Jump to content

Ph Problem With Organic Tea


MrShpongle

Recommended Posts

I've been using the General Organics line for the last 6 months with good success. I start with tap water that comes out the faucet at 7.0 and then sits in a bucket for 24 hours. Add all of the ingredients, shake it up, and it's ready to go with a pH around 6.2-6.4. Note that the manufacturer specifically says not to adjust the pH of the solution, which in my case is fine since I'm exactly where I want to be.

 

Per manufacturer's instructions, any leftovers are bubbled until used within 48 hours. I never checked the pH of this mix after a day or two of bubbling until today, and when I did it came in at 8.4. Yikes! What's the story here? I'm flipping out thinking that I may have been feeding my girls crazy alkaline nutrients for months now. Thoughts?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Most of them look good, but some look great and some look so-so. My flowering nutes usually get used up as soon as they are mixed, but the veg nutes almost always get bubbled as there are leftovers. I mix a gallon a time, but sometimes only a few plants get fed that day (I grow many different strains with different feeding schedules - perpetual gardens can be a pain). If it was 7.4 I wouldn't sweat it, but 8.4 seems ridiculous. I don't want to get lockout

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sounds to me like you are right to be concerned..PH doesn't lie. 8.4 WOULD lock out access to nutes. Good attention to detail. I too make teas. Now I must check this out I got 5 gal brewing. my tap is 7.0 also sounds like nutes are breaking down further, raising the PH. A shot of 6.0 Fish poo might help spring it back.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I wrote to General Organics and here's what they had to say (I'm feeling much better):

 

You shouldn't experience any lock out with organics. There are not

enough mineral salts present. Sulfur and phosphates are what most easily

bond when there are excessive amounts of carbonates in the solution.

This is not normally the case with organic molecules. Ph is only vital

to nutrient uptake when you have a pure water culture scenario because

the plant can only uptake minerals within a certain ph range. In soil

however, the plants root exudates and the microbial exudates create and

maintain the proper ph within the root zone. Soil is a lot more

forgiving because of this. I would add a little more CaMg+ and BioThrive

Grow or Bloom depending on your stage of growth to that leftover

solution in order to get the ph down to around 7. Most water is alkaline

and will pull the ph up. If you really want to know where the ph is in

your root zone, you can get a soil ph probe and test it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...