Confused about PH Levels in Soil

Noob here. Just confused about reading PH. I'm hearing so many conflicting answers while searching around about this topic.

1. If I'm pouring in PH 7.0 water, and it's coming out at 6.5 - what's my soil's PH?
2. If I perform a "flush", should my runoff PH match the water I'm pouring in? Is the flush successful once the PH being poured in matches the runoff PH?
3. Do I want to keep everything at 6.5 (plain water, nutrients, runoff)? I heard 6.5 is the best number for soil grows?

From what I understood when I started my first grow, the PH of my runoff after watering is considered to be the soil's PH. But now I don't know if this is true.
I'm having issues with my plants and I think PH is to blame since my runoff is showing 5.9-6.2, but everything I pour in is at 6.6-7.

I'm so confused.
Thanks everyone!

Here is the answer to part of your question. 6-6.7 is a very wide range to be pHing your feed water.

I've seen that chart a million times. I know it is.
Thanks though.

goodjoint said:

3. Do I want to keep everything at 6.5 (plain water, nutrients, runoff)? I heard 6.5 is the best number for soil grows?

but everything I pour in is at 6.6-7.

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I guess you answered your own question as to why youre having pH troubles.

soil ............perfect is 6.5.........safe is 6.0 to 7.0
hydro..........perfect is 5.8.........safe is 5.5 to 6.5


to test soil u can use a soil probe that test......or u can water the plant and grab some of the water that runsoff the bottom and then test that with the droplet tester

to fix soil .............depends on the number of gallons of soil u have .......this is phing the water to 6.5 and then running 2 times the number of gallons of soil u are using
when u do this it is best to use Highly oxygenated water to keep from stressing the plant out from drowning (this can be done by adding a air stone to a bucket of water and running for 2 hours or filling gallon jugs with hot water and then set them someplace warm and gets direct sunlight with in 72 hours it will hold as much as it can and be cool to use)

the last gallon u run tho the system add your feed to it ph it to 6.5 and then put it tho (this replaces what u pushed outwith the other gallons) ...........u only do that if this is a flushing to get back to perfect ph if it is a cutting flush then u add nothing to the water except a clearing/cleaning feed u picked up

Join the club, haha. Soil vs hydro or soilless is a whole different game. I grow in soil and I am leaning towards organic growing. If you have a good soil mix, you almost don't need to worry about ph....I say almost because if you are using nutrients you will want to ph your solution and test runoff to figure out if your soil is building up salts, which need to be flushed. If you are in soil and grow with a soil food web (read "Teaming with Microbes") there is no worry of ph because all the living organism in your soil team with your plants and breakdown and adjust ph according to the plant you are growing, no need for synthetic nutes, only need to feed the organism within the soil, which in turn feed the plants. If growing in soil, I would say go organic, if growing in soiless get a quality ph meter and ppm reader. Now to answet your question, if you pour in 7.0 water and it comes out a lower ph, your soil is on the acidic side. What are the nutes you are using? What are the "other problems" youe are having. Pics will help the more expierienced try to diagnose your problem. And take everything people say with a grain of salt, some people are a self proclaimed MD, with a mentally retarted pedigree.

Ibex said:

I guess you answered your own question as to why youre having pH troubles.

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It doesn't answer my question.
Let's say I'm watering with 6.5 water and my runoff is coming out at 5.9 - what is considered to be my soil's PH level?
Is it 5.9 or is it 6.5 just because I'm feeding it with 6.5 water?

goodjoint said:

It doesn't answer my question.
Let's say I'm watering with 6.5 water and my runoff is coming out at 5.9 - what is considered to be my soil's PH level?
Is it 5.9 or is it 6.5 just because I'm feeding it with 6.5 water?

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your PH is off if the run off is 5.9 ...............u have a lack of little micrbos in the soil that helps keep the ph at the correct lvl .............flush the soil before lock out and reduced yelid is ineffect

invest in a micro feed to add to your water ...........this will stop the need to ph the water for the feed ) u will only need it for fixing and flushing it clean for the cut

look for organic feed with soil ............they will help keep the micrbos alive and supply u with some fresh troopers to the feild

voodoo juice
microbe Brew

justugh said:

your PH is off if the run off is 5.9 ...............u have a lack of little micrbos in the soil that helps keep the ph at the correct lvl .............flush the soil before lock out and reduced yelid is ineffect

invest in a micro feed to add to your water ...........this will stop the need to ph the water for the feed ) u will only need it for fixing and flushing it clean for the cut

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Yeah I know that my PH is low. I flushed 2 gallons with 7.0 tap water and the runoff now reads 6.5. They're in 1 gallon pots.
Since the runoff now reads 6.5 I guess I'm now in the right PH range.

if it is coming off at 6.5 u are good to go now

and tap water.............i hope u are well water ...............city water has chemicals in it and need to be let out before u use for the plants

city water basically fill your tub with warm water and leave it there for the night fill the gallon jugs and u have useable water

or do the hot water in the jugs and 72 hours in warm place sunlight

I have been using the GH Flora series, but I've decided that I'm going to switch to the Fox Farms Trio since I'm using the Fox Farms Ocean Forest soil with 50% perlite.
Apparently the GH flora series works in soil but it was designed for Hydro?
I've read it's much easier to manage PH with the Fox Farms Trio.
Thanks

justugh said:

look for organic feed with soil ............they will help keep the micrbos alive and supply u with some fresh troopers to the feild

voodoo juice
microbe Brew

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My city water is reading 37ppm so it's super clean - right?
That's what I have been feeding with.

