rosecitypapa
Active Member
What's the metabolic process that keeps raising my rez water's pH? It's like this for the first couple of days after a changeout to a fresh rez.
It always takes a day or 2 to have your ph stabilize after a change. There are lots of things that effect the ph.
Here is the deal, your plant is going to adjust PH depending on the nutrients it needs. It's been my experience that in flower, the plants always tend to PH up and I allow them to. The reason being, in flowering the plant needs more Phosphorous and magnesium. Those nutrients are on the higher side of the PH scale. This is also around the time I start to see signs of Ca deficiencies, which is on the lower end of the PH scale. (Hydroponics) I have not had this issue growing with soil, which has different PH nutrient levels.
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Are you saying that the plant causes a pH rise in the root zone is for the purpose of making more of the elements that it needs accessible? In other words, if you were in a recirculating hydro setup, you would allow the pH to drift within a range. Have you personally tested if this is more effective than keeping a consistent pH of 5.8? What is the range you let it drift?
The roots absorb things out of the solution, and replace them with different things. So, for example a plant may take up (absorb) a nitrogen, and put back something in its place. The thing it puts back, can change the pH either up or down.
http://scienceinhydroponics.com/2010/06/understanding-ph-in-hydroponics-part-no-1.html
In short, if your PH is going up, you do not have enough nitrogen in your solution.