Has any one used API PH up/down

I have just got this PH up and down I'm using soil and I was just wondering how to use it because it is clear I have this other thing ph4.10 witch is in a little white bottle and it is green can i use this as tester and is the API ph ok to use on my plants thanks

I don't think it matters what product you use, yes the little ph4.10 is for testing but I feel a ph7.0 is better for testing you ph meter.

Tanks ganja smoker another thing is that instead of going orange or green in the test tube it goes blue or purple and all im using is rain water
any reason why it would be going this colour or is it just because it's an aquarium ph up/down and i need onther chart to get the right ph balance

Sorry, can't help you there, I use a ph meter. maybe someone else can help you there.

ganjarules106 said:

Tanks ganja smoker another thing is that instead of going orange or green in the test tube it goes blue or purple.

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Blue/purple means you are WAY HIGH !!!!!!

Ph down, drop by drop, until you get it yellowish/green. And I mean pale green, not dark green. Somewhere between pale green and light yellow.

You really don't need any kind of pH Up\Down if you're growing in soil.

His rain water is like over 8.0, maybe alot more. I'd ph down that stuff, but thats just me. Now, if he is adding nutes, then I'd add the nutes first, then adjust ph up or down as needed. But that's just me.

First thing I ever learned about watering/feeding is this: EVERY solution you pour on your plants should be as close to 6.7 as possible.

but Nullis you do need to ph with soil because the plant doesn't take up all the benefits of the nutes and you get nute lock out but i guess its used a lot more in hydro and yes greenlikemonkey i am using nutes in with my rain water thats why i ph it when i did it yester day it was a dark orange so i added some ph down and now its like a light orange nearly yellow colour does this sound about right guys thanks for you in put so far

Why are you using rainwater?

If you have a tapwater source (not well water) it should be around pH 7. Nutes will bring it down to the 6 range. This should be alright for soil.

Don't make it more complicated than it needs to be. Do you pH the water for your backyard plants? They do just fine with tapwater

greenlikemoney said:

His rain water is like over 8.0, maybe alot more. I'd ph down that stuff, but thats just me. Now, if he is adding nutes, then I'd add the nutes first, then adjust ph up or down as needed. But that's just me.

First thing I ever learned about watering/feeding is this: EVERY solution you pour on your plants should be as close to 6.7 as possible.

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ganjarules106 said:

but Nullis you do need to ph with soil because the plant doesn't take up all the benefits of the nutes and you get nute lock out but i guess its used a lot more in hydro and yes greenlikemonkey i am using nutes in with my rain water thats why i ph it when i did it yester day it was a dark orange so i added some ph down and now its like a light orange nearly yellow colour does this sound about right guys thanks for you in put so far

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Yeah, that would seem be the misconception a lot of [new] soil growers have. I speak from experience here, having grown in soil without adjusting the pH of any liquids applied to it for several years now. Even with the highly acidic liquid nutrients (Earth Juice) I use, pH Up is not necessary. Liquid pH adjusters are short term solutions you have to keep using, and interfere with soil biota. A lot of potting mixes\soils contain sphagnum peat moss, which is acidic itself having a pH of between 4 and 5. Most of the time and, certainly in the case of high quality mixes, the mix has been limed to adjust the pH.

Along side amending with coco coir (has a higher pH) I add more pulverized dolomitic limestone (and\or pulverized eggshell) at a rate of 1.5-2 tbsp per gallon. The lime neutralizes acidity over time (several weeks). Also, my soil is alive, as soil should be. The micro-organisms in the soil work for the plant and one of their jobs is to regulate soil pH. Beneficial bacteria for example produce a bio-slime which is basic and so helps to raise pH. Fungi produce organic acids.

Irrigation\fertigation solutions having to be "as close to 6.7 as possible" is simply not true. There is more to plants taking up nutrients in the natural world than pH (humus, organic acids like humic\fulvic). I would go so far as to say you don't even want a homogenized soil pH. That is, you don't want every section of your soil to be 6.7, or whatever. Different nutrients become more available to plants at different levels of pH, and different organisms living in the soil prefer different levels of pH. An example I frequently use are N-fixing bacteria. These bacteria produce plant available nitrogen from the nitrogen gas in the atmosphere. They are an important part of the nitrogen cycle, and many strains of N-fixing bacteria prefer the pH to be slightly higher than 7. The bio-slime they produce to encase themselves is alkaline and helps to protect them even when the soil surrounding them is more acidic.

Clown Baby said:

Why are you using rainwater?

If you have a tapwater source (not well water) it should be around pH 7. Nutes will bring it down to the 6 range. This should be alright for soil.

Don't make it more complicated than it needs to be. Do you pH the water for your backyard plants? They do just fine with tapwater

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They should do just fine with unadjusted rain water, also. Rain seems to grow the lawn, garden and forests after all.

yeah i was thinking that myself before i got the PH up&down the only reason i went and got some because every time i have flowered my plants i get problems like the leaves start to droop and they go a brownish green and then start to go crispy and start to fall of the plant i thought i over nute so i flush but then it seem to get worse so this time im going to PH and see is there is any changes.