justugh said:

if it is coming off at 6.5 u are good to go now

and tap water.............i hope u are well water ...............city water has chemicals in it and need to be let out before u use for the plants

city water basically fill your tub with warm water and leave it there for the night fill the gallon jugs and u have useable water

or do the hot water in the jugs and 72 hours in warm place sunlight

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it has desolved chemicals in it to help kill stuff in the pipes and str ppls teeth

to get rid of them u need to let the water sit and release it ....................the bathtub does it faster becuase of the air and area it offers .....the jugs will work to since they have a oxygen exchange rate of 8% it just takes longer

the last choice is to use a filtering system to remove them


fox farms trio pack is just part of a whole system .............they are basically refined chemicals in correct amounts with a plan they made up ......those are not a good choice untill u under stand feed better

look up GO BOX it is about 40 bucks and has a whole organic system to it .............u will need 1 ml and 3 ml pipettes to add the feed to the water ....................i got very good results starting with this and it has a complete line and plan to fallow (just one buy) ......finally the best part it is organic so the little guys in the soil do all the phing for u .....just check them now and then

I have been using gh flora in soil, imho, I would not use it in soil. Unless you need to solve an immediate deficiency, which would be rare, if growing in soil go all organic, if not it is probably great for coco or strait hydro. I had ph issues early on vegging in soil using gh flora, you def need the ph^ and down and goes against everything I have learned growing organically.

when i say jugs i mean the water or destilled water jugs from the store ...............milk jugs are not a choice since u can never get all the milk out the water turns foul even if u bleach it still happends

goodjoint said:

I've seen that chart a million times. I know it is.
Thanks though.

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As long as you're usimg fresh potting mix as your base, save yourself the error of obsessing over the perfect PH for your soil: It'll be fine. Honestly, the PH is fine until you start messing with it. Hundreds of plants, of all different species and years of growing and I've never, *once* needed to adjust soil PH.

It's important for hydro, but playing around with PH in soil is just wanna-be shit for noobs who wish they were Walter White. Real-life is *not* Breaking Bad, they're just plants, and the PH range of cheap, average potting-mix is fine for cannabis, vegetables, herbs, and most other plants you would ever want to grow.

Use fresh potting-mix, chuck some perlite in it, and you're golden. Messing around with the PH of soil is just masturbation that causes more sickness in plants than any other factor.

Trust me, the PH is just fine straight from the bag. Don't mess with it, and it won't get messed-up.

LOL breaking bad... this whole growing thing had me thinking the same thing.
Wish I would have had this advice when I started!!!
I've had a fuckin headache over this PH bullshit the last week since I noticed I fucked it up in the first place by using GH flora and/or Ph down in my nute mixes.

Can I make a clean switch to the Organic GO Box? Or is it too late? How would I go about doing this?
I'm guessing that I should flush with clean water until the runoff PH comes out at a good level (6.5) and then during the next watering after they dry out, start with a 1/4 dose of the Go box?
Would you advise fixing my runoff PH before introducing the Go Box or just go straight to it?
Thanks for your help.

Dribbles said:

As long as you're usimg fresh potting mix as your base, save yourself the error of obsessing over the perfect PH for your soil: It'll be fine. Honestly, the PH is fine until you start messing with it. Hundreds of plants, of all different species and years of growing and I've never, *once* needed to adjust soil PH.

It's important for hydro, but playing around with PH in soil is just wanna-be shit for noobs who wish they were Walter White. Real-life is *not* Breaking Bad, they're just plants, and the PH range of cheap, average potting-mix is fine for cannabis, vegetables, herbs, and most other plants you would ever want to grow.

Use fresh potting-mix, chuck some perlite in it, and you're golden. Messing around with the PH of soil is just masturbation that causes more sickness in plants than any other factor.

Trust me, the PH is just fine straight from the bag. Don't mess with it, and it won't get messed-up.

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your not running auto plants ........those have a shortern life span

u are photo ..............your golden u can grow for as long as u want then change to flowering

u are good man to make the change .............u get to them now with the rooting and branching stuff along with growth stuff and flowering time u are on top of it

goodjoint said:

LOL breaking bad... this whole growing thing had me thinking the same thing.
Wish I would have had this advice when I started!!!
I've had a fuckin headache over this PH bullshit the last week since I noticed I fucked it up in the first place by using GH flora and/or Ph down in my nute mixes.

Can I make a clean switch to the Organic GO Box? Or is it too late? How would I go about doing this?
I'm guessing that I should flush with clean water until the runoff PH comes out at a good level (6.5) and then during the next watering after they dry out, start with a 1/4 dose of the Go box?
Would you advise fixing my runoff PH before introducing the Go Box or just go straight to it?
Thanks for your help.

Click to expand...

Depends what the soil PH is now? If it's only slightly out, I'd just leave it, and start simply using un-adjusted tap water. Here, my tap water is a bit alkaline, (bout 7.5 - a greeny-blue using the standard liquid test kit) and I just use it as is. If your water is about the same (can't imagine it being radically different, but I don't know what sort of water you're using) just water and throw in ferts when you usually do.

Flooding already wet soil can cause issues ina nd of itself, so as long as the PH isn't causing serious issues at the moment, just carry on as usual but without worrying about adjusting the PH of anything.