pH problems

[Oldstoner]

Good Day, and Happy Holiday to All:
1st time growing indoors, and green. I'm into week 3, using Fox Farm Ocean Forrest, with Big Bloom, Grow Big, and Tiger Bloom, using the downloaded feeding schedule. My well water is Limestone based and runs a tad over 7.0 pH.
I've been using Citric acid to lower the pH to the recommended range of 5.6/6.8 with little success. I make my water a couple days prior so it'll acclimate to room temp, but have noticed that the pH, which was spot on, has risen back to 7.0 over night, no fertilizer being added.
Soil pH is holding at 7.0, the plant looks fine, I have a 600w Viper LED 24" over canopy.
I've been an outdoor grower for decades.... and have picked up a lot of bad habits, Growing indoors, I'd like to get off on the right foot. hopefully I won't kill the plant off with too much love and attention.
In closing, I've seen in other sites that folks use vinegar, sulfuric acid, etc for pH problems, ... the more I read, the more confused.. Thanks

 

[umbra]

Most ph down products contain phosphoric acid. So that not only does it adjust the ph but also adds to the NPK ratio that the plant feeds on. More than that, it balances the ion levels of the electrical charges of the nutrients. Part of the organic growing is creating a living soil and feeding the soil and not the plant. When the micro organisms in the soil are right, the ph is self adjusting. Try adding EM1

 

[Keef]

Old Stoner Welcome to MP -- I'm a water farmer -- I don't know so much about dirt pharming -- I just use the pH up or down that I get from Amazon -- Do U pH the run off ?-- Does 7.0 seem to hurt the plants ?-- That's something that has always bothered me -- They grow fine in dirt outside and it's hard to pH mother earth -- I say if it grows well leave it alone --If it don't then change one thing at a time !
I'm sure one the other guys can help more than me -- I hope U get it worked out -- What U growing ?
See there's Umbra while I was typing !

 

[Locked]

You want to be between 6.3 and 6.8 with soil. I always ph to 6.5.

 

[Oldstoner]

Thanks for the input. In answering your questions, no I haven't tested my runoff.... great idea! The soil really passes water and I water daily about a 1/3 gal to keep the medium damp. I do collect the runoff in a pan and was wondering if it's ok to water my vegi's with. I have a pretty healthy colony of worms in the container that seem happy.
Umbra, The products mentioned, EM1 and pH down should be mixed along with my normal nutrient load as prescribed in the feeding schedule? Looks like there's one vendor for the EM1 stuff, got a preference for pH down?
I'm growing a single Bruce Banner, going into week 3 she's 5.5 inches tall, I don't know the particulars of the species's such as growth rates,flowering schedule etc. I do keep the area cool to 75 deg F or so, from what I'm told it's a cooler happy plant. Thanks again.

 

[oldfogey8]

i thought that ph was more of a non-organic problem. i went non-organic for a couple of grows and had ph issues. went back to organic and now i don't even check ph.