Like @MIMedGrower said ph down like lemon juice and citric acid break down fast. They don't continue to buffer you soil. Your soil should be built to buffer your water. Like I said though high alkalinity water will change the ph if the soil over time. But with RO no need and most tap water is fine.
i havent read all the 4 pages bro,but did you ask if they did a slurry test on soil to start,i think you pretty much covered how to hold ph in water,i tried all kind of stuff to get good water in the city,mine now in country is very alkaline i use asorbic acid to drop it when i feed only,if it stays there dont know,but with the cloramine and clorine in the city i would make 33 gal at a time and next day it was still same as i left it,i feed my whole outside garden with it in triple digits,if it worked i couldnt really say cause the heat was a big factor and all the privacy fencing around me didnt leave much room for polluted air hahahah,here i use the KNF feeds i made and add right to the alkaline water,i think since every thing is fermented is why i have no problems ,dont know,im thinking along the lines of what you wrote about phospric acid was a better choice and plans for my 250 gal IBC tote down in bottom garden is gonna be a rule of thumb if i ever finish rebuilding every thing hahaah,you are completly right about amends though,when cooked in the soil it does buffer it,as of now thats all i have done and got 3 great harvest from the gardens this year which scares me about rebuilding all boxs and beds hahahah
Also I think the ph causing most new growers problems is not caused by the ph of the nutrients added but the excess of nutrients built up from overfeeding or root problems that cause the soil ph to drop. Like you said when you add nutrients the ph drops so when they build up in the soil the exceed the buffering capacity and crash the soil ph
Promix has buffers built into it, which will try to offset the tendency for fertilizers to lower the Ph. I grow in Promix and I really can't say that I've ever had a Ph problem.... and you are correct in most new growers stumble on Ph and overfeeding. Most tap water is close to neutral in Ph, and shouldn't cause issues and can actually benefit the plants by supplying magnesium and other minerals. The key is "most" tap water, not all. If your Ph is excessively high in your water, you can either filter it (RO), distill it, or lower the Ph. I add wood ashes to help the buffering even more, but that isn't a necessity, just some minor nutrients and buffering to keep Ph in the correct zone (which it does on it's own for the most part). With my use of Promix, I only feed every two weeks on average, so I don't use a ton of nutrients to lower my Ph too much. Using a lot of nutrients will lower your Ph more than the occasional feeding. A lot depends on your method of growing.
Well I grew for years without worrying about ph problems. I was having issues like everyone does and thought when I heard about this ph stuff I'd better get on the band wagon... so I did... bought the up/down a ph tester and thought that would do it, I'd grow perfect bud now every time all my problems were behind me..... Well that didn't work. Still have issues of one thing or another but now I add chemicals to mix to get around a 6.50 ph+- cause that's what I've been led to believe will solve all my problems.lol
Hi, it's not really the cost of the acid, I paid $15 Canadian ( about $2 US) for a pint. I use 1-3 drops at a time when needed it should last me 10+ years so wtf. I'd really have to be cheap to debate the pros and cons when were talking pennies. Now if 1 or the other is drastically a better product for my grow then I'm all ears but if not meh.
no not mine just jabbering about nothing really
Usually ph rises over time as co2 is off gassed
Could cut down on the dolomite to compensate for your hard water. Dolomite will raise your soil ph. If you have hard water you won't need much.
