Growingasmile
Well-Known Member
My very first grow i used vinegar to lower the ph and my plants loved it you're gonna need a ph pen
Using Vinegar For Lowering pH
- Thread starter trkyhntr420
- Start date
Growingasmile
Well-Known Member
Battery acid is generally sulfuric acid or potasium hydroxide and an electrolyte. Diluted forms of these are already used in many growing products. But chemlight glow sticks i would avoid like the plague. Redirect NoticeRevshot! Thanks for stopping by! Battery Acid? Battery Acid? You want me to put Battery Acid in my plant soil? lol.
Reminds of being in the Army and someone telling someone else to go find some chemlight batteries lol. I don't know if you are serious or joking lol. No, I didn't fall for the chemlight batteries gig, or the exhaust sample set up lol.
Not being mean spirited, I'm smiling and laughing lol. Do people really put that shit in their water/soil?? I wouldn't touch that with a 100 ft pole lol. Not in my plant lol. Just sounds bad lol. I take it that the roots obviously do not suck up/eat the battery acid? Otherwise, you would be getting one weird ass high lol.
aprosjat
Well-Known Member
I have got the ph pen now so I can adjust as needed!
FungiClay
Well-Known Member
Hey conradino23, just wondering how this worked out for you? Im in the 6th week of flower and my soils reading 7.6, and it seems to me like im having cal mag deficiency. Wondering if i should flush with ro water and vinegar to lower the ph? Or will it kill the microbs? Dont want all my leaves to die off to early...Sorry for the bump, but I found it through Google
I know it's not the right thread, but nobody is answering for my topic on organic soil part of the forum and I have an issue running... I made my own organic compost/soil mix and I wound up with very alkaline (8.0+) stuff, which combined with local tap water (8.4) locked out my seedling from getting her nutrients. I flushed mix with purified water + vinegar and eventually went down to 6.5-7.0, but I'm wondering how it affects microlife? I've been working on my own mix for about 4 months (added shitloads of stuff) and don't want to toss it now.
What do you think?
pH is easy once you understand the scale. so, unless you know where you are starting, you cannot know how much to add of either to get there. it's never add 5ml to 1gal... it's add 5ml to 1gal of 7.0 ph to get to X pH after mix. If the starting pH is consitent, you can consistently add the same amount to get the same pH. i'd still spot check occasionally. your winter water maybe different than summer if oyu are in a rural area? all sorts of factors over time. well water i'd assume is more volatile than city water. i'd pH well water every time or at least after any major rain or farmers irrigation routines etc.. it doesn't disappear after it soaks in, lol.
at pH of 7, you have equal parts (moles of) hydronium to hydroxide floating around in the solution. An acid donates a proton (H+) or a base attracts a proton (H+) from the H2O(liquid). so you end up with H3O+ and OH- floating around which gives it an acid or base property based on the ratio of these molecules. At 8 or 6 you have 10x more of one than the other, then 100x more at 5 and 9, and so on. obviously, as you get acidic there is more hydronium (h30).
the proton donation and stealing occurs constantly over time but reaches an equillibrium. it's why you don't have to mix so thoroughly (but should) to get an even pH... it really has a hankering to get there on its own.
fwiw a mole is 6.022*10^23 atoms (using the periodic table you calculate moles from the grams of X you add to 1 liter of water. you can then calculate how that wil impact pH. can extrapolate the rest from that.)
so, you need increasing amounts of ph-up or ph-down to get lower or higher. on paper you could calculate what you need relative to initial ph and molarity(moles/L) of your current acid being used based on the info provided and use of a calculator.
Definitely do not spend any large amounts of money on marijuanna brand ANYTHING. fertilizers, pots, ph-up/down.. it's all overpriced and likely trash products with cartoon graphics and bright colors to attract idiots. go buy real Ag fertilizers. Jack's is a good one paired with Cal-nitrate (doesn't have to be jacks, buy it cheaper elsewhere). you end up paying 3pennies per gallon (total part a+b+ mag-sulfate) of fertilizer if you buy the 25lbs bags.
HCl, an acid - loses the H and the Cl- floates around too. the only way it would "lose" it's effect is if another molecule comes into play... if teh cl- somehow replaced or stole somethign form another molecule that made it a base and reverted its effect (relative to strength of base/acids involved). it doesn't just evaporate. hydronium is still hydronium once it is formed. it still acts like hydronium no matter what formed it, because it is always H3O+.
If the acid or a base is mostly composed of a macro or micro nutrient, it's a good way to go -- assuming no toxicity is seen or you can't adjust other parts of your feeding regimen. you can likely adjust, so this should never be a problem. if you know you are adding a bunch of potash or whatever, you know you can reduce your fertilizer that addes potassium etc.. if you don't have a fertilizer setup that allows you to shift a couple components, you likely have some junky marijuana brand nonsense.
In any hydro system i would not recommend anything other than distilled white vineager. you don't want to be adding a bunch of useless crap that may be in teh 'organic' vinegar products. you want as simple as possible to control exactly what molecules go into your system and able to predict that no problems will occur, as opposed to pour and pray.
