Do i need to ph down my mixes when growing in soil???

Ive been using plant magics range which seems excellent so far, but im not really sure wether i should be correcting my mixes with ph down as when i add the bio silicon to the water it sends my ph up to 9 which seems too high to feed the plants with, but ive read that soil acts as a buffer so it may cancel out the high ph? Should i be correcting it back down to 6.5 or will i get away with the high ph in soil?

No if you have a decent well balanced soil then you can throw away the PH meter. Throwing away the pH meter was the best thing that ever happened to me.

switch said:

Ive been using plant magics range which seems excellent so far, but im not really sure wether i should be correcting my mixes with ph down as when i add the bio silicon to the water it sends my ph up to 9 which seems too high to feed the plants with, but ive read that soil acts as a buffer so it may cancel out the high ph? Should i be correcting it back down to 6.5 or will i get away with the high ph in soil?

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first, make sure to add the silica first, then add nutes. silica will make the ph go up. As stated, soil has ph buffers, but I still would make sure the water going in the pot is around 5.8 to 6.8 ph

#1: DO NOT over-feed Si in soil! NO more then directed in the chart. Dr Nick is right - add it first AND mix it in WELL before adding any other nutrients....

#2: synthetic or organic with the plant magic - they make both.

#3: what is the water source?

I would say that 9.0 is a bit high! Kinda asking for trouble down the road...

switch said:

Ive been using plant magics range which seems excellent so far, but im not really sure wether i should be correcting my mixes with ph down as when i add the bio silicon to the water it sends my ph up to 9 which seems too high to feed the plants with, but ive read that soil acts as a buffer so it may cancel out the high ph? Should i be correcting it back down to 6.5 or will i get away with the high ph in soil?

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It depends on your soil. A well amended soil will buffer Itself a unamended or wrongly amended will not buffer properly.

If his ph is 9 he's definitely gonna have problems.yeah the soils a great buffer but not if ur feeding it 9+ph

lio lacidem said:

It depends on your soil. A well amended soil will buffer Itself a unamended or wrongly amended will not buffer properly.

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THAT^^

If the soil is not buffered with a liming agent from the git go, it's not going to buffer down the road.

What Iio Iacidem said always seems to get left out of the "soil will buffer itself" bit.

Wet

Rambling on

I have yet to fully get to grips with ph and not for years of trying but...

If that ph9 water is from alkalinity then adding it to a limed peat mix you will start making an alkaline soil which is probably not the best.

If it is water with no alkalinity but a high or low ph because of the ferts then soil cation exchange and the wider effect of the ferts such as nitrate/ammonium ratios and other salt elements, hydroxides, calcium etc will dictate soil ph.

A peat mix seems lacking in clay and the ultimate buffer and probably plenty of silicone whereas an organic mix is great but you need to keep it fed and look after it to reap its full benefits, microherd cultivation can be an art.

It seems suggested to stay slightly acidic with all lime buffers or it simple works the opposite as a buffer. This would be natures way with rain water and clay soils.

One may remove all alkalinity from water by ph'ing to 4.2 and then adding fertilizers before readjusting ph for some technical reason i still misunderstand, waters ionization constant.

Hydro is hydro and salts are taken directly from the water so a certain ph or fluctuation of ph will form the relevant salts for uptake and the wrong ph merely lock them up in some complex orgy the plant cant take up. Soil is the root absorbing from the soils cation, ph again is dependant on other things and roots and fungus can easily deal with a wider ph by changing the soil chemistry, again alkalinity would worry me more than water ph.

Every scenario seems to present a different way of veiwing ph. Just fucking glad i have mildly alkaline and low alkalinity water and most ferts drop me dead on the mark for good growth.

Dude for a while my hanna broke n I'd to go by routine n a fish water test kit..when I got my new pen I tested my mixes and it was spot on...I suggest a bluelab n don't forget the buffers n storage.
My soils sweet n I've used it 5 times just add half a bag of fresh soil to the main mix with some vermiculite and the cannazyme sorts the roots left over n turns then to good use endomycorrhizal is also a sexy little beast.it's a symbiotic fungi that is best for cannabis..most say just mycorrhizal n that may help depending the mix but u want ur endos in that endomycorrhizal

here is the best and short answer . correct the water ph then your good to go . high water ph the plants absorb water now or later up to them . the soil is like a sponge holds water for the plant . i am talking average soils not live soils

theslipperbandit said:

Dude for a while my hanna broke n I'd to go by routine n a fish water test kit..when I got my new pen I tested my mixes and it was spot on...I suggest a bluelab n don't forget the buffers n storage.
My soils sweet n I've used it 5 times just add half a bag of fresh soil to the main mix with some vermiculite and the cannazyme sorts the roots left over n turns then to good use endomycorrhizal is also a sexy little beast.it's a symbiotic fungi that is best for cannabis..most say just mycorrhizal n that may help depending the mix but u want ur endos in that endomycorrhizal

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Bluelab digis are awesome for the price, mines brilliant

I was always hanna it the same .1 +/- at a 3rd of the price but bluelab is for like kinda gear solid build love the auto cal

Great replies and interesting read. Cheers guys. Yeah ive just been correcting the ph before the rest of the nutes and additives go in and its working a treat they are loving it.