Hi friends!
I just wanted to say I've resumed this experiment, deliberately, as I've ended up with a couple too many clones -- I anticipated some failures but had none! What a delight!
So over the last few days I have a couple young plants as controls/normal that I'm using actual pH down with, and then the ones I am sacrificing for science are being fed with pH'd water of 6.6 just like the others, however not using pH down -- using my old espresso pucks
Just to reiterate -- these are pucks that are typically literally waste, and go into our organics bin for disposal and no other usage.
Water registers almost as high as 8.0 from the hose after carbon filter and hose, fresh from the source. I now can crumble pieces from the pucks into the jug of water and stir, and a bunch of bubbles start forming in the water, maybe as a result of the acidification or something? Either way, I can just keep adding and stirring until 6.6 pH, my target, is achieved
I'm still a newbie and lacking any kind of self confidence, so I'm too embarrassed to share any pictures of my plants at this time - but, I just want to report that I have no observed ANY negative effects yet vs. pHing with name brand products, after several days of this so far.
I posted about this a while back as you can see with this thread here and also on one other forum I was using at the time, and most people thought it either A> wouldn't work or B> wouldn't be effective but I haven't observed either yet! Some said it could leech sodium or other undesirables but I believe they didn't realize these were already extracted espresso pucks that have already been used!
AND furthermore, my water has traditionally been SUPER resistant to pH changes with both Citric and Phosphoric pH downs so far -- they will fluctuate literally overnight usually, when I go to bed and check in the morning even.
For some reason the espresso pH down has been rock solid once it finally gets there. The Citric on the other hand needs to be watered literally right away, and the phosphoric General Hydro does better but still drifts after a day or two tops.
With my coffee grinds, I pH'ed to 6.6 while stirring frequently. Let it settle. Pour off just the water that seperates to the top while leaving the grinds to dump out after, check the water AGAIN in the morning, and it's still 6.6.
To be continued! But I still love the idea of getting further use out of grinds that were already destined for the trash otherwise
Thanks for looking!
I just wanted to say I've resumed this experiment, deliberately, as I've ended up with a couple too many clones -- I anticipated some failures but had none! What a delight!
So over the last few days I have a couple young plants as controls/normal that I'm using actual pH down with, and then the ones I am sacrificing for science are being fed with pH'd water of 6.6 just like the others, however not using pH down -- using my old espresso pucks
Just to reiterate -- these are pucks that are typically literally waste, and go into our organics bin for disposal and no other usage.
Water registers almost as high as 8.0 from the hose after carbon filter and hose, fresh from the source. I now can crumble pieces from the pucks into the jug of water and stir, and a bunch of bubbles start forming in the water, maybe as a result of the acidification or something? Either way, I can just keep adding and stirring until 6.6 pH, my target, is achieved
I'm still a newbie and lacking any kind of self confidence, so I'm too embarrassed to share any pictures of my plants at this time - but, I just want to report that I have no observed ANY negative effects yet vs. pHing with name brand products, after several days of this so far.
I posted about this a while back as you can see with this thread here and also on one other forum I was using at the time, and most people thought it either A> wouldn't work or B> wouldn't be effective but I haven't observed either yet! Some said it could leech sodium or other undesirables but I believe they didn't realize these were already extracted espresso pucks that have already been used!
AND furthermore, my water has traditionally been SUPER resistant to pH changes with both Citric and Phosphoric pH downs so far -- they will fluctuate literally overnight usually, when I go to bed and check in the morning even.
For some reason the espresso pH down has been rock solid once it finally gets there. The Citric on the other hand needs to be watered literally right away, and the phosphoric General Hydro does better but still drifts after a day or two tops.
With my coffee grinds, I pH'ed to 6.6 while stirring frequently. Let it settle. Pour off just the water that seperates to the top while leaving the grinds to dump out after, check the water AGAIN in the morning, and it's still 6.6.
To be continued! But I still love the idea of getting further use out of grinds that were already destined for the trash otherwise
Thanks for looking!