Keeping Your Medical Marijuana's pH Perfect
Perfect pH levels are needed for your your MMJ roots to uptake nutrients.
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Self-Adjusting pH Nutrients Are A Hydroponic Innovation 
The pH of the soil or other growing medium of a medical marijuana plant directly influences the root’s ability to uptake nutrients. Each element has a pH range at which it is available for absorption. All of the elements have slightly different ranges but scientists have discovered a pH range where all the essential elements for plant survival can be absorbed. This range varies a bit from soil to hydroponic mediums but can normally be applied to just about every medical marijuana variety. For hydroponics, the pH should be kept in a range of 5.5 - 6.2 (many experts believe 5.8 is the ideal pH for hydroponics). For soil, the pH should be kept in a range of 6.2 - 6.8.
Medical marijuana gardeners that keep the pH of their mediums in the desired range will see their plants perform to their full potential. When the pH of a medium drops below or raises above the desired range many problems can occur. Generally the plant will show signs of nutrient deficiencies. This doesn’t occur because the medium is void of the particular nutrient, but rather, the plant’s inability to uptake the nutrient due to the pH. There are a few ways a grower can be sure to keep their pH under control.
pH Up and pH Down
You’ve seen them at your local hydroponics shop. As their name suggests, pH Up and pH Down raise or lower the pH of your nutrient solution. Add these chemicals slowly and retest the pH frequently. It is easy to over do it with just a small dosage. The pH scale is an exponential scale, which means the amount of pH Up or pH Down needed to change the solution’s pH by a point will increase or decrease depending on how far the solution is from neutral (pH 7.0).
pH Auto-Dosers
Auto-Dosers are devices that test and adjust your nutrient solution’s pH automatically. They utilize the same pH Up and pH Down solutions that the grower would use manually. Auto-Dosers are especially nice in large hydroponic systems or in gardens that are left unsupervised for days at a time. Auto-Dosers are also continuously monitoring and making adjustments, which means the plants are always receiving the same uniform solution.
Specialty pH Adjusting Nutrients
There are some specialty nutrients on the market that contain pH buffers or pre-chelated nutrients that can be absorbed in virtually any pH range. Advanced Nutrients has produced some amazing new formulations under the “pH Perfect” name. The pH Perfect nutrients keep the solution in the desired pH range, which maximizes nutrient uptake and allows growers to forget about pH monitoring and focus their time on other important aspects of growing medical marijuana. The pH Perfect nutrients by Advanced Nutrients is another example of ingenious innovation within the hydroponics industry.
Proper pH levels are absolutely imperative to success in a medical marijuana garden. If you choose the manual pH method, I recommend at least a daily monitoring of pH in hydroponic systems, adjusting when necessary. In soil, every time you water your plants you should not only monitor the pH of the solution but also test some of the run-off water. This will give you a good idea of the soil’s pH and if additional adjustments need to be made to the solution on future waterings.
Whether you adjust your pH manually, automatically, or through an innovative pH Perfect solution, one thing is for sure, medical marijuana plants grown in the proper pH range will be happy, healthy, and prolific.
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Monday, 12 March 2012
