ph levels

Sprinkling a few tablespoons of either wood ash or dolomite lime around the top of the pots will reduce pH gently on soil, but it will take some time.

poof went 160 uSD (a dollar sign is obviously used as a vaiable indicator on this website.. it hid the "16" and left the "0" 1000 - 00 second one had a leading dollar sign.

Simply water with ph-adjusted water/fertilizer. if it is microbially-caused issue, it's going to be an ongoing battle. if significantly off, maybe a slightly more acidic irrigation relative to target pH. the pH scale is logrithmic scale. 10:1, 100:1, 1000:1 ... each whole interger away from target is increasingly further away poper ratio, fyi. Can check soil slurry ph and runoff ph ... expect this to be a loose idea of what the actual substrate pH is. be consistent with when you measure the runoff... be consistent with volume of soil you use and volume of water (including initial pH) to make a slurry... this will help gain familiarity/exp more quickly with fewer variables shifting on you needlessly. these will not be super accurate measurements, but depending on context you can deduce if it's likely a bit higher or lower than the reading. ---rant-mode engaged... read for fun... i have a compulsion to clear up an urban myth when i see one spreading... i don't know why ppl say vinegar is an 'unstable" acid to use in this limited context of gardening. One more example of how false anecdotal experiences can get repeated ad nauseum and somehow become "true" for the peanut gallery (we all believe in something that is utterly bullshit, even if you put in effort to avoid it)... someone had an odd result due to other variables involved and mistakenly attributed the inconsistency to using vinegar... can almost guarantee it. your mileage will not vary. there are varying strengths of acid/bases, but if you correct pH to same target using any of them, it is resulting in the same same h3o+ to oh- ratio in solution. That resulting ratio is exactly how pH is calculated... The H+ that disacciates in solution is no different than any other H+ in solution in existence, ever and in the future for as long as this universe exists... no debate. doesn't matter if it came from HCl, H2SO4, or CH₃COOH (vinegar) for this simple context. if ph sways badly with soilless or hydro nutes, it's a low-quality fertilizer mix (try something new) or a microbial problem (improve preventative measures). "organic" growing? that word has no real cause and effect, so who knows with such magic, but pH always can fuck things up if it is drastically out-of-whack... the self-correcting nature of soil/living soils has limits. So, yes even in the magical world of "organic" glitter, you may have to worry about pH as the same chemistry is occuring in the plant as with soilless/hydro grows... same rules... same consistent/predictable results. like clockwork. microbes can derail an organic grow too. So, don't buy branded ph-up or ph-down products... simply use a common and cheap acid or a base. (they are like generic Rx drugs if they have a guaranteed analysis label).. you can read their ingredients on the pot-branded ph-balance products... it's 100% a common acid or base in these products tht you can find just about anywhere. Other options -- sulfuic acid and phophoric acid are two options if you could use a little extra S or P etc. otherwise, becareful what other molecules you may add when it dissassociates in water... avoid long-term use of bases with Na+, like baking soda, for example. limited use is fine -- a handful of irrigations with baking soda won't raise sodium to dangerous levels. distilled white vinegar won't add anythng that will impact ratio of what you feed -- it is no less able to adjust ph and it is not "unstable"... excellent option for an acid to use. it is common. it is cheap. go get 5-gallons for a few bucks at your corner pharmacy or supermarket. You probably already have it in your home. just in case on SOP -- you ph-addjust after you add any fertilizers to water (know how much to add to plain tap water fo when you add water-only irrigation)... test and then trial and error while slowly adding 1mL at a time until you get the target pH. As long as you use same products at same dose, same volume of water or factor proportional difference, AND your tap pH doesn't swing wildly, the amount you add will remain the same each time... spot checking is wise, though. e.g. My tap water shifted from 8.4- to 7.0 about 2 years ago, unbeknownst to me... when i added my normal amount, i created a very acidic substrate and had a 20% success rate with some expensive seeds. poof went 0 cause i didn't take a second to check it.... so, spot checking your tap is a good idea. Any time i pop many seeds, i double check. With my new tap ph, my properly buffered nutes handle it just fine. nothing else needed. a 100-pack of pH strips with 0.5 pH resolution lasts me 3 years or more and is plenty accurate for this hobby... 5 USD vs how much money to maintain a ph pen plus the hassle of callibration and keeping stock callibration solutions handy etc. takes up space in your fridge, gotta handle diode with care or the pen won't last long. 5 bucks is worth peace of mind. it's a nice tool to have around... over 3-5 years you will need a few ph strips, i bet. pH swings are more about quality of the product (assuming no microbes at root)... Here's a useful anecdote... i added well-buffered nutrient product to a 55gallon reservoir... toppped it off with 20-30 gallons several times before giving it a good clean... my pH never swung.... horrible enviornmental variables -- warm and ripe for microbial growth... so in extremely unfavorable conditions, my ph stayed steady... that's a good fertilizer. a shit one swings wildly for small reasons. they probably don't have a chemist on payroll.... unprofessional... or something incompetent going on.

You've got a massive job ahead of you - 45 gallon pots?!?!! What you've GOT to do is flush them - that means 135 gallons (yes... one hundred and thirty five gallons) of Ph'd water into each pot (the ratio required is 3 gallons of water for every gallon of pot size).... Grab yourself a 5-gallon bucket to make it faster! Make SURE the water you pour through them is PH'd between 6.0 and 6.5 .... this will cure the lockout that is obviously happening to them and they should respond well if they haven't been enduring the elevated PH for very long. Every time you either water or feed, make sure the solution is PH balanced - and then every once in a while, check the PH of your runoff to make sure it's ok... Weed requires a PH level within that range to enable it to absorb nutrients... it doesn't matter what kind of soil you're growing in - you HAVE to get the PH balanced. If you don't have one, invest in a PH pen (I use Apera and love it... it's as good as the "gold standard" Blue Lab and cheaper!)... any other means of testing PH is more of a haphazard guessimate... If there was anything I SHOULD have bought when I first started growing, it's that... Good luck - I don't envy you with those huge pots!!!!

Hi, If you're using organic nutrients pH not the problem. If not using organic nutrients: I would do 5L for watering with water pH 5.8. This should balance that. To lower pH of your water you can use any good pH - from the brands we know (biobizz, ghe, Hydroponics of Holland, etc). Or you can use lemon juice or vinegar. Note vinegar is a very unstable way of doing it. Best to always get your watering can water pH right before every watering. I've seen people write about vulcanic rock, dolomite or fulvic acid being good for balancing pH and keeping it stable.