Maybe it sounds like a lot of work to maintain a proper pH balance for your plants. After all, you already check fertilizers for nutrient levels, check humidity in your grow room, adjust lighting, and maintain appropriate temperatures. Is pH really that important? Absolutely. Without a proper pH level, your plants can’t even absorb those nutrients you’ve so carefully balanced. So here’s what you need to know to test and maintain pH levels in a hydroponic setup.

Testing pH in a hydroponic system

The good news is that your pH doesn’t have to be exact. As long as you are getting it into the tolerable range for your plants, you’re doing fine. For many of the plants you may grow indoors, the sweet spot is going to be somewhere in the range of 5.5 to 6.5, a very slightly acidic level.

Any changes you make to how you care for your plants can affect their pH level, and that is why it’s a good idea to measure it regularly. Even the water you use can change the balance. Although water is typically neutral, environmental factors can alter its pH. If you are just starting your hydroponic setup, you should check levels daily until you are sure they are stable. After that, you can check about once per week.

You can test the levels of your hydroponic solution by simply adding a few drops of pH indicator from a hydroponic pH test kit to the liquid from your tank (in a separate container). If you use a growing medium to keep roots in place, like vermiculite or coco coir, then you should test the liquid that goes in and the liquid that comes out. That’s because the important number is the pH at your plants’ roots, and you can assume that the level of the water leaving the roots is about halfway between the root level pH and the solution you put in. That means if the solution you are supplying your plants is pH 5.5 and the liquid exiting your setup is 6, then the pH around your root zone is about 6.5. You can also use a digital pH meter rather than the indicator solution.

Help! My pH level is off

So what do you do if you test your setup and the pH levels are out of the tolerable range for your plants? It’s actually not that difficult to adjust the balance. If the number is too high, you need to pH down with an acid solution, like Nectar of the Gods Hades Down. If it is too low, you need to pH up with a base solution, like Nectar of the Gods Olympus Up. And it probably goes without saying that if your pH level is in the normal range, you do…nothing.

Note that you can very easily overdo it on these acid and base solutions. It’s best to add just a little at a time until you reach the level you want. Reach out to The Indoor Cultivator on Facebook with your hydroponics questions.