Hydroponic Systems and pH Tips

However, just like conventional farming there are many variables to take into account, this blog is going to focus on pH and how to manage it whilst growing.

Each and every aspect of gardening can be blown out into many segments and hydroponics is no different, ill explain so you can see what im going on about.

The amount of human interaction is dependent on the type of hydroponic systems in place, for example; many commercial vegetable farms have lots of plants to feed, so it would not make any sense to feed everything manually.

The majority of these farms employ huge water tanks with automated feeding systems that accurately inject liquid fertilisers (hydroponic nutrients) they are generally connected to water chillers, water heaters and pH dosing systems to keep the nutrient solution within the required range at all times.

If a hydroponic farm is not using the right environmental sensors and automated equipment then maintaining things like temperature, pH and EC can be quite troublesome at scale. 

How do i control those parameters at home? 

Just because a farm needs all of those things doesn’t mean the home gardener or hydroponic enthusiast has to employ those things to be successful it just means being prepared will save you lot of trouble in the long run especially if you’re trying to make money from your ventures.

The one tool a hydroponic shop should recommend to make growing crops easier is a pH and EC meter. Even if you don’t have the budget for one there are manual pH kits available that use some iodine and a colour indicator chart to determine pH and they are quite cheap. Another essential piece of equipment in our opinion is a reliable hygrometer. These devices measure temperature and humidity within your environment, get one they are cheap and tell you so much.

The most common question we get asked for those growing in hydroponic systems is pH stability, how do i keep it from rising?

Lets go back to basics – If the nutrients you add to your water source lowers the pH then we know the nutrients are acidic.

After mixing up a batch of food for your plants lets say the pH is now 5.8 and for those measuring EC lets just assume the EC is 1.6 – if a day later the pH has risen to 6.1 this is ok, it just means the plants have removed (absorbed) food from the water, if you check the EC – 99% of the time the EC will be lower. This confirms that food has been removed.

So, pH goes up EC goes down this is quite normal – in general most growers would let the pH ‘ride’ up to 6.5 before adjusting the pH of the solution back to the ideal range for that crop. If the solution in this hydroponic system is replaced once weekly then everything will carry on as normal. 

If EC goes up and pH goes down this isn’t normal – in general if this happens the user has probably added to much food to the water, to fix this the system must be diluted with plain water, if the EC in 50L of solution is 3.2 you’ll need to remove 50% of this mixture and replace it with plain water. If the solution in this hydroponic system is not replaced weekly then it can explain to accumulation of EC.

There is a sweet spot with pH and EC once you get the hang of it, in an ideal scenario you would see the water level go down and the pH and EC remain the same as water and food are equally consumed, this takes a bit of practice to nail. Give the same crop or cutting a few runs and eventually you’ll understand how the plant responds to certain conditions. 

To adjust pH you’ll need:

ph up & pH down – click this link to get some. 

A-Grades Top tips

Keep your nutrient solution fresh, replace it weekly and don’t fight pH but rather work with it, go with the flow, the plants know what they are doing.

Quick reminder! EC & pH measuring equipment!

These are crucial measurements to read. Without the correct equipment you’re growing blind.

Leave a comment if this blog helps you or if you have any experiences or questions you’d like to share 🙂

#growwithus