Do I need to use ph water if I use fox farm ocean forest?
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It is a good thing to use Ph water no matter what medium you are growing in. Soil is one of the few substrates that will correct ph but that does not mean you can just flood your plants with water that is too acidic or alkaline. If you are using tap water, you should be able to google what your avg ph is for your local tap water. You can also google ph for bottled water and as long as you are somewhere between 5.7 and 7.2. At the extreme ends, you can get issues but, you should be ok. Preferred is right around 6-6.5 so look for a water that fits your needs and stop worrying about ph. If you add any nutrients to your water, you change the whole kit and caboodle
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I always PH the water, but my source water has a PH almost 8
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Hey @Smokey1272 and welcome to the forum. I use foxfarm everything from the soil to the nutrients and yes i PH my water everytime which they do indicate on the directions.
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Always if possible. PH and airiate if you can. Ph should be the last thing you do to your water before you use it. And welcome to the forum @Smokey1272.
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Yes definitely PH your water! 6.2-6.8 range for optimum nutrient uptake with 6.5 being your target in soil, Pick up a cheap PH meter off amazon, when you water if you are adding nutrients and such always PH your water after you add everything, pick up some bottles of PH up and down to adjust, then dial it into 6.5 and water those ladies and watch em grow! Also if you are using fox farm ocean you can prob go about 3 weeks of just water before you would need to add more nutrients since the soil already has a bunch. For the autos I am running right now, I am running fox farm / coco mix. Just ph water the first 3 weeks, top dress with nutrients, water 3 more weeks, top dress again, wait to harvest!
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@Smokey1272 @Highigan is spot on. All I would add is if you’re growing organic to use dolomite lime or wood ash for ph up and use distilled white or apple cider vinegar for ph down.
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Don’t now why it won’t accept typing before I add photo:thinking:
Anyway how do you apply domolite lime or wood ash?? Happy growing
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That is about 2 ounces for a gallon but make sure you test the PH and be careful, wood ash and water can be so acidic it can burn your skin…
I prefer lime (dolomite,) or even gypsum instead. Maybe you want to research @Kronic home made cal/mag and use that instead…
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Will it hurt if I use organic nutes & use up rest of Up/Down I have
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Organic nuts are fine as long as they are appropriate for the stage of the plant you are feeding.
PH up/down…never correct. If you go too far one way, throw it out and start over, never correct it.
Age doesn’t matter. If it is good it will move the ph.
Start with water, check ph, add nutes, recheck, adjust using like a dropper…drop at a time and mix…it takes 3/4 minutes to settle down and stop floating
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I’m cracked like a nut, does that count?
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yes it does…lol. Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don’t
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I’ve missed talking to you.
Also, start planning. Not kidding. Water first. From Weather Channel a few minutes ago.
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Weather has been nuts…it is like a month or 2 ahead of schedule…we are heading for 116 in a few days. Been 110 easily for week or so. Trying to keep my plants cool and my head too…Much distress in the pipes…Landlord is back to her nasty antics and drivin me nuts…Won’t talk of it here but you got my personal email if you want to talk…my world is upside down, inside out right now
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@Mrb53004 wood ash is alkaline. It has a ph of 9-11. She’s going for ph up not ph down.
@Adcrag as far as how much to use that entirely depends on if store bought or home made and what wood was used. Hard wood ash vs soft wood ash etc…
Generally though wood ash is safe to use in teas especially flower teas because they give a nice potassium boost. You can just mix your nutes as normal and then slowly add in some wood ash as you have the mix aerating until you reach your desired ph range around 6.5.
I’ve personally used roughly 2 tbsp wood ash for 5 gallons of a tea. It was home made wood ash though and it was a mix of some old oak and cottonwood I had laying around.
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Brian Ballard, where I grew up on the other side of the state the water was really hard out of the tap. It was lime stone aquifer-based and came out of the tap around eight.
(Sorry seems like tangent) I used to breed aquarium fish and would have to use a Peatmoss extract solution to increase tannins in lower the pH naturally. Instead of strong acids. I would at it as a drip with an airline siphon. I did not want to burn the fish. They would not breed until they got around ph of 6.
Anyway I found coffee is an extremely effective natural pH down when you’re fighting water out of the tap. What I mean is it has a high pH and KH that fights you to come down to acidic. It worked much better than the concentrated peat moss extract and was much cheaper. I would just free pour my day old pot.
I immediately tried this to ph my plants and it worked great. The plants seem to like the extra tannins in the coffee and the caffeine is a natural insecticide.
Where I live now the (other side of the state) the water is soft and has almost no KH. The ph tends to drop way too low once it sits and turns the soil acidic by the time flowering starts. I love to use wood ash as MCBuds mentioned and I am so glad he did.
Second oh yeah to wood ash for ph up.
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