G
GuFF
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determining your ph for soil
I would like to discuss soil Ph.
I believe that the reason soil Ph is "recommended" at a high Ph for ideal uptake is that the medium is drying out between waterings which is lowering the ph.
Now why does the Ph lower as the nutrient solution in the rootzone dries out?
Is it because some of the nutrients that drive the Ph upward are absorbed by the roots immediately and stored until needed? Such as nitrogen?
Now another thought of mine is that when someone wants to know what the ph of their irrigation solution for soil should be they should first consider their medium, does it drain fast? How much water does it hold between irrigations? Another thing to consider is their irrigation frequency, how often and how much?
Now, in dwc the prefered Ph is 5.3-5.8, this tells me that the rootzone prefers this range. So the trick with soil would be watering with a certain Ph so that as your soil dries, it gets into the 5.3-5.8 range. Just an assumption I would appreciate anyone elses knowledge on this.
Overall id say that the 'wetter' the medium stays the lower you should keep your irrigation Ph (6.0-6.3), that goes with saying that the grower is not having the soil so water logged that it is suffocating the roots of dissolved oxygen. One example is watering everyday in very small amounts. There is less of a 'dry out' period so there is less of a ph drop.
Now if the grower is watering a little more heavily and only watering say every 3-4 days then perhaps the grower should have his irrigation Ph a little higher (6.4-7.0) as the 'drying out' period is longer so the ph drop would be greater.
One thing i disapprove any grower of doing is running a Ph of whatever just because he was told by someone else it works for them, unless of course that grower is going to completly mimic that other growers set up (medium, nutes, irrigation frequency, pot size, lighting, temp, and humidity) because those factors will all play role in the water consumption by the plant and the tendency for Ph to fluctuate.
I am not claiming these are all facts, just my opinions from what i have read from other growers. A lot of what i have learned is from reading a lot of info from Lucas (creator of the lucus formula with the help of pH's nutrient calculator spreadsheet). I would greatly appreciate anyones thoughts and hopefully we can get a good amount of soil ph knowledge on this thread and good links to other good reads.
Cheers,
GuFF
I would like to discuss soil Ph.
I believe that the reason soil Ph is "recommended" at a high Ph for ideal uptake is that the medium is drying out between waterings which is lowering the ph.
Now why does the Ph lower as the nutrient solution in the rootzone dries out?
Is it because some of the nutrients that drive the Ph upward are absorbed by the roots immediately and stored until needed? Such as nitrogen?
Now another thought of mine is that when someone wants to know what the ph of their irrigation solution for soil should be they should first consider their medium, does it drain fast? How much water does it hold between irrigations? Another thing to consider is their irrigation frequency, how often and how much?
Now, in dwc the prefered Ph is 5.3-5.8, this tells me that the rootzone prefers this range. So the trick with soil would be watering with a certain Ph so that as your soil dries, it gets into the 5.3-5.8 range. Just an assumption I would appreciate anyone elses knowledge on this.
Overall id say that the 'wetter' the medium stays the lower you should keep your irrigation Ph (6.0-6.3), that goes with saying that the grower is not having the soil so water logged that it is suffocating the roots of dissolved oxygen. One example is watering everyday in very small amounts. There is less of a 'dry out' period so there is less of a ph drop.
Now if the grower is watering a little more heavily and only watering say every 3-4 days then perhaps the grower should have his irrigation Ph a little higher (6.4-7.0) as the 'drying out' period is longer so the ph drop would be greater.
One thing i disapprove any grower of doing is running a Ph of whatever just because he was told by someone else it works for them, unless of course that grower is going to completly mimic that other growers set up (medium, nutes, irrigation frequency, pot size, lighting, temp, and humidity) because those factors will all play role in the water consumption by the plant and the tendency for Ph to fluctuate.
I am not claiming these are all facts, just my opinions from what i have read from other growers. A lot of what i have learned is from reading a lot of info from Lucas (creator of the lucus formula with the help of pH's nutrient calculator spreadsheet). I would greatly appreciate anyones thoughts and hopefully we can get a good amount of soil ph knowledge on this thread and good links to other good reads.
Cheers,
GuFF