Help! Ph pen was off!!

[Greenpassion]

I recalibrated my pH pen the other day, I have an apera ph20. And as I'm mixing my nutrients I'm thinking to myself why is the distilled water that I'm rinsing the probe with reading out around 8? I went ahead and watered 6 of my plants that are in their 5th week of flower. Then today I'm watering some in the bedroom and I decided to try to calibrate the pen because it just nagged at me that the pH of distilled water would be so high. Well it turns out that it was my pen! So my question to you all is will one watering with the pH of the water way too high -like probably in the eight's, or lower 7's- will this hurt the plants? Have I ruined my grow? I'm wondering if the next watering I should water them with a pH of like six or maybe even a little lower. Any assistance here is much appreciated!

[DW2]

Howdy Greenpassion, the pH pen's chance of failure or inaccurate readings is why I use the 'old school' pH litmus paper test strips. The test strips ( I use a dual panel short range , 4.0 - 9.0 pH) work thru a chemical reaction and give very accurate results without any calibration required. They are less affected by the temperature (it just takes a few seconds longer to get the results when the fluid is cold). they are available at health and pool supply stores, or on line at reasonable prices. I had a couple of the test pens and when One compares the cost of the pens and the solutions to clean and calibrate them, a hundred test strips for less than six dollars, is a cheap price to pay for some peace of mind.

[Greenpassion]

DW2, I cannot use this test strips because they can only test with clear fluid. The nutrients I use along with recharge does not leave the water clear. This pH pen also adjust to the temperature. I wish I could use the test strips but again unless you're watering with clear water, they simply won't work. But thanks for the response!

[Toker1]

Sounds like you are using soil... in that case soil is a buffer. You should be fine. You just don’t want to soil ph to be off...which takes many many watering to occur. Just get back on track, the girls probably won’t even notice.

[Greenpassion]

I'm using pro mix bx. Is that soil or soilless?

[Toker1]

It’s not soil. It’s like growing in peat moss, perlite, and vermiculite. But the buffers are there, just check out the ingredients in the link. You shouldn’t have to worry if you have corrected this issue.

https://www.hydrofarm.com/f/i/2l87nym/HydroFarm%20-%20Info%20Sheets_PT10381_4468.pdf

[Canuck147]

Pro mix is soil. The only that affected your plants last watering is they didn't absorb any of the nutes - next watering I would just give them plain ph'd water - then they could absorb any nutes in the soil. Then your good to go. Your plants would have told you within a couple of hours if they didn't like something.

[Eliot Pryor]

I think distilled water actually checks pretty high it might not be your meter.

[Greenpassion]

I Googled but the pH of distilled water generally is, and it's around 7 or a little bit higher. If it's exposed to the air that pH goes down. My pain read that it was in the mid 8, and I knew that it had to be wrong.

[Greenpassion]

Thanks for the link toker 1. I'm glad to know that the soil I use is decent soil.