Hello growers,
Today it's feeding day. It's week 4 of flower and I just got a new bloom nutrient with a 4-7-6 NPK ratio, some 1% natural algae extract + micronutrients. So I mixed it with water until I got the PPM around 1200 and it's current pH is around 7.5. I want it down to about 6.7 - 6.8 since I grow in soil so I used the usual pH Down solution I am always using (81% Phosphoric acid), diluted a pipette drop in few ml of water and added 2 drops of the diluted solution in my nutrient solution but pH keeps at exactly 7.5, no matter how many drops I add. I even tried a bit (less than a drop of pipette, just a sprinkle) of undiluted pH down solution straight in my nutrient solution, still 7.5.
I assumed my pH test pen died, but I tried some water in a cup with the same diluted pH down solution I described above and pH went down as usual so I doubt my pH pen is the issue here.
All I am left with is that there may be something in my nutrient solution that buffers the pH, possibly some kind of bacteria which would mean that this is a liquid organic nutrient, not a chemical one. If so, then my questions are:
1) Is it pointless to try to adjust pH here since it will be buffered back to 7.5 or I need something organic to actually lower pH, or that will be pointless too and will be raised again to 7.5?
2) Since I used a strong chemical acid on a nutrient solution that may contain a lot of bacteria, did that harm them and should I change the solution before feeding or will this one work fine?
3) My current pH is at 6.5 in runoff, if I feed this solution at 7.5 will it cause nutrient uptake issues considering this nutrient solution is organic?
Thanks in advance guys
Today it's feeding day. It's week 4 of flower and I just got a new bloom nutrient with a 4-7-6 NPK ratio, some 1% natural algae extract + micronutrients. So I mixed it with water until I got the PPM around 1200 and it's current pH is around 7.5. I want it down to about 6.7 - 6.8 since I grow in soil so I used the usual pH Down solution I am always using (81% Phosphoric acid), diluted a pipette drop in few ml of water and added 2 drops of the diluted solution in my nutrient solution but pH keeps at exactly 7.5, no matter how many drops I add. I even tried a bit (less than a drop of pipette, just a sprinkle) of undiluted pH down solution straight in my nutrient solution, still 7.5.
I assumed my pH test pen died, but I tried some water in a cup with the same diluted pH down solution I described above and pH went down as usual so I doubt my pH pen is the issue here.
All I am left with is that there may be something in my nutrient solution that buffers the pH, possibly some kind of bacteria which would mean that this is a liquid organic nutrient, not a chemical one. If so, then my questions are:
1) Is it pointless to try to adjust pH here since it will be buffered back to 7.5 or I need something organic to actually lower pH, or that will be pointless too and will be raised again to 7.5?
2) Since I used a strong chemical acid on a nutrient solution that may contain a lot of bacteria, did that harm them and should I change the solution before feeding or will this one work fine?
3) My current pH is at 6.5 in runoff, if I feed this solution at 7.5 will it cause nutrient uptake issues considering this nutrient solution is organic?
Thanks in advance guys