Here’s something almost all cannabis growers realize: the pH of your nutrients water and root zone powerfully impacts your marijuana plants.
“When you see a hydroponics garden with plant problems, you’re almost always seeing pH problems,” says Michael Straumietis, founder of hydroponics nutrients manufacturer Advanced Nutrients.
“Some growers think it’s enough to measure pH with a meter and throw some pH Up or pH Down into their res,” Straumietis explains, “but you’ll be surprised to learn there’s much more to it than that, and it makes an even bigger difference in how many grams per watt, and how much cannabinoids per gram, that your marijuana plants yield.”
Straumietis describes pH as a measure of the acidity or alkalinity of a material or environment.
In marijuana gardening, the pH of root zone and nutrients water determines whether marijuana plants are physically able to in all the nutrients elements they need as fast as they need them.
If nutrients water and/or the marijuana root zone aren’t in the optimal pH range of 5.5 to 6.3, your marijuana plants struggle to take in the nutrition they need, Straumietis says.
“Hidden pH problems slow your cannabis plants’ growth, make your plants sick, decrease yields and potency, and can even kill your cannabis plants,” he says. “And my research scientists have documented that even the most expensive pH meters and the most careful monitoring of pH can’t always overcome pH problems that limit your gardening success.”
Straumietis says the main problem is most hydroponics nutrients aren’t made with the right chelates, buffers, and other materials that create stable long-term reservoir water pH.
“We’ve done tests with all brands of hydroponics nutrients using high-tech pH monitoring,” Straumietis says. “They’re all over the map when it comes to start-up mix pH, and then no matter what you do, the pH shifts as much as 1-2 pH points, in a few hours or few days.”
Using old school regular hydroponics base nutrients, lack of adequate chelation and buffers means your nutrients water pH shifts up and down in ways that harm plant growth and bud output.
When pH in cannabis root zones goes out of optimum range, your marijuana plants find it hard if not impossible to source all the nutrients elements they need.
Growers are forced to manage pH by spending lots of money and time on pH meters, metering and adjusting pH, and on pH adjustment fluids.
“That’s why our scientists created the unique ‘pH Perfect’ base nutrients that set your nutrients water pH to the ideal sweet spot of 5.6, and hold it there, even if the original water was way out of range,” Straumietis says. “You see faster growing plants with better structure, more health, more THC, and more harvest weight.”
Straumietis clued me in on the intrigung fact that the human body has internal pH factors that determine whether you can get nutrition from food, whether blood properly carries oxygen and nutrients, whether you’re healthy or sick.
The human digestive tract, blood, and internal organs have different and interactive pH balances.
In your stomach during digestion, the right amount of acidity helps digest your food. But if pH in body systems is too acid it can make you sick. Acid reflux, ulcers, and heartburn are examples of how excess acidity harms people.
Many of us have acidic pH in body systems that need a more alkaline pH. If you’ve ever seen an acid battery in which the acid has eaten through the battery core and outer container, you’ve seen a clear example of how dangerous excess acidity is.
These pH issues may create serious health problems, including:
• Wrong pH interferes with our nutrients absorption.
• Overly acidic pH harms internal organs, affects bone density, promotes ulcers, and fuels cancers.
• Overly acidic pH creates rapid aging.
• Bad pH can make you gain weight.
• Overly acidic pH can create psychological effects such as anger, anxiety, low energy, and depression.
Thanks to pH Perfect hydroponics base nutrients, managing pH in your marijuana garden is a lot easier than managing it in your own body.
To maintain your own personal pH, you want a slightly alkaline overall blood pH of about 7.3 and you also want to avoid chronic, excessive internal acidity.
Excess acidity in your body is called “acidosis,” and you can eliminate acidosis by carefully controlling your diet and other lifestyle choices.
Holistic doctors say you can optimize your internal pH and improve overall health, by shifting your diet to one that contains 70% leafy greens such as kale and spinach, as well as fruits and other organic vegetables and nuts.
Almonds are particularly good for alleviating acidic internal pH.
You also help your body achieve optimum pH by reducing consumption of flesh foods, artificial sugary foods, alcohol, and other acid-forming foods
To monitor your internal pH, get test strips that measure urine pH. If your urine pH is consistently between 5.8 and 6.4, it’s almost certain your internal pH chemistry is where you want it.
You could get a holistic physician to do blood tests and other tests to determine your internal pH status.
For a quick pH fix to increase your internal pH, kind of like using pH Up in your hydroponics nutrients water, you drink distilled water with freshly-squeezed lemon juice in it.
This pushes your internal chemistry towards alkaline. As you reduce acidosis, you gain energy, strength, and enjoyment of life.
What we need to remember is that just like incorrect pH harms your marijuana plants, it also harms you.
My hope is that Straumietis creates pH Perfect base nutrients for humans, not just for marijuana, so I can have optimized internal pH in my hydroponics garden and my own body!
