soil buffer, and ph adjustments

[lilnug420]

i grow outdoors

i have a question about how soil buffers work, so i've been growing for a few years using terra canna professional which has a ph of around 5.8

i was told that soils have buffers that make it so the ph always stays the same, if that's so, what's the point of adjusting ph before watering? if the soil adjusts itself?


how long do these buffers last? do they get used up with time?


does flushing a plant use up the buffer? i wanna do a flush before up-potting my girls to get rid of excess salts, when i flush i usually run tap water trough the soil for half an hour or so, until the water comes out clear and not yellow


would this consume the ph buffer? i wanna flush before uppotting from a 3gal container to a 10 gal one, and then do another flush a week or so before they switch to flowering.

[Rwise]

I grow outdoor and I use pelleted sulfur for the PH down buffer with dolomite lime, egg shells, oyster shell etc for PH up buffers. Yes the plants do eat these from the soil so they need to be replenished as does other stuff. My rain PHs at about 7 when I test it. Flushing is absolutely unneeded in any outdoor grow using organic soil (water only), the PH does change in your soil as the plant eats whichever buffer it wants or through watering/feeding, flushing is to get rid of salts built up in the soil from chemical nutes. Flushing will wash out many nutes as well. The tap water has either chlorine or chloramine in it what are you doing for that? Chloramine does not gas off as chlorine does. How do you PH the water? My tap water runs 7.1 PH with little variation, soil PH should be in veg 6.2-6.5 and in flower 6.5-6.8, test in-going and runoff.
I use raised beds, start my seeds in them, how about a pic?
Welcome to GWE

[AGH]

I think we need to know if you're growing organic or with synthetic nutrients. From the sound of it, you're using synthetic nutrients.

If you are growing organic, as I do and many others as well, you usually do not need to pH anything. When people say that there are 'things' in the soil that buffer the pH, what those things are is bacteria and fungi. That is what makes up the soil microbiome. And it's not so much that the bacteria and fungi do anything magic to the pH, it's just that they have a symbiotic relationship with the plant roots. In this relationship, it's the bacteria and fungi that 'hand deliver' the nutrients that the plant wants and in return get food from the plant roots - it's a win/win! These bacteria and fungi are more flexible with what pH they can live in. Also, since the bacteria and fungi are hand delivering nutrients to the plant, it's also a little bit more difficult to over-feed a plant since the microbiome only gives the plant what it wants as it wants it. Of course it's not impossible to overfertilize, it's just takes a little longer. When we grow organic, what we really take care of is that microbiome moreso than the plant. We take care of the soil and the soil takes care of the plant which is more like it is in nature.

Now when using synthetic nutrients, the soil microbiome is killed. It sounds worse than it is, but all it really means is that the roots have to do all the work themselves without the help of those helpful little bacteria and fungi. When the roots do all the work themselves, the pH must be more specific because they can only absorb nutrients in a particular pH range. Additionally, synthetic nutrients and additives will kill the microbiome, so it's important when growing organic not to add synthetic pH-up or down, synthetic cal-mag, etc. Now, since the roots are most effective in a certain pH range and there's no microbiome to 'buffer' it, it's important to pH the water. Synthetic nutrients aren't always in the ideal pH range, especially when mixed with water and other ingredients which is why you have to pH your water after you add your nutrients.

Regarding the flush, in organic growing it is not needed. The flush, as Rwise pointed out, is to remove the excess salt build-up from the synthetic nutrients that can cause harsh or poor tasting buds when consumed. If you have to flush, you don't have to be concerned about 'washing away the buffers' since there's very little bacteria and fungi in the soil of a synthetic grow. The 'buffers' aren't anything magical or chemical or synthetic, they're just plain ol' bacteria and fungi (which, the more you learn about them, the more amazing they are!). When an organic soil grow is done correctly, the microbiome actually continues to get better and better which is why many organic gardeners reuse their soil grow after grow.

So no, in an organic grow, you can't 'use up' the 'buffers'. However in a synthetic grow, you need to pH every time you water or feed.

