I'm confused on the whole ph thing.

So I have seen a few threads here and there... when do I need to start testing the ph in my soil? Where would I get a kit? What is the importance of this etc....

Plants grow and excel depending on important factors, one of those factors being soil. A important factor to good soil is the PH level or acidity of it otherwise some plants can have a hard time surviving because it can be damaging to the roots.

PH testers can be found almost ANYWHERE, Walmart, Target, pet stores etc and must be maintained in order to achieve fully healthy plants.

If you're still confused here's a thread that goes more in depth, http://forum.grasscity.com/absolute-beginners/218218-updated-beginners-guide-ph-marijuana.html

Ph effects the plants ability to absorb nutrients, if your grow medium is not in the correct ph range then your plant will not be able to absorb the nutes it needs to grow and will show signs of deficncy. For soil you want you ph to be as close to 6.5 as possible, soil is fairly self regulating so as long as the water your giving it is ph 6.5 (after nutes have been added to it) you really shouldn't have ph issues

Build the soil properly from the beginning, let the microbes do their job, and there's no sense testing soil for pH. If the soil is allowed to do it's thing, the plant will direct and dictate the soil pH.

There would be no need to pH balance the water, and no need for liquid nutes. Add the materials to the soil before you start to grow in it. Just a thought.

get a good potting soil with dolomite in it and don't worry about it. i've never checked my ph. GL

I hate PH.

This is what happens to a plant that is suffering pH lockout due to too low pH. Decide for yourself how important it is... In soil, a sufficient amount of dolomite lime will keep it buffered (stable, the soil adjusts itself in other words) but in hydro you have to make sure you stay right on top of it, even coco.

But it is vitally important to understand if you want healthy plants, even if you use a soil with dolomite lime, understanding why and how it works is really a good thing to educate yourself about.

I was confused at first with the pH thing too. I thought checking the pH of my soil​ was important, so I bought a soil pH tester. Soil pH is important, but looking at it that way can be confusing.

The pH of your water is what you need to be testing (directly), not the soil. Make sure its right going in, and when you water your plants collect the run off so you can see what is happening with your pH while the water passes through.

Some people do fine just testing the pH going in, but I think testing runoff gives you a more comprehensive idea of what's going on with the pH of the soil

ThorGanjason said:

I was confused at first with the pH thing too. I thought checking the pH of my soil​ was important, so I bought a soil pH tester. Soil pH is important, but looking at it that way can be confusing.

The pH of your water is what you need to be testing (directly), not the soil. Make sure its right going in, and when you water your plants collect the run off so you can see what is happening with your pH while the water passes through.

Some people do fine just testing the pH going in, but I think testing runoff gives you a more comprehensive idea of what's going on with the pH of the soil

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okay, so you pH your water/nutes to ~ 6.5 for soil then your run off is something way off (+ or -) ...what can you do about it at that point...would you re-water with a higher/lower pH water/nutes?

PS: I grow mostly with hempy....so not such a major worry....just get it close to 5.8....many people don't pH hempy's at all

If you're using bottled ferts, then disregard all of the following, as I have no idea about bottled supplementation.

A properly built soil doesn't require the water to be pH'd. The mineralization (Ca-Lime) establishes the right buffering, and the plant will preferentially attract / nurture a certain profile of microbes, and these microbes will in fact continue to adjust the pH as they prefer. Look for posts by the three dudes in my sig. Much discussion on this.

Now a very heavily mineralized / hard water can be a different story. That was my situation. You can't easily pH water balance your way out of that, so I went RO. Pulled it out of the closet from hydro days. RO is essentially like rain. Pretty pure with some dissolved ions.

Again- if you're growing with bottles, once again that is very cool.

stonedirish said:

So I have seen a few threads here and there... when do I need to start testing the ph in my soil? Where would I get a kit? What is the importance of this etc....

Click to expand...

Just add some dehydrated lime to your soil, The lime will keep your soil close to neutral.
The more nutrients you use the more salts your soil builds up these salts mess with your soils PH.
Transplanting to bigger containers through veg helps out alot. Every time you transplant your giving the plant new soil that doesn't have and salts.
You'll have more problems with PH say if you start your plant in the container it will finish in. Your plant never gets any new soil.
It's sorta like wearing the same clothes for 4 months.

Good Luck on your Grow

It's as important as the strength of your lighting. ie, cfl's and no ph will grow a plant, but the yield might not be worth your time. You can get a digital ph tester on ebay for under $15.

I don't know why people want to grow in soil or cocoa but I'm sure I'll be enlightened at some point. DWC is cheaper, easier, and faster, in my experience.

smokinafatty said:

It's as important as the strength of your lighting. ie, cfl's and no ph will grow a plant, but the yield might not be worth your time. You can get a digital ph tester on ebay for under $15.

I don't know why people want to grow in soil or cocoa but I'm sure I'll be enlightened at some point. DWC is cheaper, easier, and faster, in my experience.

Click to expand...

Well DWC doesn't work too well in rooms that tend to run hot at all. Water temps rise too fast and slime becomes a big issue. I had to home-insulate my DWC rig but it is still no picnic keeping temps down. I'm with you on the speed of growth in DWC, hence my mums are usually kept this way.
And DWC is a lot less 'newb proof' than coco for example. And also, DWC does me no good in my SoG, only ebb-and-flow really suits it perfectly. Smaller coco pots are also nice, but I can't automate my rig as well as I can in a Hydroton based ebb-and-flow.
I'm currently using ebb and flow, DWC, coco and soil. The slowest is soil for sure, with the rest being pretty much on par as far as speed goes, but the coco plants are the healthiest, strongest plants I have...
Each has it's advantages and drawbacks, it's been great running it all kinda side-by-side for direct comparison.