Acid flushing at 3.0 pH to reduce media pH works

  • Thread starter Peat_Phreak
  • Start date
  • Tagged users None
M

MasterWatererJeff

26
3
Citrate chelates minerals, that's why it's taking so much. Citrate acetate and fulvate mixed with salts is how "organic" fertilizers are produced in 21st century agriculture.
 
Peat_Phreak

Peat_Phreak

515
143
Another update on this. The acid flush thing is still working. I got the most mature plant stable at 6 pH. It started at 7.8ph. Two plants are in the mid sixes. One is at 7.2 pH. Some plants crank out more base than others. I could micromanage that one plant with extra acid, but it doesn't need it. One acid flush a week should be fine for the rest of the grow on all of them.

Now, all this acid feeding and pH monitoring is starting to become a chore. I'm really hoping my lacto experiment works. I want to be able to pH the feed to 6 for the entire grow and have the lacto manage the media pH for me. Seems like it would be hard to get it right on the first try.
 
Peat_Phreak

Peat_Phreak

515
143
This is one of the plants that got bombed with citric acid. Started at 7.8 pH in late veg. Finished at 5.7pH in bloom. Similar for the rest of the plants.

CitradelicSunset full 1250 Copy



CitradelicSunset bud2 1250 Copy


CitradelciSunset glv2 1250 Copy
 
Peat_Phreak

Peat_Phreak

515
143
Goodshit97 said:
Ive been eyeing ethos for a while, might have to get some now, sounds delicious lol
Click to expand...

I've grown three Ethos strains. All of them turned out good enough to grow again. Assuming this one smokes nice which it probably will. They have a huge selection. All of them look good. Not expensive either. $60 for small packs. They have variety packs too.
 
MIGrampaUSA

MIGrampaUSA

3,732
263
JeanMichel said:
if your veg nutrition is well balanced your ph should not climb so much
and i repeat myself, if you have hard water use nitric acid
Click to expand...
You can also use elemental sulfur and it will do the same thing. It will "chelate"
JeanMichel said:
only nitric acid convert the bicarbonates to nitrates
Click to expand...
Not exactly true ... Correct on nitric acid turning it into "nitrates" but sulfates are just as good. It will chelate the calcium and make it readily available just like nitric acid does. Sulfur is also an essential micro and sulfates are ready for uptake too. Also considering you're starting with elemental sulfur and adding water to it through the soil, the "acid" produced is mild and doesn't negatively effect plant roots. High concentrates of either sulfuric acid or nitric acid ... both very strong acids ... will damage plant roots.

However, at the end of the day, I question how well these methods work to change media pH with a plant in it. To me, these things are work-arounds and not actual fixes. In my eyes, best practice is to start your plants in a high quality potting mix that has enough buffering to keep the soil from climbing out of range.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Top Bottom