[lilnug420]

I grow outdoor and I use pelleted sulfur for the PH down buffer with dolomite lime, egg shells, oyster shell etc for PH up buffers. Yes the plants do eat these from the soil so they need to be replenished as does other stuff. My rain PHs at about 7 when I test it. Flushing is absolutely unneeded in any outdoor grow using organic soil (water only), the PH does change in your soil as the plant eats whichever buffer it wants or through watering/feeding, flushing is to get rid of salts built up in the soil from chemical nutes. Flushing will wash out many nutes as well. The tap water has either chlorine or chloramine in it what are you doing for that? Chloramine does not gas off as chlorine does. How do you PH the water? My tap water runs 7.1 PH with little variation, soil PH should be in veg 6.2-6.5 and in flower 6.5-6.8, test in-going and runoff.
I use raised beds, start my seeds in them, how about a pic?
Welcome to GWE

no idea whats in my tap water, the ph is around 8 from the tap. i use acid to ph the water

[Rwise]

That acid will kill chlorine and chloramine.

[lilnug420]

I think we need to know if you're growing organic or with synthetic nutrients. From the sound of it, you're using synthetic nutrients.

If you are growing organic, as I do and many others as well, you usually do not need to pH anything. When people say that there are 'things' in the soil that buffer the pH, what those things are is bacteria and fungi. That is what makes up the soil microbiome. And it's not so much that the bacteria and fungi do anything magic to the pH, it's just that they have a symbiotic relationship with the plant roots. In this relationship, it's the bacteria and fungi that 'hand deliver' the nutrients that the plant wants and in return get food from the plant roots - it's a win/win! These bacteria and fungi are more flexible with what pH they can live in. Also, since the bacteria and fungi are hand delivering nutrients to the plant, it's also a little bit more difficult to over-feed a plant since the microbiome only gives the plant what it wants as it wants it. Of course it's not impossible to overfertilize, it's just takes a little longer. When we grow organic, what we really take care of is that microbiome moreso than the plant. We take care of the soil and the soil takes care of the plant which is more like it is in nature.

Now when using synthetic nutrients, the soil microbiome is killed. It sounds worse than it is, but all it really means is that the roots have to do all the work themselves without the help of those helpful little bacteria and fungi. When the roots do all the work themselves, the pH must be more specific because they can only absorb nutrients in a particular pH range. Additionally, synthetic nutrients and additives will kill the microbiome, so it's important when growing organic not to add synthetic pH-up or down, synthetic cal-mag, etc. Now, since the roots are most effective in a certain pH range and there's no microbiome to 'buffer' it, it's important to pH the water. Synthetic nutrients aren't always in the ideal pH range, especially when mixed with water and other ingredients which is why you have to pH your water after you add your nutrients.

Regarding the flush, in organic growing it is not needed. The flush, as Rwise pointed out, is to remove the excess salt build-up from the synthetic nutrients that can cause harsh or poor tasting buds when consumed. If you have to flush, you don't have to be concerned about 'washing away the buffers' since there's very little bacteria and fungi in the soil of a synthetic grow. The 'buffers' aren't anything magical or chemical or synthetic, they're just plain ol' bacteria and fungi (which, the more you learn about them, the more amazing they are!). When an organic soil grow is done correctly, the microbiome actually continues to get better and better which is why many organic gardeners reuse their soil grow after grow.

So no, in an organic grow, you can't 'use up' the 'buffers'. However in a synthetic grow, you need to pH every time you water or feed.

i think mega crop is synthetic


the reason i wanna do a flush is not to improve the taste of buds, i'm not in flowering yet. i just wanted to do a flush because i wanna prevent nutrient-lockout from too much fertilizer, i heard a flush every once in a while is the way to go

[lilnug420]

one more thing, i saw this chart online:


considering i'm using ph drops to mesure, so i'm never going to be very accurate, (i have 2 cheap ph meters, but i don't trust them too much, and i cant afford the professional stuff, and even if i did, i'm too clumsy and would probably drop it a month after owning it)

would it be ok if one time i water at around 5/5.5 ph and the other closer to 6/6.5ph?

so i would go trough all the ph ranges where the nutrients are available?