ph, explain something?

formularacer said:

in the 90's I was raising Koi. Had 10,000 gallons of water in backyard ponds. Some of my koi were in the thousands of dollars. I had lab grade PH meters, standards a chemist on the team. Spent hours trying to make Ph perfect. Daily testing set out to water quality labs. Went about in circles. The fish were fine, plants were doing well.
Picked up a translated book on Japanese Koi and the secret to keeping a Koi (carp) live for a hundred years was to have a fresh water source a drip from a hose.

So I did my time playing with Ph, very happy just to plant in dirt.
For the last two years I ran my sprinkler every day for an hour, next year planing to use drip irrigation.

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Where I grew up we had a Japanese family that raised Koi and farmed strawberries. Their Koi were amazing and some were quite old and would come up to them for treats, obviously recognizing them, beautiful and smart!

curious2garden said:

Where I grew up we had a Japanese family that raised Koi and farmed strawberries. Their Koi were amazing and some were quite old and would come up to them for treats, obviously recognizing them, beautiful and smart!

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Had several that would eat from my hand. Some would stalk me keep at a distance but looking for treats.

The most depressing was seeing an enormous Great Blue Heron with my giant fancy goldfish in its mouth.

formularacer said:

Had several that would eat from my hand. Some would stalk me keep at a distance but looking for treats.

The most depressing was seeing an enormous Great Blue Heron with my giant fancy goldfish in its mouth.

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I can't keep fish to save my life honestly they always die and I wouldn't even attempt an outdoor pond here too much wild life and cats there's a place in Glasgow with some big old ones that are old and very tame those are cool to see

formularacer said:

Had several that would eat from my hand. Some would stalk me keep at a distance but looking for treats.

The most depressing was seeing an enormous Great Blue Heron with my giant fancy goldfish in its mouth.

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That would be hard to watch!

Beard-o said:

So, based on the above, how important is ph?

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Given it's a measurement of the amount of hydrogen in your substrate or solution, it's still very important.
For instance chronic overwatering or bad drainage and aeration can acidify your soil or substrate.
And, furthermore, pH is also important for your microbes. It's war out there and we want the right microbes to flourish, so we must provide the right environment, this includes pH.
pH is just as important in organics as it is in hydroponics too. For the most part the soils and substrates we use are sufficiently buffered already, so we don't notice and generally don't need to buffer it ourselves.

Your water's EC is just as important as pH when talking water quality too.
Your water might be relatively clean, not much stuff in it, not very high EC. Also, if your neighbor grows in soil or the ground, the pH is already in a good range.

End of the day, pH is just as important whether hydro or organic, only the pH is buffered or regulated in different ways depending on your approach.

Outdoors, in the ground. Natures a buffer. Indoors in potting mix you’re the buffer. I’ve gone through a bunch of ph pens, ac infinity’s is the most user friendly by far.

When you KNOW your potting mix has nutrients in it, but your plants are looking like they are starving, you need to check the pH. When you grow using inert components -such as soil-less potting mixes, then you need to treat that medium as if it was a type of hydroponic substrate and pH accordingly. Then check the runoff regularly, too. I use the GH drops to check my pH. I never had luck with pH pens, etc.