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The science behind pH perfect hydroponic solutions · Hydroponics Daily

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  Hello there and welcome back to
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  Hydroponics Daily, your go-to podcast for everything soilless cultivation.
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  I'm your host Dr. Russell Sharp, the founder of Utrema Ltd and the inventor
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  of gold leaf fertiliser, as it's called in the US or liquid gold as it's called
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  here in the United Kingdom.
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  And one of the unique features about that product is that it's pH perfect,
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  which means not only is it the right pH when you add it to the solution,
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  it keeps the pH regardless of what
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  the plant tries to do with the fertigation solution or any
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  additives you add that might be acid or alkaline that's very
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  different to most hydroponic fertilizers where they
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  actually just add the nutrients the things that
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  the chemicals that are just going to add nutrition they don't
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  add things like the technology for pH perfect or the
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  dechlorination or the biostimulants and
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  things like this so gold leaf in the US has got it
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  all liquid gold in the UK has got it all in there and I want to talk more about
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  that pH aspect and what it is that makes the pH swing down or swing up in conventional
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  hydroponics and hopefully that can help you manage it because at the end of
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  the day it's all about practical solutions.
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  So the first thing to note is that.
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  The other thing about the product is, the gold leaf, is that it's not just the
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  chemicals that prevent the swing that are important for making sure that it's pH perfect.
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  It's also the balance of the nitrogen sources.
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  So it's got the correct balance between nitrates, which are NO3,
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  and ammonium, which is NH4.
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  And that's important because those both have a massive impact on the pH.
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  So NO3 is an anion, a negatively charged chemical, nitrates.
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  And so when plants absorb that, they have to pump out a hydroxide,
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  an oxygen and hydrogen molecule, and that raises the pH.
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  So that gives you alkalinity. Every time a nitrate molecule is absorbed,
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  and every time an ammonium.
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  Molecule is absorbed it pumps out a proton or a
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  hydrogen atom and that's a cation
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  and that lowers the ph so if you have loads of ammonium that lowers the ph you
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  have loads of nitrates then that raises the ph and some fertilizers contain
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  loads of these one of form or the other mainly nitrates and that's fine because
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  to begin with you add that to the solution and it doesn't change the pH.
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  It keeps the pH, the pH might be 6.0 when you add it, but as soon as you put
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  a plant into that system, it starts pumping in the nitrates,
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  pumping in the nitrates, and the pH rises dramatically.
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  That's why you get this massive spike or change in a pH, because yeah,
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  it's stable to begin with, but the elements are not balanced.
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  And then other elements have an impact so any of the other positively
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  charged elements like potassium and
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  magnesium they're all positively charged so when
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  the plant tries to absorb them that lowers the ph and then
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  the negatively charged things like the sulfates then
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  when they're absorbed the plants will raise the ph so depending on what the
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  plant's absorbing that massively changes the ph so having a balanced fertilizer
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  is one thing and having a product that buffers that so chemically buffers it
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  so that even if the plant does that.
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  The pH won't change because there's these chemicals resisting it,
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  putting the brakes on that system.
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  And that's the beauty of gold leaf or liquid gold.
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  But they're not the only things that can massively change the pH,
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  along with additives like seaweed extracts if they're very alkaline.
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  There are other aspects of growing.
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  So plants release natural acids when they're growing,
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  things like citrates, lactates, malates, to absorb nutrients that they are deficient in,
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  particularly phosphorus but also iron and things like
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  this so if you have a plant that's iron deficient it might
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  actually make the fertigation solution more acidic as it thinks it's growing
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  in soil you know obviously doesn't think that but it evolves to grow in soil
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  where if they pump out more acids there's more chance of them getting phosphorus
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  and iron and manganese as well i think so.
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  That's one issue the other issue is
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  that ammonium will break
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  down into with the action
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  of microbes they'll convert that into nitrates and
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  that process so if you have bacteria in your
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  growing system they'll convert ammonia to nitrates
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  and release hydrogen molecules and
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  that will acidify the solution as well
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  the reverse doesn't happen as much but it's mainly
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  ammonium to nitrates so
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  if you've got loads of microbes that will happen and again
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  microbes will break down organic material to produce
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  acids so if you've put sugary additives like
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  lots of carbohydrates lots of bud boosting
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  products you put them in too early into your
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  hydroponic system if you're growing say legal cannabis i'm using
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  something like a rock resonator that's a carbohydrate sort
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  of molasses type product or any of those sort of sugary try what's the other
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  one honeycomb chrome comb that sort of product full of sugars then if there's
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  loads of microbes then that can produce acidic solutions as it sort of ferments
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  and breaks down warm oxygen rich.
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  Solution will speed acid formation and
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  soft or O water has low bufferings the
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  pH drops easily whereas hard water
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  tends to be alkaline to begin with so that's
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  something to look out for as you add water to
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  your system if you're not using RO water if you're using hard water that
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  will tend to raise the pH the more bicarbonates that are added to the water
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  and also as CO2 is used up by the plants or algae growing in the system that
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  can lower the pH but that's that's minor compared to the other factors that I've talked about.
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  So there's some of the factors that affect pH and the reasons why you might
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  wonder why is my plant suddenly having a massive swing to the acidic range or to the alkaline range.
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  It could be that your fertilizer is actually
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  dominated by either ammonia or nitrates
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  ammonium ammonia is nh3 ammonium
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  is nh4 so i'm not i'm not saying ammonia
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  incorrectly it's just it's a different name for when that nitrogen molecule
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  has an extra hydrogen atom on it it's called ammonium and that's the form that
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  plants absorb it it dissolves in water it's not a gas like ammonium so yeah
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  that's interesting to know and If you are struggling with pH,
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  you have seen massive changes and you're struggling, you're always adding pH up or pH down.
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  Then get in touch with us here at Utreme and we're more than happy to help.
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  You shouldn't be adding massive volumes all the time, but some people find they
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  are. And of course, it depends on your crop.
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  Some crops prefer to absorb the nitrogen in one form, and so they'll always
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  be swinging the pH one way, whereas other crops will swing the pH in the other direction. and,
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  yeah it's an interesting area it's
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  it's a challenge but if you're become an
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  expert in growing a certain crop it's a little moat that
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  you can have around intellectual property know-how that you
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  can use to make sure that you produce the best possible crop and
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  other people will struggle to enter your sector so that's
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  been hydroponics daily for today a bit of science around ph control
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  and hope you liked it if you have leave us
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  an apple podcast review if you're please do leave that review because it helps
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  tremendously share the word of hydroponics with the general public and the wider
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  community and please make sure you follow the podcast and if you don't do any
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  of that at least you can do is check out utreema.co.uk,
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  to have a look at some of the amazing technology i've described in this podcast
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  thank you very much for listening until next time goodbye.