PH Control Question

Agent007

Active Member
Doing my first indoor in soil under CFLs for many years. After nearly 2 months of veg just started 12/12 lighting. Already showing pistils (hopefully female).

Anyway I read up and saw a video about controlling the ph of your water which I hadn't been doing at all. Nonetheless the plant looks very healthy. So I decided to use the ph kit with my fish aquarium to test the tap water I'd been using and its very alkaline (ph 7.8 ...top of the scale). However the filtered water I should have used is about 7.0 which is close to the 6.2-6.8 we aim for..... and can be easily adjusted further.

My question is when I add my soluble nutrients to the water for weekly feeding do I only test and adjust the water BEFORE adding the nutes? Or do I adjust the water AFTER adding nutes?

I've been using Aquasol 23-4-18. But with flowering starting the only suitable nutes I could find at Bunnings with higher Phosphorous is Manutec African Violet soluble food 14-15-11.5. It also has 1.15% Sulphur as Suplhates added making it slightly acidic (but not as acidic as some nutes used for orchids). So I'm wondering if I should be doing the ph test after Ive added the nutes to the water.

Thanks for any advice. :-P
 

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NewGrowth

Well-Known Member
Test before adding nutes you should not be fertilizing everyday anyway so one slightly acidic watering is no big deal. Check your soil PH as well, a good soil will have some PH buffers that prevent wide a wide PH flux.
 

Agent007

Active Member
OK Thanks NewGrowth.

So I just got 5 litres of filtered tap water and adjusted the ph to 6.6 which is perfect.

But when I added my Manutec fertiliser (5g to 5L water) I tested ph again and now its 6.0 or below.... acidic.

Should I adjust ph up now of this mix to the 6.2-6.8 range before watering my plant?

Thanks for any help as I'm still confused. :wall:

PS I dont fertilise everyday.....only weekly, but I do water more often ..... about every 2nd or 3rd day depending on the moisture in the soil.
 

Agent007

Active Member
Yes. In the future, add pH control after you add nutes, not before.
Thanks that seems to make sense and I glad I did. It took about 3/4 of a teaspoon of ph up to get it to 6.6. So it may have even been well below 6.0 (the limit of my testing kit scale). Now my baby is watered with new nutes and hopefully loving it. And she's (I hope) beginning to flower as well. 8)
 

NewGrowth

Well-Known Member
OK Thanks NewGrowth.

So I just got 5 litres of filtered tap water and adjusted the ph to 6.6 which is perfect.

But when I added my Manutec fertiliser (5g to 5L water) I tested ph again and now its 6.0 or below.... acidic.

Should I adjust ph up now of this mix to the 6.2-6.8 range before watering my plant?

Thanks for any help as I'm still confused. :wall:

PS I dont fertilise everyday.....only weekly, but I do water more often ..... about every 2nd or 3rd day depending on the moisture in the soil.
Do this again and test after the nutes if they are making the water acidic then you may not need to adjust the PH at all when you fertilize. But you will still have to adjust when you don't fertilize. I think you have t figured out.:peace:
 

Padishah

Well-Known Member
my experience with soil growing is you dont have to adjust the ph at all it ends up causing more long term headaches then its worth as long as you have good soil and dont have funked up brown water coming out of your taps just water and feed and it will grow
 

Agent007

Active Member
I actually have a Puratap dual water filter at my kitchen sink. ph is slightly alkaline but its no real hassle to adjust it to the 6.2-6.8 range with my aquarium ph kit. The Puratap also takes out the chlorine and other impurities but leaves behind the fluoride so we dont rot our teeth. :bigjoint:
 
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