Has anyone grown and harvested without checking ph levels?

Im on a real tight budget right now so i bought a 10 dollar ph soil tester. its the shittiest device known to man. it doesnt give anything close to an accurate reading. so i have been just filling a jug with hot water, leaving it out over night and watering the next day to ensure chlorine is gone. my plants look alright for now, they are about a 3-4 weeks old. has anyone successfully harvested crop without ever checking/adjusting ph levels?

Hey there, they have the $10 liquid testers that will PH test 1000's of gallons of water. It is what I use right now and works great. My advice to you is that you can do it without a PH tester if your lucky but the chances that you are going to have PH problems "visable or not" is probably 99%. I would get a liquid tester and PH before you water your ladies, if not dont complain about your yeild.

what exactly would be the issues that come with too high/low ph levels

Nute lockout, plant will be deficient.

asdewqasdfgh said:

what exactly would be the issues that come with too high/low ph levels

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Your plant will have lockout with high or low PH like BUDS said and that will majorly effect your plants growth! It is an easy CHEAP fix. My first advice to new growers is always check your PH!

I'm currently finishing an organic soil grow in FFOF and using the General Organics GO Box for nutrients. Haven't checked the pH once. General Organics actually states not to pH the nutrient mixture before adding. I love it so far.

cheers
mr.bond

I use 100% organic nutrients and soil base and I never ph adjust or even check my ph.... if your going organic its not necessary

Rockwool with fresh nutes mixed every five days, occasionally seven or eight days max. Never had a ph problem, ever.

I have visited other grows, one did have a ph problem and his plants did not grow until it was figured out. His significant other had mixed nutes for a month after he lost some toes to a lawn mower. She screwed up the ph and pretty much lost a month's worth of growth.
This is in the back of my mind as I pour old nute mix on the plants. Motivation to keep it fresh, his plants were UGLY.

Icemud said:

I use 100% organic nutrients and soil base and I never ph adjust or even check my ph.... if your going organic its not necessary

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That right there is not true. You do not know the ph of the water you are using, unless its that bottled type that straight up says "PH 7" which still isnt ideal. Im running a low budged grow too, thought ph wasnt a huge issue. I decided to take the plunge and buy a meter. To my surprise, my tap water (yes, after I had left it out for 24 hours++) was testing at a solid 8.2. Yeah. No where near a good ph to be watering plants with. After I added my nutrient mix it was still at 7.5. I now use ph down to keep it 5.7-6.2 range. Its totally worth it imo. It'd be dumb to end up causing a lock out or other ph related issue,which a larrrggeee portion of plant "sicknesses" are ph related, the number one response to posts in the marijuana plant problems section is: "have you checked your ph?" There are multiple cost effective ways to solve this, amazon sells digital meters for as low as $25.

tl;dr Save yourself the trouble that your gonna encounter later, just buy a meter.

i have never checked my PH.

ive never onwed a pH meter


i only test aquarium pH lol

this is a classic question...
and the answer is yes you can grow without one,only if you have been growing with the same stuff for a while
so in other words,you still need to get one to start out with until you get the hang of things

Im on my second grow, never checked my ph. but Im getting the meter for my next grow to compare results.

JavaMon said:

That right there is not true. You do not know the ph of the water you are using, unless its that bottled type that straight up says "PH 7" which still isnt ideal. Im running a low budged grow too, thought ph wasnt a huge issue. I decided to take the plunge and buy a meter. To my surprise, my tap water (yes, after I had left it out for 24 hours++) was testing at a solid 8.2. Yeah. No where near a good ph to be watering plants with. After I added my nutrient mix it was still at 7.5. I now use ph down to keep it 5.7-6.2 range. Its totally worth it imo. It'd be dumb to end up causing a lock out or other ph related issue,which a larrrggeee portion of plant "sicknesses" are ph related, the number one response to posts in the marijuana plant problems section is: "have you checked your ph?" There are multiple cost effective ways to solve this, amazon sells digital meters for as low as $25.

tl;dr Save yourself the trouble that your gonna encounter later, just buy a meter.

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it's 100% true. you should try growing organically.

Can anyone suggest a good ph meter thats around 30 bucks? Also , do you test the water or soil? If water, do you test the water beforehand, or do you test the runoff? I moved and only have one grow here that did'nt turn out the greatest....The other place I never checked ph and had great results...

So far this current grow I have not tested the soil ph, ph'ed the water I even stopped ph'ing my nute solution. I added some dolomite lime in my soil though.

Edit: lol I sound like an infomercial.

ive grown without nutes and without checking the PH,i was growing with a friend and i thought he knew how to grow but i learned he didnt and started my own.

as the plants got bigger i did transplant into bigger pots...,i used a 1000watt hps and 400watt mh to flower..

we didnt PH the water (or use nutes) but did use the purified 5gal water jugs,and what i noticed is that the fan leaf die quickly..in veg we had a lot of yellowing leaves and dead leaves,the final product came out decent but not the best,the nugs were dense and looked good,but they didnt have that potent smell

though we had a blue dream that came out danky,lots of THC production,great smell and looks.

so in my opinion its pays more to do it right and check your PH,i think the water PH testing kit is only 20$ and lasts a long time.it comes with PH up and down,use the right soil,and make sure it drains good, use some nutrients and have your room temps and humidity set right and you should be good...

then learn the drying curing process yada yada

JavaMon said:

That right there is not true. You do not know the ph of the water you are using, unless its that bottled type that straight up says "PH 7" which still isnt ideal. Im running a low budged grow too, thought ph wasnt a huge issue. I decided to take the plunge and buy a meter. To my surprise, my tap water (yes, after I had left it out for 24 hours++) was testing at a solid 8.2. Yeah. No where near a good ph to be watering plants with. After I added my nutrient mix it was still at 7.5. I now use ph down to keep it 5.7-6.2 range. Its totally worth it imo. It'd be dumb to end up causing a lock out or other ph related issue,which a larrrggeee portion of plant "sicknesses" are ph related, the number one response to posts in the marijuana plant problems section is: "have you checked your ph?" There are multiple cost effective ways to solve this, amazon sells digital meters for as low as $25.
tl;dr Save yourself the trouble that your gonna encounter later, just buy a meter.

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JavaMon...actually you are the one thats wrong buddie..... you should do some reading on ORGANIC growing before trying to say I'm wrong.... Understanding the soil food web is vital to organic growing and I suggest you do a little reading in this area before commenting and trying to pass off incorrect information... I own a Hanna PHep digital meter and my feedings are 4PH....at the time there added to the soil... I have not once had any nutrient lockup issues, no leaf discoloration and my soil sits comfortably at 6.7ph....

you should do a little research in Organic growing Java...you will learn a lot about plant mechanics and understand all types of grows better. You would be correct if I was using salt based fertz, but oraganics, you should NEVER PH adjust..

Also If you are using city water, your PPM count probably is at least 200ppm...and using ph adjuster's you are adding another couple hundred PPM to bring your nutrient solution within range....Higher PPM before nutrients = less nutrients available to plants and more unknown variables in your feedings....So I would highly suggest not using city water, and also looking into organics....

im 3 weeks into flowering and ive never checked ph.... look at the pics in my siggy, i think they speak for themselves

me too i havent pHing my tap water from start to finish, i got a nice harvest i use soilless, always add with lime.

666