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Cheap Homemade PH Down (Making Soil More Acidic)


Plain_Sight_Doc
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Hello guys i just had a quick tip on Do it yourself PH-ing. As most of us know, our plants need a PH Neutral medium to grow in. PH for marijuana is generally said to be at a 6.5 - 7.0 for the plant to be healthy and robust, PH of 7.0 Being Neutral and 6.5 being a little more acidic. Some strains of plants would do better at a 6.5 than a 7.0 PH, so its up to the plant to decide what it needs, we just have to monitor and give it what it needs. For this we need a PH Meter or strips to test the PH of the soil and water. The water you water your plants in needs to be PH Neutral and free from chemicals also, thats why i use RO water (Reverse Osmosis).

 

Anyways...

 

if it happens that your soil or local water PH reading is too Alkaline (Too High, above 7.5) then we need to use a compund known as PH Down to make the soil more Acidic. A cheap way to make homemeade PH Down, is to add small amounts of lime juice to the water that you will water your plants with. Add some lime juice to the water and test it, until the PH Reads 6.5 ... Add the PH Down to the soil wothout letting it touch the plant :]

 

Now that was easy and cheap since alot of us have lime juice lying around our house :]

 

Havent found a safe easy and cheap DIY PH Up, if you have let us know and post it below :]

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Thanks for the share :)

I alway like to see alternative ways of doing things and love a bit of DIY, but I would go with buying ph up & ph down.

My reason for this is it is not expensive, A bottle of lime juice will cost me £1.83 for 250mls. I can buy a 250ml bottle of Ph up and a 250ml bottle of Ph down for £5.89.

I'd rather put the lime in a margarita or some guacamole, seriously I love me a bit of lime in my food and drinks mmmm citrus goodness. :D

In a hydro set up ideal Ph is a little different from soil Ph ans is between 6.0 & 6.5 you don't want to go below 6.0 as you'll be heading for the  Magnesuium & calcium lock out zone. You can let the Ph drift between 5.5 and 7.0 with out to much worry,just be careful with adjusting Ph to often to keep a constantly perfect Ph, by continuosly adding chemicals  to keep that ideal ph ,you can do some damage.A little drift is ok , it shows the plants are taking up nutrients.

Peace

Lams

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oldemarine you always got some interesting stuff going on down your way,I guess that what you get living iin paradise. ;)

Hawaii doesn't stop amazing me with its abundance of natural produce & resources, it is a truely blessed place.

I guess where you live you got citrus coming out your ears and selling it 10 a penny, and would be more cost effective then Ph down.

peace bro

Lams

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Aloha Lams, I do not use the citric acid in the greenhouse for pH down. I prefer nitric acid in the grow stage, phosphoric acid for early bloom, and sulfuric acid during the late bloom stage. To try to keep things simple I will be using Alaska Fish Fertilizer 5-1-1 ($30 a gallon) as a base nutrient and pH down because it is low pH due to the addition of phosphoric acid to keep the fish emulsion from exploding in the bottle.

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I must admit I only use Phosphoric acid , it just whats in my PH down.

very interesting info about the phosphoric content in the Fish fertilizer.

If you have time could you start a thread and explain the different acids in PH reduction in the different growth stages as I think it would make great reading.

Always a font of knowledge I'm sure you have plenty to tell us. ;)

Looking forward to reading some more of your nice posts.

Peace brother

Lams

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  • 4 months later...
  • 1 month later...

I tried baking soda for pH = UP
And apple vinegar for pH = DOWN

Works very well but I have no idea if that is safe for the plants.
Its very small amounts to adjust like 2 liters of water. 

Maybe somebody here know if those 2 ingredients are harmful to a plant?  

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