Ph help?

[jamk911]

ok soo I do not have a vehicle right now..
I DO have 100% natural not from concentrate lemon juice available.
The local wal mart i got to last night had ph test strips in the aquarium area.. a pack of 5 only!
Well I tested my water .. and actually ran out of the strips before I got my water under control...
My tap water here in NJ is extremely hard.. the ph reading of the water was about 8.5
I have water that has sat out 48 hours.. am about to water my plants.. I was wondering how much lemon juice would be needed to properly adjust this.. I am in a soil medium ( coast of maine bar harbor blend with 30% perlite mixed in )
I feel like 8.5 ph is too high even with the soil buffering and just need help with the amount of lemon juice I should put in .. I have a 31 cup tupperware and a 20 cup Tupperware ... which have sat out a while
Thank you.. sorry for rambling...
Here is the lemon juice.. i put a quarter tsp and 1/8 tsp in the smaller tupperware.. wondering if that would be enough

 

[Aqua Man]

There is no possible way to answer that question

 

[airedog]

Get a decent pH meter and maybe consider AN's pH Perfect base nutes. Not saying that they're the best nutrients out there (although i personally like them), just that their buffering works and gives you a wider margin of error.

In my opinion, if you want to have any kind of repeatable success growing you need a decent meter. Standard pens will allow you to measure your nutes and run-off, something like a Kelway HB 2 will give you a pH reading of your soil.

 

[oldskol4evr]

aqua man has a sticky on ph ,give it a read,might help you out,for long term effects ,you might study into adding more buffering for the bad water.
i cant keep up with his sticky but im sure there plenty of lab coat stuff to back his progress on the matter,hahahahah
for sure wont learn unless you read about it properties

 

[jamk911]

Did you really just tell me to get a ph tester that costs $150-200.. for all that I could buy $100 in bottled water and be to drink $50 worth myself .. if I wanted to spend $1000 on bud I would just buy it off someone else.. I appreciate the elitism of, smash nutrients with colorful pictures into your grow.. and your lights gt be top of the line $1000, you need a ph reader and ppm reader ...but I dont need the checklist of fox farm entire brand line up, grow tent, hydro system, exhaust fan, air filter, reverse osmosis machine, cooling fan...led strips everywhere.. etc...
imma keep it real.. I got a $100 light.. a couple 5 gallon buckets, some decent soil I mixed some perlite in it .. some dollar store brand 20 8 12 fert for when soils been eaten.. worm castings were on sale so got those..an oscillating fan..and some tiger bloom..
All I asked was how much lemon juice would be ok to lower my waters ph by gallon .. a little.. but not too much.. first thing I said was no car.. and used the 5 ph tests I had... I have 2 plants in a closet .. and even if it was 20.. why the hell would I spend tons on random stuff with 0 use past random niche uses growing plants indoors... I mean more power to you if you got dough to blow like that, but I dont.. I got kids, a wife, and I got laid off in may.. just cheap fun in a closet or basement.. not putting my life savings in it here..

My plants are fine without all that.. just thought it might be nice of me .. to them, if I gave em a little lower phed water for a change...
Yeah I might get a $10 ph tester or something.... cause itd be cool to let kids play w it and also be a use here.. but $200
Sorry for rant but I hate when I just am asking for a specific answer that someone who may have used lemon juice before may be to answer and I get hit with the fox farm and life savings on plants advertising mob..

 

[Kampbe1l]

of course there are a couple of school of thoughts on every topic/matter/issue - here whether to use pH meters or not, to what pH meters, how to lower pH of soil/water/nutrient-solution, what these measurements of soil/water/nutrient should be, etc...

treat your 'girls' like (most) regular houseplant - our thing is kinda both vegetable & fruit. so, if your common household plants do alright with the watering/feeding, etc, it might be alright not to even treat heavily the water/nutrient-solution/etc....

now, how much lemon juice to reduce, also depends on temperature probably, i reckon whatever portion we suggest is arbitrary. $10 pH meter which simple & works, some pH buffer to calibrate & you can measure your pH levels.

that's the choice.

I agree you don't have to go overboard on spending on hardware, etc for the grow. but some costs, capital costs are worth their yield/taste/harvest. get test strips to indicate what the pH is, even.

 

[MIMedGrower]

The ph of your water does not tell the hardness. They are seperate measurements.

How much acid (lemon juice) to add is determined by the mineral content of the water not the ph.

For example my well water measures above 8.0 ph often but is is only considered moderate hardness and has only 150 ppm mineral content.

and i dont need to ph down my water as it easily takes on the ph of the medium when poured in.

 

[Beachwalker]

It's now "elitist" to have nutrients with colorful pictures on the bottle?

 

[dred]

personally I said fuk the meters have a cheapy and a blue lab and they both seem to always need to be calibrated.
found myself using the pen then drops to check pen so I said fuk the pen and just use drops for PH

 

[BurnzYzBudZz]

ok soo I do not have a vehicle right now..
I DO have 100% natural not from concentrate lemon juice available.
The local wal mart i got to last night had ph test strips in the aquarium area.. a pack of 5 only!
Well I tested my water .. and actually ran out of the strips before I got my water under control...
My tap water here in NJ is extremely hard.. the ph reading of the water was about 8.5
I have water that has sat out 48 hours.. am about to water my plants.. I was wondering how much lemon juice would be needed to properly adjust this.. I am in a soil medium ( coast of maine bar harbor blend with 30% perlite mixed in )
I feel like 8.5 ph is too high even with the soil buffering and just need help with the amount of lemon juice I should put in .. I have a 31 cup tupperware and a 20 cup Tupperware ... which have sat out a while
Thank you.. sorry for rambling...
Here is the lemon juice.. i put a quarter tsp and 1/8 tsp in the smaller tupperware.. wondering if that would be enough

Order something online. You wouldn’t need a car at that point.
Burnz