Best way to test PH?

[IC BUDZ]

I have seen some people are using there run off water how ever from others I've heard that you should just get the solution to 6.5 before you water and your all set Just looking for some input first time ive ever used a meter I Have a Hanna PH meter and gh7.0 calebrating solution, also ph up and down I am growing in Roots organics original soil mix and use nutrient X micro/grow/bloom line

 

[Incase]

should not worry that much about ph when growing in soil. i have had very good results without testing ph even once during a whole cycle.

But what I do this days, is adjusting water ph at 6.5. and that's it. Remember you want your ph to be in a good RANGE. If your ph is 6.7 or 6.3, that's totally fine. (I never used PH up in my whole life, when ph of water is too acid say 5.5 just add tap water and it'll go up)

Testing run off water is mostly when you burned your plants or have a nutrient lock out. Most of the time, your run off water will be very acid and EC high. (EC 2.5+).

That is why when growing in soil you don't want to feed too much. No fert for the first 2 weeks. And after that, you can feed full strenght once a week (or say every 5 days). or half strenght a little more often.

My best advice would be to start with a good soil mix. full of good organic slow release nutrients. And a good size POTS. that's the key. the biggest mistakes I have made recently was to try to grow a whole cycle in pots too small. I tried to compensate those small pots by feeding full strenght too often. I ended up having a run out water of EC3.0 PH 5.5. This happens because soil tends to dry everyday between waterings. and salts built up slowly in the substrat. And the more the soil dries, the more salts build up in it. After a couple of weeks, nutrients are locked and the plants starts burning heavily.

Hope it's not too messy and it is helpfull. (my english is rusty...)

 

[Hank Hemp]

2 tbspn of dolimite lime per gallon(4L) then don't worry about it. Close enough.

 

[IC BUDZ]

so just add tap water to my purified water to raise the PH

 

[fishwater]

All depends on what your tapwater runs... Always keep your water below 7 even when using soil. Roots organics is a good soil, I use it myself. I have ph9 water from my well and I can tell you, it does not work... lost a whole grow to it before I wised up and tested it. Now I haul water from my neighbors, and everything is good.
Dont let anyone tell you that you dont need to keep track of your ph, it can get way out of whack, no matter what you are growing in.
In another place, I used dolomite lime in my soil and it worked well.. but now, it does not, because my neighbors water is at ph7, but comes from a limestone formation...
Different situations call for different solutions..

 

[Floridian]

Good advice

Good advice

Soil is forgiving,a tablespoon of dolomite lime per gallon soil and use ph up to adjust around 6.5 and you are good to go.The only time you would use ph down is if your water without ferts is above 7 and you are not feeding and to adjust soaking RH cube level PH to 5.5 overnight to bring cube ph down to about neutral

 

[señorsloth]

i don't use a meter, i just use the drops that come in the GH kit. the way i do it is to get all my fluids to around 6-7 before watering...if it's new soil i aim for 7 because new soil tends to be pretty acidic...not all soil maybe but definitely the fox farm happy frog that i use. as the soil gets older, meaning after ive re-used it 4-5 times i give it more like ph 6, i don't understand the science but something about all the calcium in tap water raises the ph of the soil over time so it becomes more neutral. if your soil is used i feel like it becomes more ph stable, and if you always adjust the ph of your water and nutes then it shouldn't vary.

that being said i am not too careful with my ph, sometimes my numbers vary quite a bit, because i'm lazy and the plants can handle it. the smaller the pot to the bigger the plant the more you have to worry, when growing a 2 foot plant from a 16 ounce solo cup your ph can change by several points with just one wrong watering, but with big grow beds like mine it would take several waterings with ph grossly off to affect my soil ph in a noticeable way. basically the more soil per plant the more ph stable it will be and the less soil per plant the more careful you will have to be about nutrient swings and ph swings.

you can get away with just testing your water and adjusting every time, my tap is ph 8 so i used to measure every time, till i memorized how many ml of ph down i needed to how many grams of fertilizer i was using. this method works but is not perfect, if you always water your plants at exactly 6.5 ph it's going to be very hard for your soil to ever change that. however fresh soil or a few other factors could cause it to slowly change overtime, and checking the ph of the soil might be necessary.

to check the ph of the soil what i do is i take a scoop of soil from the pot, i suppose the more toward the center of the pot you could get the most accurate it would be. after the cup of soil is ready i fill the cup with ph NEUTRAL water(thats 7) up till it reaches the level of the soil, i let that sit for about 10 minutes, and then i fit a coffee filter over the cup, and filter the water from the soil, after that i run it through a few more coffee filters to get most of the soil out...i guess if you have an electric meter this isn't important but if you use drops you want the water as clear as possible. if the water is brown to begin with, it will be hard to see if the drops change the color of the sample. anyways i check the ph of the filtered water and that's a VERY rough estimate of what the soil is at.

i say it's a rough estimate because it's really not very accurate, but if your soil is so off that you are worried it's causing nutrient lockouts and toxicities it will give you a general idea...if your soil reading says ph 4 you can guess it's too acidic, even if the soil is not really at 4 exactly...it is better than just guessing anyway.

i used to use dolomite lime but i found that it gave me too many problems, and i could get the same results with almost no work by just using ph up and down from the hydro shop. my issue with lime is it slowly changes ph, basically it adds another variable, if im having ph problems its one more thing to worry about(did i add too little or too much lime 2 months ago) but if you have a soil thats ph 5 (not uncommon with peat based soil) then using ph up or down to get your water to 7 will correct this, so that your plants are in a somewhat ph 6ish environment, that they prefer. sure lime is not bad and works fine for a lot of people, it's just not for me...i use straight soil right from the bag and ph up and down...even with my wildly off well water my plants have been fine for years...

 

[bcblazer]

PH of 6.2-6.5 works good in soil. Vinegar lowers PH really well + more tap water or baking soda will raise it.

 

[Floridian]

General hydroponics PH test kit

General hydroponics PH test kit

Comes with PHup down and indicator,everyone growing in soil should really use this product.No meters here either,after a few times using this product you'll know how much PH up to use for say 2 tsps fox farm tiger bloom or a tablespoon PBP pro,providing your source PH doesnt change.

 

[Snow1]

I actually enjoy testing coming from hydro to soil kits just one of those things I continue to do I figure if I treat them good they. Will return the kindness.If you do add tap water I am sure this is already ,known but for any new guys check the ppms after the tap water our tap out here adds about 900ppm per half gallon. I was toasting my plants a two runs back since I didn't add my water ppm to my total nutrient ppm amount instead of 800-900 is was 1700-1800. New grower mistake.