PH adjustment - enough is enough...

[Thomas Magnum]

Hey all, I'm growing in soil using canna biovega nutes. My water is very alkaline (like 8.5+), but when I add the nutes it goes to the other extreme very acidic. I have to add 2-3 ml of base (ph up) to 1.5 L of water+nutes in order to achieve 6.5-7.0 ph. My question is this, When is just enough too much? Is it possible to add too much of this stuff to my nutrient solution and harm my plants somehow?

Thomas Magnum Reviewed by Thomas Magnum on 01-27-2008. PH adjustment - enough is enough... Hey all, I'm growing in soil using canna biovega nutes. My water is very alkaline (like 8.5+), but when I add the nutes it goes to the other extreme very acidic. I have to add 2-3 ml of base (ph up) to 1.5 L of water+nutes in order to achieve 6.5-7.0 ph. My question is this, When is just enough too much? Is it possible to add too much of this stuff to my nutrient solution and harm my plants somehow? Rating: 5

[norkali]

Good question.

I ended up adding close to about 40(!) mL of pH up to my nutrient solutions for it to be correctly buffered.

No noticeable ill effects.

You can adjust pH organically, but it is much harder than adding a couple drops of solution.

[Rusty Trichome]

I grow in soil, but my well water is 8.0ish right out of the tap.

I was always told to adjust the water, then add nutes. So I add 1 teaspoon of ph down (phosphoric acid) per 5 gallons of water, which puts the ph at 6.8ish. Then I add the nutes.

Since I can't test runoff water with my color-coded test kit, I had gotten one of those cheap soil ph probes, and lowest it ever read was 6.2ish.

However, I have no experience with hydro so my info may not help your situation.