Problems with PH

[rainbowgardener]

Yes, people assume tap water is neutral, but it may not be. 9 is pretty amazing! Someone once wrote in saying her tap water was 4.5. Neither one sounds drinkable.

[imafan26]

I found this article explaining how and why pH changes.

pH does change a lot. Young plants will use more nitrogen than the older plants and once you have figured out how your system interacts with all of the parts you will get the hang of it and it will be easier to check and adjust.

Different plants have different nutrient requirements. Young plants require more nitrogen than older plants.

Nitrogen is the most volatile element. Nitrogen and potasssium are the two elements that get get taken up by the plants rapidly. Nitrogen is very volatile. The ammonia form is converted by bacteria to nitrites and by other bacteria to nitrates which the plants can use, and still other bacteria denitrify and convert nitrogen back to a gas that is released back into the air. The ammonium form of nitrogen has a buffering effect on pH. In an aquaponic system though too much ammonia would be toxic to the fish.

http://scienceinhydroponics.com/2010/06 ... -no-1.html

[valley]

Hi applestar, The water here taste wonderful.The plants and animals love it also. The water in Lake Tahoe must be the same it has the same source.





Richard

[valley]

Steven, This is isn't very state of the art I know. The holes in the plastic pot are covered with that black tape used for plumbing, a hole drilled into the pot allowing some captive water, the plant standing in a mixture of rock and vermiculite, a cookie of plastic to hold the plant up, a large enough hole in the plastic disk so fiberglass insulation to protect the stem, the black plastic top wrap to stop light and hold delivery hose.
Natural light in greenhouse, the temperature is up and down, the ph is higher than most would permit, I'll check the ph when the girls bring the meter back. When winter comes most plants will die except those taken into the house.
I have a thermometer in the greenhouse, but don't check the water regularly.

[valley]

Richard

[Fluxx]

Hello
As I said, I changed my setup a little bit and took care, that the temperature of the water stays between 17 and 22C.
Now, since I've done that, I noticed, that the PH isn't going that crazy as before. So it still raises, but not that extreme as before. (I'm coolint the water now every day with about 6 Icepacks).
Do you have to cool your water as well? How do you do this? Any ideas for me?

Thank you
S.

[valley]

Hi, I don't cool the water. It raises and falls as the temperature in the greenhouse does, just keep it in the shade. The water is in the shade.
Don't know what you do with the water when you're change it, but you can feed outside plants with it. Some people use plastic water bottles, frozen, to cool the water the way you're using ice packs.

Glad you have better control now.

Richard

The weather here is cooling down, the plants I want to over winter, I will put in soil, cut them back and put upstairs in the house with light for the winter. I'll want to keep a few of the peppers.

[valley]

Steven Greetings, Concerning the water. Look at it often, if it's cloudy, looks, feels or smells funny, dump it and mix a fresh batch.
The warmer the water the closer you'll have to watch it at first, you'll know after a while when you should change it.
I haven't the time to cool the water, I can feel when it needs changing, you can too, you know how fresh mix looks, you know when it gets iffy. You're doing great, I can tell by the look of your plants. I hope you keep in touch, it's interesting seeing and hearing what you're doing and learning.

Richard

[Fluxx]

Hello Richard

I change the Water now every 7days. Actually, the tank is not the big (around 23Liters).
For the moment, everything looks pretty good. The PH is stable, the temperature is between 20 and 22C and I added a 2nd Bubbler to the tank.

Next to the existing tank, I started to plant some seeds. But after 5 days, only 2 seeds seem to be ok. And the sad thing is, that they are both in the same Rockwool cube. Why the others don't grow is a bit mistery to me. Maybe too dry?
I moisten them every day with PH corrected water, but the become so fast dry again. Hm. I'll have to find a good cycle.

And now, some new pictures about the existing setup and how you can see, have my chilis grown a bit. A little bit, but a bit.

I'll keep you up to date...

Best Regards,
Steven

[valley]

Steven hi, I've had the same problem with pepper seeds at times, poor germination, I think it was the seeds. I have had no problem seperating young pepper plants when growing in the same cell or block, they never seem to shock. you mentioned earlier that you start your plants in soil, I see at times you use Rockwool. Your pepper seeds sprouted in 5 days, that's fast, did you use a heat mat? Several people on the forum use heating mats, the girls had a mat for their frogs, I used it to start seed earlier this year and it did speed up germination.
Your setup is very neat. How far are the lights from your plants?
We got our first snow last night.. we don't heat the greenhouse, I've brought in severeal peppers to overwinter inside, I have only so much room for that.
Steven you're doing great, I hope to see these plants flowering. I nip the top of most of my plants at about 20cm so that they bush out and not get so tall. It will be and adventure watching the progress of your plants.

Richard

[Fluxx]

Hello Richard
That's good news! I'll try to seperate these 2 Peppers ASAP.

You are right, the 6 Peppers that you've see in the pictures are grown in soil, but now I try rockwool cubes. It's just a try.

Yes, I'm using a heat map. About 27C. And the lights is about 50cm above the plants.

The first snow?! Wow, that's very early. Isn't it?
I hope your plants won't get too shocked of the cold...

I'll keep you up to date about the peppers.

Steven

[valley]

Fluxx, RE: the pepper seedlings, before seperating them, I allowed them to get a few leaves.

The snow is a little earley, it's not sticking, warmed up today, but there's a fire not far from here, I think it help with that, it was a wet snow.
All the plants that stay in the greenhouse will die except for the parsley and a couple other things that will come up next spring, but they are alright for now and were happy to see the sun today. We are at 6800 ft so soon the greenhouse will get no sun at all.

How far are you from Interlaken, I've frends from there, and St Gallen.

Take care, it's good to here what you're doing.

Richard