Friend-of-a-friend
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Dec 2, 2008
- Messages
- 449
- Reaction score
- 228
Is that acceptable p.h. lvls for dirt grow in 4th week of flower?
7.0 in, 6.2 out
- Thread starter Friend-of-a-friend
- Start date
What's the in and out? You are watering/feeding with a ph of 7, and your run off is 6.3 I am guessing? Everything I am about to say is my opinion, I do not test my run off, ever. I really could not care if it is a 4....as long as my plants are healthy. I start with a neutral soil with no nutrients added, add a little dolomite lime, and then water and feed with everything ph'd to 6.5. Since adding the lime and calibrating my ph meter only once a month I have had zero ph problems and robust growth. I don't put any stock in my run off numbers. If you chase getting your run off in a range of 6.3-6.8 you can wind up really screwing up your plants and creating way more problems. Jmo
Hushpuppy
Dr MadBud
- Joined
- Mar 26, 2011
- Messages
- 6,441
- Reaction score
- 313
This is just my screwy way of thinking, but if the water is at 7.0 going in, then it depends greatly on whether the water is heavy with elements like nutes or if it has a low EC/TDS. If the water has a low EC/TDS then you PH is ok because the water coming out has picked up some of the chemical nutrients in the soil and that pulled its PH down. But if your water is a solution of nutrients that has been set to 7.0 and is then being pulled down after going through the soil, then it is possible that the soil PH is actually lower than 6.2 and you need to add a little bit of lime. Checking PH of run off is rather tricky to know what the actual is but I think that is relatively accurate way to judge it, but I may be forgetting a parameter. 
DrFever
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Oct 21, 2012
- Messages
- 830
- Reaction score
- 32
IMO knowing whats going on under your plant is probably the most important part of Growing... many determining factors .
PPM meters are just not for hydroponic growing but as well for soil growing and exactly that by catching run off ,
Its like anything else it will give you a ball park figure of ppm / and from experience when checking run off and its high tells me with out even checking ph... The ph will be low in ??? So what does this tell me that my nutrients is to high in my medium i have checked some of my run off at times and my ppm count was out of the wall like 2000 ppm ph 5.3 plant looked green but soil maintained wet for longer periods and plant stopped growing once flushed till ppm was in check ph came up and in few days plants took off and all this just by knowing what was going on in my MEDIUM If you got the meters its a great way of using it not just for nutrient mixing etc
I use it for just that as we all get experienced in growing we tend to push the limit of what a plant can take like my self i can run my grows up to 1350 ppm which is rather high being chelated pure nutrient chemical mixture but we got to remember mediums are like a sponge and nutients / salts build up in time and like i said up top that 1350 max ppm i fed turned out to be over 2000 ppm in my medium halting growing and more or less locking plant up
prior to doing drastic changes like less nutes more nutes for def ... always good to know starting point for instance
look at it this way you feed your plant 750 ppm week later prior to feeding you flush your plants check ppm in soil and find out its 350 in there then you know your plants ate 400 ppm for that week so now instead of giving plant another feeding of 750 which you will actualy have 1100 ppm now if you re feed 750 now your setting ur self up for issues shortly wasting plant food etc
If i feed 800 and week later i check and my plants ate 400 my next feeding is 400 to even it back to my 800
and as for your question in soil ph range should not go below 6.4 try to maintain 6.7 - 7.0
PPM meters are just not for hydroponic growing but as well for soil growing and exactly that by catching run off ,
Its like anything else it will give you a ball park figure of ppm / and from experience when checking run off and its high tells me with out even checking ph... The ph will be low in ??? So what does this tell me that my nutrients is to high in my medium i have checked some of my run off at times and my ppm count was out of the wall like 2000 ppm ph 5.3 plant looked green but soil maintained wet for longer periods and plant stopped growing once flushed till ppm was in check ph came up and in few days plants took off and all this just by knowing what was going on in my MEDIUM If you got the meters its a great way of using it not just for nutrient mixing etc
I use it for just that as we all get experienced in growing we tend to push the limit of what a plant can take like my self i can run my grows up to 1350 ppm which is rather high being chelated pure nutrient chemical mixture but we got to remember mediums are like a sponge and nutients / salts build up in time and like i said up top that 1350 max ppm i fed turned out to be over 2000 ppm in my medium halting growing and more or less locking plant up
prior to doing drastic changes like less nutes more nutes for def ... always good to know starting point for instance
look at it this way you feed your plant 750 ppm week later prior to feeding you flush your plants check ppm in soil and find out its 350 in there then you know your plants ate 400 ppm for that week so now instead of giving plant another feeding of 750 which you will actualy have 1100 ppm now if you re feed 750 now your setting ur self up for issues shortly wasting plant food etc
If i feed 800 and week later i check and my plants ate 400 my next feeding is 400 to even it back to my 800
and as for your question in soil ph range should not go below 6.4 try to maintain 6.7 - 7.0
Friend-of-a-friend
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Dec 2, 2008
- Messages
- 449
- Reaction score
- 228
Sounds like a divided issue. I have seen both your grows, and have the utmost respect for both of your knowledge/results. I think if nothing else, I like to PH my run-off for the sake of curiosity, as I am still dialing everything in. Maybe once I've run a few cycles in my new setup without any issues, I'll forego PH'ing my runoff.
