using the age old organics line so I’m not too worried about the plants not getting what they need, I just hate finding out if I’m doing something that’s counterproductive since I do use teas and EWC. It’s an easy fix, just start using earth juice natural ph down or something similar. Question is how bad is phosphoric acid for the beneficials, or is it not a big deal and I’m worrying about nothing. Next run I’ll just prep the soil with some dolomite garden lime or some other buffer
Click to expand...
You should find out the ppms or E/C of your water. If you have hard water with a high PH the ppms are probably high. My hard water with a high PH will test between 400-500ppms through the year and I always mix in RO water to bring it down to 150 ppms.
If you don't have a meter to test E/C or ppms you should get one.
I never worry about the PH of my tap only the E/C or ppm reading and then take it down to 150 using RO.
 
Med68w

Med68w

Well-Known Member
Thanks for the advice everyone, I don’t have a ppm meter just a bluelab ph pen. I bet it’s pretty high though, the tap water has trashed a couple of my humidifier pads. Even after all the dicking around trying to lower the ph the runoff is 7.0+
 
Kushash

Kushash

Well-Known Member
Med68w said:
Thanks for the advice everyone, I don’t have a ppm meter just a bluelab ph pen. I bet it’s pretty high though, the tap water has trashed a couple of my humidifier pads. Even after all the dicking around trying to lower the ph the runoff is 7.0+
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It is a handy tool for checking your tap water and also if you add nutrients to your water it gives you an good reference.
They are usually less than $40 and remain reliable for quite a long time.
Check out this link for more info.
http://www.growweedeasy.com/ppm
 
Med68w

Med68w

Well-Known Member
Yeah, I’m going to use up the last of my general hydroponics ph down, and then find something more natural. I started using batch 64 moonshine mix for my medium and it’s got a lot of benificials that I don’t want to hurt.
 
Sapphyre

Sapphyre

Active Member
I've found that adding a tiny bit of General Organics Cal Mag to my 'plain' waterings for veg, and a tiny bit more of Bio Bizz Organics Bloom or the Neptune Kelp during flower (also for 'plain' waterings) has worked well for me. A little bit of either goes a long way towards bringing down the ph- and while I'm still watering in a little high, my 'feeding' is done w nutrient teas every other round, and it didn't take long (paying attention to the ladies) to find a groove that worked well for most, and could be tweaked a bit for the heavy / light feeders (I run mixed strains on rotation).
Since starting to focus more on supporting the life in the soil, I've stopped checking runoff ph because no one has been complaining ;)

Teas are easier than you might think- they can be super simple and you can totally get your toes wet with a double port aquarium pump, 2 splitters, and 4 air stones... I brew 2 gallons at a time, dilute to 4, and 'feed' half of the garden (the other half gets 'water'). So the tea is always brewing, ready every other day :). Of course you still only water when they need it - but, don't forget - if you are trying to show a little love to your microbiology, don't let your soil get -all- the way dry :)

Happy growing!
 
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Chunky Stool

Chunky Stool

Well-Known Member
Sapphyre said:
I've found that adding a tiny bit of General Organics Cal Mag to my 'plain' waterings for veg, and a tiny bit more of Roots Organics Bloom or the Neptune Kelp during flower (also for 'plain' waterings) has worked well for me. A little bit of either goes a long way towards bringing down the ph- and while I'm still watering in a little high, my 'feeding' is done w nutrient teas every other round, and it didn't take long (paying attention to the ladies) to find a groove that worked well for most, and could be tweaked a bit for the heavy / light feeders (I run mixed strains on rotation).
Since starting to focus more on supporting the life in the soil, I've stopped checking runoff ph because no one has been complaining ;)

Teas are easier than you might think- they can be super simple and you can totally get your toes wet with a double port aquarium pump, 2 splitters, and 4 air stones... I brew 2 gallons at a time, dilute to 4, and 'feed' half of the garden (the other half gets 'water'). So the tea is always brewing, ready every other day :). Of course you still only water when they need it - but, don't forget - if you are trying to show a little love to your microbiology, don't let your soil get -all- the way dry :)

Happy growing!
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I only aerate microbial tea, and once the soil is colonized it isn't necessary to keep adding more (unless you dry out completely).
Nutrient teas can just be steeped overnight. I usually add silica and humic acid to my nute teas. Alaska liquid fish can also be added right before you use the tea. (Don't let it steep overnight.)
 
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