Tweet

pH Testing in Hydroponics Explained

Guest post by: Alma Newton

Article Overview: First off - what is pH? It stands for the rather cumbersome potentiometric hydrogen ion concentration. Simply put, it is a measure of the acidity or alkalinity of a solution. The pH scale is from 0-14 and pure water has a neutral pH of 7. Anything that would be considered acidic is rated lower than 7 and anything considered alkaline is rated higher than 7. Pretty simple.

pH Testing in Hydroponics Explained

pH Testing invokes this image of a mad horticulturalist muttering an arcane ritual over a set of vials when nothing could be further from the truth. pH testing is simple and easy to understand. First off - what is pH? It stands for the rather cumbersome potentiometric hydrogen ion concentration. Simply put, it is a measure of the acidity or alkalinity of a solution. The pH scale is from 0-14 and pure water has a neutral pH of 7. Anything that would be considered acidic is rated lower than 7 and anything considered alkaline is rated higher than 7. Pretty simple.

How does this affect my hydroponic system and why test for pH? Well, different plants require different pH to get optimal growth. Testing your growing solution allows you to correct any imbalances in allowing you to grow bigger and better plants. It is one of the simplest and least technical ways to increase your produce yields and plant size. Think of it as part of providing the best home for the roots of your plants - allowing them to feed at the best rate possible. Always add the nutrients to the water before checking and adjusting the pH of your solution. Should your pH level go too high or too low the nutrients in your system will settle out - leading to deficiency and death.

The simplest and least expensive way to test water pH is paper test strips. The strips, which have a pH sensitive dye on them, change colour when dipped into your nutrient solution. You compare the colour on the strip to a colour chart to determine the Ph level. Nothing complicated about that. The only down side is that the strips can be hard to read because the colour differences can be subtle.

The most popular method to check pH is liquid test kits. The liquid test kits work by adding a few drops of pH sensitive dye to a small amount of the nutrient solution your hydroponic system uses and comparing the colour with a colour chart. These kits are a bit more expensive than the paper strip tests but are much easier to read and are extremely accurate and reliable.

For the technologically gifted, the most high-tech way to check pH is to use the digital meters. They come in a huge array of sizes and prices. The digital pen style meter is the most popular. Just simply dip the electrode into the nutrient solution for a few moments and the pH value is displayed on an LCD screen. They are very handy and easy to use. Digital meters usually need to be calibrated frequently, as the meters can drift and you must check the calibration often to insure accuracy. Most pens also require the tips to be stored in a buffer or electrode storage solution and have a reputation of breaking down without warning.

The major requirement of pH testing asks you to be able to compare colours - making the pH of nutrient solution component of your hydroponic system easy for you to understand and maintain. No mad horticulturalist and certainly no arcane rituals needed.

Related Articles
  Hydroponic Grow Closet: The Perfect Place to Grow your Own Food
  Importance of Testing in Software Development
  Functional Testing in Software Development
  Consider Randomized, Real Time Testing
  Choosing a Split-Testing Platform That is Right For You
  Testing Your Way to Website Profits
  A Hydroponic System: Why Choose to Grow in One?
  Vision
  How to Start Split-Testing Your Web Pages
  How To Consistently Improve Your Web Site Results
  Why Choose a Hydroponic System?
  Hydroponic Grow Kits: Complete System for Growing Your Own Veggies, Herbs and Flowers
  Applications Of Genetic Testing
  An Integrated Training Assessment Program
  Split-Testing for Assessing the Performance of a Website Design
  Landing Pages - How they can help your company
  Using Pre-Employment Tests Can Save You Money
  A Marketing Approach To Assess Training
  Design your own Employment Test
  How to Scientifically Increase Your Conversion Rate

Article Tags: hydroponic systems, hydroponics, in home garden



Related Forum Posts
Re: All the Secrets to Getting a Lot of Traffic Using Google AdW - Thanks, Zeke. Testing is required for any campaign. Tanny, let us know how you make out. I will try to get started with MSN during the next week. I have a bit to learn yet as it's different than Adwords. Alan
Re: THE Most Important Concern At Startup - That's true brokemet. Following through, implementing and testing your ideas is so important. Too many times people fall in love with their initial idea and myself included, will get stubborn with them. Testing is the only way of really finding out what works and what doesn't.
Re: The Importance of Testing - Even the fact that you outsource your business opportunities, you already are testing different firms there. Testing has already been part of every business even if some aren't recognizing it at all since they're already certain to go through a fixed goal to focus on. For me, trial and error can really take a lot of time although seeing the results and evaluating them will also help everyone to make it easier to start it right in the future and prevent wasting any.
Re: Cool site for testing online optimization technique - Thanks for sharing this great website the tests carried out on the site are very insiteful. Testing is one of the most important aspects of online marketing, but for many marketers they don't make changes and they wonder why it doesn't work. It's not enough just driving traffic but you should constantly make changes to make your traffic work harder and increase sales.
Re: From $0.30 to $300 / Day on Google AdSense Part 1 - How To M - Thanks for sharing Alan! Testing is always key! I always recommend using AdSense as your benchmark to measure against. For my site I haven't had much success with products (my own or affiliate). For direct ad sales, sometimes I can get advertisers and charge them a premium. Other times, depending on the section, I make too much from Adsense for an advertiser to compete with. As this series continues I'll share how I've managed to make money from AdSense and hopefully it will provide some new insights for my readers.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Convening a focus group for a niche product

Do You Have An Entrepreneurial Vision?

Ready for a Fresh Image?

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.