With soil, there's likely no problem using organic apple cider vinegar in soil. it may even be useful to the soil's microbial life, but unless you can work out why that's chemically true, it's likely just not a negative.
sodium bicabonate is potentially bad because of the Na-. Sodium bad, lol.. like phill hartman's frankenstein's "Fire BAD! Unghhhh!" you can google why salt is bad for a plant ... not "salts" like you hear people use, but actual Sodium(Na+). salinity issues etc.
pH of a hyrdo system is very likely to change constantly. as water evaporates, it will increase in either direciton it was already leaning.. simple math on that. microbes can be an issue in a dirty system. they will use what they can in the water and creat byproducts that may be a problem.. .as well as stealing nutirents from your plants. the byproducts can easily change your pH too.
assuming the vinegar doesn't hold the pH without any cause, is a wildly blind stab in the dark. if it was the case, it was because of somethign that existed in your system that isn't neccessarily elsewhere.
keep it simple. don't add molasses, organic vinegar or wahtever... feed it what it needs. stay way from magic and holistic nonsense that is 100% unproven except for prying money from idiots.
at pH of 7, you have equal parts (moles of) hydronium to hydroxide floating around in the solution. An acid donates a proton (H+) or a base attracts a proton (H+) from the H2O(liquid). so you end up with H3O+ and OH- floating around which gives it an acid or base property based on the ratio of these molecules. At 8 or 6 you have 10x more of one than the other, then 100x more at 5 and 9, and so on. obviously, as you get acidic there is more hydronium (h30).
the proton donation and stealing occurs constantly over time but reaches an equillibrium. it's why you don't have to mix so thoroughly (but should) to get an even pH... it really has a hankering to get there on its own.
fwiw a mole is 6.022*10^23 atoms (using the periodic table you calculate moles from the grams of X you add to 1 liter of water. you can then calculate how that wil impact pH. can extrapolate the rest from that.)
so, you need increasing amounts of ph-up or ph-down to get lower or higher. on paper you could calculate what you need relative to initial ph and molarity(moles/L) of your current acid being used based on the info provided and use of a calculator.
Definitely do not spend any large amounts of money on marijuanna brand ANYTHING. fertilizers, pots, ph-up/down.. it's all overpriced and likely trash products with cartoon graphics and bright colors to attract idiots. go buy real Ag fertilizers. Jack's is a good one paired with Cal-nitrate (doesn't have to be jacks, buy it cheaper elsewhere). you end up paying 3pennies per gallon (total part a+b+ mag-sulfate) of fertilizer if you buy the 25lbs bags.
HCl, an acid - loses the H and the Cl- floates around too. the only way it would "lose" it's effect is if another molecule comes into play... if teh cl- somehow replaced or stole somethign form another molecule that made it a base and reverted its effect (relative to strength of base/acids involved). it doesn't just evaporate. hydronium is still hydronium once it is formed. it still acts like hydronium no matter what formed it, because it is always H3O+.
If the acid or a base is mostly composed of a macro or micro nutrient, it's a good way to go -- assuming no toxicity is seen or you can't adjust other parts of your feeding regimen. you can likely adjust, so this should never be a problem. if you know you are adding a bunch of potash or whatever, you know you can reduce your fertilizer that addes potassium etc.. if you don't have a fertilizer setup that allows you to shift a couple components, you likely have some junky marijuana brand nonsense.
In any hydro system i would not recommend anything other than distilled white vineager. you don't want to be adding a bunch of useless crap that may be in teh 'organic' vinegar products. you want as simple as possible to control exactly what molecules go into your system and able to predict that no problems will occur, as opposed to pour and pray.
With soil, there's likely no problem using organic apple cider vinegar in soil. it may even be useful to the soil's microbial life, but unless you can work out why that's chemically true, it's likely just not a negative.
sodium bicabonate is potentially bad because of the Na-. Sodium bad, lol.. like phill hartman's frankenstein's "Fire BAD! Unghhhh!" you can google why salt is bad for a plant ... not "salts" like you hear people use, but actual Sodium(Na+). salinity issues etc.
pH of a hyrdo system is very likely to change constantly. as water evaporates, it will increase in either direciton it was already leaning.. simple math on that. microbes can be an issue in a dirty system. they will use what they can in the water and creat byproducts that may be a problem.. .as well as stealing nutirents from your plants. the byproducts can easily change your pH too.
assuming the vinegar doesn't hold the pH without any cause, is a wildly blind stab in the dark. if it was the case, it was because of somethign that existed in your system that isn't neccessarily elsewhere.
keep it simple. don't add molasses, organic vinegar or wahtever... feed it what it needs. stay way from magic and holistic nonsense that is 100% unproven except for prying money from idiots.
Notorious 420
420 Member
Newbie here but yes it works I ran out of ph down and gave it a try and TBH I like it over ph down
QA1142
Well-Known Member
Any chance you can be more specific on the non-weed nutrients? Source and what to buy. Do you add during flowering?
Thanks
IMStrange2020
420 Member
Using natural rice vinegar here.
It was a desperation move and I found this post and this forum. Big win there.
I have my card in Mass and am trying to get my 10 plant grow up and running.
I use baking soda to increase pH and ascorbic acid to lower it. I got the info online somewhere when I went organic. Works well.
johnnybgood
New Member
right what the h?
johnnybgood
New Member
battery acid? mmmm... ill pass for more natural methods. thank you though
Sulphuric acid is as natural as any other acid, regardless of whether one of its uses involves batteries or not.
Dr Fish
Well-Known Member
Just not out of a battery, to much lead..
Great info in a super old thread, I've used vinegar to bring down my ph just this week and it looks promising
Bro, I used too much distilled whit vinegar to lower the PH of my plants in mid veg stage and they locked out but not completely as you can get good quantity's of clean water through the pot medium and the roots to drain effectively. What can I do to restore their vigor and help them recover from the toxic shock?
