PH levels

[homegrown840]

Hello growers,

Doase anyone no if you really need to check the PH levels?
I'm doing a small indoor LED grow I don't currently have a PH tester and was just using tap water and some liquid seaweed nutrient stuff for hydroponics..
Will my plants still be healthy and bud with out checking the PH?
I live in London UK so the water isn't to bad round here.

check out my photos the plants do look lovely and green atm there around 4 weeks old

Many thanks people

 

[Silverfox125]

If you use living organic soil you can water with out adjusting. If you’re adding nutrients you need it to be in the right range for the plants to take up the nutrients.

 

[MickFoster]

What is your medium?

 

[Emilya Green]

I hate that chart because it makes it seem like the pH of the roots, or of the medium is what is important.
It is not.. it is the pH of the nutrient solution that is important, not the medium.
Think about hydro... what is the medium? it is water. pH 7.0 water. When you mix up a rez, you add the nutes and pH the "system" into the range called for.
In soil, you are usually dealing with a medium that has a base pH of 6.8 That is mostly out of the range on that chart, so what they are saying is that when you water... with water or water mixed with nutes, you pH adjust that mixture to the range on the chart. Your goal is not to change the "medium", only the system, so that while you maintain control, the nutes are mobile.

 

[BeanTownFan420]

I use soil and bottle nutrients never had to adjust anything.If there is any living organisms in your soil no need to adjust the microbiology does that naturally even with bottle nutrients.Guess i'm just lucky.

 

[Emilya Green]

I use soil and bottle nutrients never had to adjust anything.If there is any living organisms in your soil no need to adjust the microbiology does that naturally even with bottle nutrients.Guess i'm just lucky.

if one is not lucky, and you have to rely on funny water, the addition of most salt based nutrient lines will drive your pH on watering down into the 5's... and in soil you end up getting almost no mobility with some of the nutes in that mix if you don't adjust up. It just depends on your local situation. I know a guy who uses half well water, half rain water, and it ends up at the perfect pH when he adds the nutes. Some people are just lucky. Most of us who are not lucky, have to pH adjust our fluids when using salt based nutes.
Some soils are buffered heavily in both the upper and lower regions so that whether you come in low or high, the soil helps even things out and get you in the needed range, and some artificial grow mediums are designed to do the same thing. These people also don't need to pH adjust as the medium does it for them. Instead of luck, they are applying science within the medium.
Lastly, the organic grows, using microbial organisms to feed their plants. These people are not using bottled nutrients generally, and the microbes are using the minerals prebuilt into the soil that they break down to provide the raw minerals to the plants. This process is not pH dependent, and since the microbes don't care about the pH unless you make the soil too base or too acidic for normal life, this type of grow does not require pH adjusting.
Just having microbes in the soil however does not eliminate your need to pH adjust, if you are using salt based nutrients. If you are supplying nutrients from a bottle... ready to uptake nutrients, the microbes in the soil have nothing to do.... they are just there for show. They do not eliminate the need to pH adjust all of your fluids if you are using synthetic nutes!
If you are using the new aminochelated nutrients, such as Megacrop, and you are in soil, the working pH range of this stuff is so wide that I have found no need to pH adjust in soil. The aminochelation feeding process is for all intent, not pH dependent.

 

[bluter]

I use soil and bottle nutrients never had to adjust anything.If there is any living organisms in your soil no need to adjust the microbiology does that naturally even with bottle nutrients.Guess i'm just lucky.

if one is not lucky, and you have to rely on funny water, the addition of most salt based nutrient lines will drive your pH on watering down into the 5's... and in soil you end up getting almost no mobility with some of the nutes in that mix if you don't adjust up. It just depends on your local situation. I know a guy who uses half well water, half rain water, and it ends up at the perfect pH when he adds the nutes. Some people are just lucky. Most of us who are not lucky, have to pH adjust our fluids when using salt based nutes.
Some soils are buffered heavily in both the upper and lower regions so that whether you come in low or high, the soil helps even things out and get you in the needed range, and some artificial grow mediums are designed to do the same thing. These people also don't need to pH adjust as the medium does it for them. Instead of luck, they are applying science within the medium.
Lastly, the organic grows, using microbial organisms to feed their plants. These people are not using bottled nutrients generally, and the microbes are using the minerals prebuilt into the soil that they break down to provide the raw minerals to the plants. This process is not pH dependent, and since the microbes don't care about the pH unless you make the soil too base or too acidic for normal life, this type of grow does not require pH adjusting.
Just having microbes in the soil however does not eliminate your need to pH adjust, if you are using salt based nutrients. If you are supplying nutrients from a bottle... ready to uptake nutrients, the microbes in the soil have nothing to do.... they are just there for show. They do not eliminate the need to pH adjust all of your fluids if you are using synthetic nutes!
If you are using the new aminochelated nutrients, such as Megacrop, and you are in soil, the working pH range of this stuff is so wide that I have found no need to pH adjust in soil. The aminochelation feeding process is for all intent, not pH dependent.

coles notes :

it's a combination of the nutes, water, and soil conditions, and how they react with each other. if all three fall inside parameters, ph is not an issue. if one is out of balance, there will be problems.