Hey everyone,
Is there any downside to using weed ashes to raise water ph? Would it be better than baking soda as a ph up? I see people say wood ash and such but what about the ashes i actually have on hand without a bondfire lol
i posted this question on my thread but its not very popular and i need an answer pretty soon as im ready to ph up my feed right now lol!
Thanks everyone!
Wood ash has a ton of good stuff in it too, right? Interested to see what folks say here.
Wondering if synthetic grown dispo bud ash would have bad shit in it or not.
It definitely raises the water ph i tried it in a cup with a calibrated apera pen.
Just wondering what it could break down into and if it could cause any problems in the soil if i use it for an entire grow to correct the water/fert mix im applying
Bumping now that the overgrow world is waking up.
Does anybody have more information on bud ash being used as a ph up?
Not sure about cannabis ash. I’ve use wood ash in my outdoor mix but it also gets dolomite lime to act as a buffer as well so I don’t know exactly what the wood ash did but I had it from my fire pit so I used it. .Baking soda can be used in an emergency but not long term as far as I know, it will raise and stabilize ph of medium at higher numerical level making soil too alkaline over time and change the base ph of your soil over time, so watch out with it and don’t use it long term. I don’t see any down side of trying cannabis ash unless you were feeding via a drip or autopot system.
Ive been using baking soda long term😅
I was told the bicarbonate can bind up cal mag in the water. Vinegar breaks down the bicarbonate somehow to free up the cal mag.
Synthetic ph up is basically the same thing it says bicarbonate on the back if im remembering correctly.
Would the ash raise my ph over time just like baking soda once the buffer wears out ?
Will baking soda raise my soil ph over time even when im watering in at 6.4ph every time?
Baking soda is a salt and every time you add more it will build up in your soil just like salt based nutrients but those nutrients were intended for agriculture where baking soda isn’t intended for agriculture and plants will not use baking soda efficiently and leave lots of excess in your soil. Yiu will eventually get lockouts because of excess salts in your soil blocking other rhings like phosphorus from being absorbed and it won’t matter what your PH. no, it won’t matter if you always ph at 6.4. You will eventually get salt build up and nutrient issues when using baking soda long term.
Great info right there bro!
Putting an end to the baking soda. What do you use to raise ph when mixing water or feed? Wood ash everytime or synthetic ph up? I see they have organic ph up and its calcium based. Hmm i need to do some homework
Silicon mixed up first and ph to 7 then nutrients and ph to required number
Appreciate your input but im asking if bud ash is okay to use as a ph up in an organic grow.
@DirtySlowToes any thoughts on this bro? If not could you possibly tag someone who might have some decent soil life info.
I definitely want to avoid baking soda now after reading it can raise soil ph over time.
I remember you saying youre going with organic ph up from nectar of the gods, i might just go that route before i continue with baking soda or synthetic ph up.
Bud ash sounds cool and its on hand. Im surprised nobody asked this already lol
It’s a bit of a toss up in my opinion. Depends largely on what was in the herb you burned! It will add carbon and likely up the pH, but my biggest concern would be it reacting in the media and creating NaOH which will, in time, drive the pH of your media up and up. If you watch runoff and have lime on hand, I’d say you can try it, but I’d also question why unless you really want to save monies. People make vinegar based calcium(jadam/knf style with charred egg shells) that seems to be a decent pH up, too. After seeing the way the plants use this cal-mag-nit from ventana, I don’t hate it, but it’s not pH up so beside the point.
Maybe @HolyAngel or @JustANobody can give input. I’ve pretty much stuck with the same system for a long while and rarely have to pH up myself…
I kinda just wing it bud, cow shit, chicken shit, leaves, garden scraps, food scraps, reused soil and some Dr Earth. I will occasionally mix in chared crushed egg shells into my soil bins if I have some on hand. I haven’t used my ph pen in over a year.
Oh yea, and mycos.
I use baking soda to raise my pH from the salt nutrients lowering down to 5 after mixing. I have always watered to runoff of about 20%. @GreenHighland I’ve always been worried about this but so far I’m cruising along. I use 1/4 tsp a gallon roughly to bring it down. Do see buildup on pots but also has same.amount before using baking soda but still using salt nutes. be interested to see when I finally move away from salts to organic if this is ultimately why I get slight foxtailing on many many strains.
I get foxtailing at the end. I think it’s related to high light intensity.
I agree with this. Experience is king, as @Spitfire says. Sounds like you won’t be making any wild mistakes with whatever choice you make @seeds2weeds
I think a lot of people choose other things because they come with some nutrients, where ash will come with very little 
dealers choice
lol well I don’t have a ton of experience 
only growing for 3 years now!
Same here, I think I’m on year 3 maybe? But we’ve both had gardening in our lives since we were kids on some level. I like to keep it simple and automated to leave time for other things. The key to indoor organics, imo, is oversized pots. Going from 5 gal bags to 7 gal nursery pots was a game changer.
The baking soda just works so good lol!
The ashes worked almost just as good in my test with 1 cup of water.
Im using bottled organic nutes. When i mix it drops ph very low 5s. So every time the plants need food ill have to use ph up.
Im assuming the the jadam and kf methods will be pretty time consuming i kind of need it within the week.
Hmmm so bud ash is out of the equation. Hell maybe ill get the nectar of the gods ph up or something
Do it. Or if you use ash keep us informed. There aren’t that many people who commit to it