Ph Drops Massively When Adding Nutes

[jerkchicken]

Hi guys,
I haven't been on for ages, unfortunately I haven't been able to have my tent up for a year due to circumstances but it's back up and running! I have moved to a different area now and have different water, it's soft water now with a very low ec, around 0.1 and pH is around 7.2 but when I add food now it goes down to about 5.1! I've never needed to raise ph before, only lower it. Is this OK this is happening? The pH was the same at my last address just ec was higher at about 0.7or8 and the pH would only drop to about 6.8. I'm using Buddhas tree food and mixing it to about ec 1.2.

Do I need to be concerned about such a big drop in ph after adding nutes? Do I just raise it and feed them? It is worrying me a little.

Any help or opinions would be great please guys.

Hope you all have a great winter/Christmas

 

[SoLowDolo]

Mine always drops that much or more when I add nutes. I've never had any issues with it.

 

[MIMedGrower]

It’s normal because your water has low alkalinity. It will also take on the mediums ph more easily.

 

[Seraphine]

I would only be concerned about it if your plants don’t like the low pH. If you’re really worried, you can buy pH up and adjust the water pH after you add nutes.

 

[jerkchicken]

Ye they are showing signs of not been happy so I'll go and grab some up tomorrow and get the pH up a little bit. Thanks for the replies people, helpful.

 

[Phylex]

Ye they are showing signs of not been happy so I'll go and grab some up tomorrow and get the pH up a little bit. Thanks for the replies people, helpful.

A great idea I read from someone here suggested adding silica in place of PH up since the silica will raise your PH. Not only bumping your PH up, but also adding some additional nutrition in the process. Just a thought

 

[JWM2]

Becareful raising your ph. The info above is correct you have very few dissolved minerals and metals in your water so the reading is skewed and not reliable. Your ph will shift easily with any adjustment you make so you can easily get way out of control in a heartbeat. Best thing to do is add some calmag then retest it. The added minerals and metals will stabilize the ph reading. This happens with RO or distilled water as well.

Liquid lime is nice to have handy in case your soils ph dips too low and it has added calcium as a bonus. Olympus Up by Nectar for the Gods is about the only hydrated liquid lime left on the market that I know about. Years ago I used to use a lot of hydrated lime because my well water had a really low ph due to runoff from surrounding farmlands in NW Illinois. Nothing but soybeans and corn as far as the eye could see.

 

[jerkchicken]

Ok brilliant, thanks for all the info. I'll try adding some cap mal first then, I think someone told me before that's a good idea anyway with a low ec water sauce because most tap water has that in. They're definitely hungry/lacking nutes and I want to switch them soon! Cheers guys

 

[jerkchicken]

Just one more question people, would you add base nutes, then calmag, then additives? Or would you put calmag in, then the base nutes? I want to get this sorted so I can flip them because apart from the deficiencies they nice and bushy and ready to go. Cheers people, appreciate the help!

 

[JWM2]

It’s hard to know what the problem is without more info. What are your temps and RH? What kind of nutrients are you using? Are you using soil, coco or something else? What’s the Growing mediums ph?

 

[Seraphine]

Add all your nutrients first, then pH appropriately.

 

[oldskol4evr]

im with jwm2 except with the silica,you would be surprised how much 1 drop of silica will raise the ph,i use to add silica first then nutes,but the silica runs high and means less nutes,dont complain of your water source,oh my the city water i struggled with for 2 years,ph was 7 out of tap ,but ppm was 900,ya,so love that low ph and just feed more goodies to your right ph,sayin this ,it depends on medium,need more info,if you got a def now,dont flip to it is corrected plus a week

 

[Bulldog420]

My two cents, always ph your final fertigation solution.

 

[jerkchicken]

I'm using coco, buddhas tree nutes which is a coco/hydro feed. Temps are 22-23c in the day and about 19c at night and 50% rh so happy with all that. I just didn't understand why the pH was dropping so much when nutes where added. Would you add the calmag before base nutes or after along with the additives? I think my water will be great for flushing tho!

They're in 11l pots with 10 under 2 600w bulbs in a 1.2mx2.4m tent. It doesn't look too bad now, just leaves starting to lighten in colour and few spots (does look like calmag from what I've seen, but I'm no expert!) but I want to get on it straight away as they're vegging well and I know the smoke is lovely, it's a blueberry strain and the pheno finishes in 7 weeks! My cousin been growing it out for a while and gets 5oz a plant in 11l pots in 7 weeks so decent genetics I think, lovely smoke!

 

[jerkchicken]

I've just read now canna recommend adding calmag first, getting ec to 0.45 and then add base nutes and then additives. Do you guys agree with that? Sounds about right to me as that would be like starting with tap water then wouldn't it I guess ..

 

[JWM2]

Yes that would be recommended. With ultra low ppm or ec the ph reading isn’t reliable. Once you get some dissolved minerals and metals into it, you’ll be fine.

 

[jerkchicken]

Cheers, I'll let you know how I get on and try and get some pics up. Hopefully I'll have some nice nug shots soon too!

 

[jumpincactus]

Hi guys,
I haven't been on for ages, unfortunately I haven't been able to have my tent up for a year due to circumstances but it's back up and running! I have moved to a different area now and have different water, it's soft water now with a very low ec, around 0.1 and pH is around 7.2 but when I add food now it goes down to about 5.1! I've never needed to raise ph before, only lower it. Is this OK this is happening? The pH was the same at my last address just ec was higher at about 0.7or8 and the pH would only drop to about 6.8. I'm using Buddhas tree food and mixing it to about ec 1.2.

Do I need to be concerned about such a big drop in ph after adding nutes? Do I just raise it and feed them? It is worrying me a little.

Any help or opinions would be great please guys.

Hope you all have a great winter/Christmas

most ferts are acidic which will lower your feed water. I use earth juice and NFTG and with 7.1 water it drops to 4.9 every time. As @Bulldog420 mentioned adjust your feed prior to actual feeding. I always adjust to proper range let sit 30 mins stir again and recheck Ph and adjust if needed.

 

[MIMedGrower]

In potting soil the lime or oyster shell serves as the ph up.

Ph adjusting is for water culture. In potting soil adding ph up is like adding more lime to the soil every time.

And acidifying the soil too much with ph down will cause problems as well.

I only test the ph on new bags to be sure they were not over limed. Or if I have problems to get an idea of what’s going on. I do test ec/ ppm with a truncheon every feed and again the runoff. But I do it to monitor things over time. Helps me to know when to start tapering down the nute concentration. And it helps prevent mistakes.

Also ph changes constantly at the root zone. It rises as they eat. It falls when we feed. It really only needs to be in range. The soil is the buffer.

Best to know the relationship of our water, soil and nutes and how they react over time.

 

[jerkchicken]

Just a quick update, been using calmag first to get ec up to 0.4 and then using my nutes on top and they loving it and pH is where I want it. Thanks guys, I'll get some pics up next couple days see what you think. Going to lollipop them bit more next couple days and switch them. Happy days!