Why the water PH value is so important
Water PH is one of the most important things that newer Hydroponic growers often forget about. The water can only take in the nutrients at certain PH levels, so if your PH value is too high or too low, certain minerals might not be available to your plants. Below, I included a chart, showing which nutrients are available at which PH levels.
One of the first things I got when I started out with Hydroponics was a measurement instrument for what PH and nutrient levels. It still works great and it wasn’t that expensive either! Now, you probably wonder how to adjust the PH level of your water, if it’s not where you would like it to be?
How to adjust your water PH
There are some easy ways to do this. The best way is to buy a PH adjustment kit and follow the instructions. Theoretically, you could also use household things like citrus to get the water slightly more acidic, though I would not recommend this, since is will throw off the nutrient balance of your water. The plants might not be able to deal with such high concentration of certain nutrients, and so I recommend using a professional PH-up or PH-down. These sets will not harm your nutrient balance, the only thing they do is adjust the PH value of the water in your Hydroponic System.
What you need to look out for
There are a couple of things you need to watch out for when adjusting the PH level of your water reservoir. You should always do this at the very end, after adding your nutrients to the water. The nutrients change the PH level of the water, too, so if you add your PH-Down or PH-Up before that, you will not have the results you were looking for. In addition to that, different plants like different PH levels. We know that a PH of 7 is neutral. Below that, the water gets acidic and above, it gets alkaline. The optimal range for Hydroponics is slightly acidic, between 5.8 and 6.3.
Conclusion
Adjusting the PH level of your water is, along with a good oxygen supply, one of the most important things for Hydroponic growers. Plants are living beings, just like you and me, and if they can’t get what they need to survive, they will die. If you want to learn more about how to properly supply your plants with oxygen, check out this post. I hope I could help you understand the importance of your PH levels a bit better.
Happy growing!
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