Dilute pH Down before adding to nutes?

I was reading an article in urban garden magazine (Nov/Dec issue) that said that adding pH down directly to your nutrient solution "causes nutritional elements to precipitate out of the solution and therefore become unavailable to your plants. To avoid this... dilute 1 part pH adjuster to 100 parts water before adding to nutrient solution." Has anyone noticed any difference? Does everyone dilute their pH adjusters?

Thanks,

KS

Do not dilute your PH down. This will actually make you use more as you are adding more HIGH PH water to your res. Add your nutes then PH 5 minutes later, adding PH down as needed.

another solution to this is just to pH down before adding the nutes

the church man said:

another solution to this is just to pH down before adding the nutes

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Adding nutes brings my store baught RO water from 8.5 PH to 6.2 PH, this is before PH down. most nutes act as PH down in plain water. I wouldn't PH down before adding nutes as you may not need to.

KnowledgeSeeker said:

I was reading an article in urban garden magazine (Nov/Dec issue) that said that adding pH down directly to your nutrient solution "causes nutritional elements to precipitate out of the solution and therefore become unavailable to your plants. To avoid this... dilute 1 part pH adjuster to 100 parts water before adding to nutrient solution." Has anyone noticed any difference? Does everyone dilute their pH adjusters?

Thanks,

KS

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Your reading the directions wrong. When it says to add PH down to your nutrient solution, they mean your reservoir, not the bottle of nutrients.

Add your nutrients to the water in your reservoir, take a PH reading then add full strength PH down in small increments until you reach the desired level. Small increments means a teaspoon at a time.

I dilute straight 85% Phosphoric acid acid with 10 parts RO water, but that is really n more because i dispense with a pump and larger volume administratiions are more precise. PH down retail preparations are alrady diluted to a Phosphoric percentage of 35% and Nitric acid of 11.5%. Large doses of the Phosphoric acid could cause some Phosphate precipitation but that would really not be any nmore precipitation than the amount of phosphorous in the acid. It would also take some calcium out of solution with it. The amounts precipitated as far as nutrients are concerned would be negligible. But the precipitates can lead to clogged misters. Diluting with RO water or even juss strirring the nutrient water while adding the acid would eliminate the problem as the precipitation only happens in the immediatte areas where the acid is added if thw water is still water as that specific small area becomes over saturated with Phosphorus. If you have a small circulating pump or use air stones in the reservoir there will be no precipitation either.

Yes adding pH down to concentrated nutrients can cause phophorous precipitation if you are adding it to the Part of a two or three part formula that contains the phosphorus. i.e. With a GH formula or AN two part formula you could add it to the micro, but not to the Bloom or Grow until after they are diluted.

GreenThumbSucker said:

Your reading the directions wrong. When it says to add PH down to your nutrient solution, they mean your reservoir, not the bottle of nutrients.

Add your nutrients to the water in your reservoir, take a PH reading then add full strength PH down in small increments until you reach the desired level. Small increments means a teaspoon at a time.

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Sorry for the confusion. I was meaning to say to add diluted pH down to the nutrient solution but i guess it didn't come across that way. The process that you describe is what I've been doing.

fatman7574 said:

I dilute straight 85% Phosphoric acid acid with 10 parts RO water, but that is really n more because i dispense with a pump and larger volume administratiions are more precise. PH down retail preparations are alrady diluted to a Phosphoric percentage of 35% and Nitric acid of 11.5%. Large doses of the Phosphoric acid could cause some Phosphate precipitation but that would really not be any nmore precipitation than the amount of phosphorous in the acid. It would also take some calcium out of solution with it. The amounts precipitated as far as nutrients are concerned would be negligible. But the precipitates can lead to clogged misters. Diluting with RO water or even juss strirring the nutrient water while adding the acid would eliminate the problem as the precipitation only happens in the immediatte areas where the acid is added if thw water is still water as that specific small area becomes over saturated with Phosphorus. If you have a small circulating pump or use air stones in the reservoir there will be no precipitation either.

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I use two large air stones in my 55 gal res and I also stir when adding the pH down so I think it should be fine. Thanks for the info!

i usually add nutes give them a few minutes to settle then check ph and adjust.... you will find that most are buffered to 7 or below... i havent used ph adjusters in quite some time...although they are on standby

fat sam said:

i usually add nutes give them a few minutes to settle then check ph and adjust.... you will find that most are buffered to 7 or below... i havent used ph adjusters in quite some time...although they are on standby

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I have noticed that the nutes lower the pH to about 7 but since I have a hydro grow i generally adjust it to 5.8. Are you growing in soil? Do you leave the pH at 7?

5.6 to 5.8 for low pressure aeroponics.