When flushing with Vegamatrix Prime Zyme and Phyre with RO water the ph is around 7 after air aerating with a stone? Was maybe a little over 7 right after then went down to 6.8. Aerated for almost an hour. 5.5 gallons. Is that safe? Vegamatrix nutes like 5.5 to 6.5. Did i Aerate to long?
Vegamatrix pH it’s self to 6.5
Not sure what your getting at. Clarify please.
Can i use the Vegamatrix nutes to raise or lower the ph? if so what ones?
The whole line will pH itself to 6.5 its written on the feed chart
Yea dude I can read. That is not what I’m asking.
@Magus25227 aeration and water temp will change pH and it can fluctuate depending on the microbial life in the bucket.
The aeration adds dissolved oxygen and sometimes hydrogen will break free from the oxygen in the water in the agitation slightly raising ph (because it turns h20 into H0 which is hydroxide) but as it settles it will absorb more atmospheric hydrogen and level out (lower) again.
It’s also possible that during aeration the h20 will accept an extra oxygen ion and become h202 (hydrogen peroxide) becoming slightly more acidic. But since it’s unstable if you let it set without aeration it will release the extra oxygen ions and the pH will go back up.
If you aerate it longer and let enough bacteria develop it can lower pH as well since most aerobic bacteria that we need to break down organic matter produce various forms of acids, and are slightly acidophilic themselves. This is what we actually want when we aerate teas so that we are also dosing the plants with beneficial microbes as we feed. By slightly acidophilic I mean they thrive in the optimal range of 5.8-6.5 in the soil. They aren’t true extremophiles or acidophiles by any means.
Fungal growth can also effect pH, but this can cause much different pH swings since a lot of the fungus we use for growing can survive between 5-9 pH. So if you aerate over 24 hours and start developing fungus for a fungus dominant tea be sure to double check and fix pH before feed because some of those pH swings can get crazy.
Long story short, as long as your pH is in range after aeration it is safe to feed. There really isn’t such a thing as aerated too much (with plain water) unless you let algae develop. Generally you don’t want to aerate for more than 48 hours for a tea because as the nutrients change during the process of aeration some can bind together and change the nutrient solution and changes in bacterial and fungal colonies can also have an effect on the ionization and binding of nutrients into forms that are not bio-available to plants. So try not to aerate teas for more than 24-48 hours.
Thank you. I think i know what happened. I Watered a day early and my temps were fluctuating to much. This also happened after I was not wattering enough to have enough run off. I had to correct the ph and should of then.