Baking Soda and Vinegar for Hydroponic Nutrient pH Control
by Michael E. Basham
(Virginia)
I've read that vinegar can be used to lower pH levels in a hydroponic nutrient solution, and baking soda can be used to raise them. do you recommend this practice, and if so can you tell me the amounts of each to use to raise and lower the pH level in .1 increments?
Answer: Michael- It is true that baking soda can raise pH, but I do not recommend using it. Chemically, baking soda is Sodium Bicarbonate. High levels of sodium are like trying to grow plants in salted soil. In addition to that, the presence of Sodium compounds will prevent the plants from taking up Calcium.....which will cause all kinds of problems with nutrient deficiencies (Nitrogen is a mobile nutrient, but is only mobile to the plant in the presence of Calcium. Other nutrients will only be taken up by the plants along side Calcium).
You're really testing me on my chemistry today, lol....
Vinegar's chemical composition is CH3COOH....it is just a bunch of Carbon and Hydrogen and Oxygen. On it's face, none of these would interfere with nutrient uptake. However, vinegar is only a weak acid, which means you may need quite a bit of it in order to keep your pH level correct. Once you begin using more substantial quantities of vinegar in your nutrient reservoir, it may not be so cost effective anymore.
Also, even though the Carbon and Hydrogen may not affect nutrient uptake, they still add to the total TDS (or EC) of the nutrient solution....which means the more you use, the fewer nutrients you can legitimately have suspended in your nutrient solution without burning your plants. This is why commercially available pH down is made of Phosphate compounds....they not only bring the pH down, but are also available to the plants as usable nutrients. This is not the case with vinegar.
In reality, I don't know for sure what would happen if you used vinegar to control your hydroponic nutrient solution pH. However, I have enough concerns about it that I would not try it myself (at least not on a big scale, or on an important plant or crop). If you do decide to try it experimentally, be sure to let me know how it turns out for you....I am curious to know for sure.
The best way to avoid the expense of pH down (and to a lesser degree, pH up) is to choose your hydroponic nutrients well. B.C. Nutrients mix up at the right pH, and the pH changes very little over time. The same is true with Canna Bio. Other nutrients require a LOT of pH adjustment, like Earth Juice. Hope this helps Michael, and Happy Growing!
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AffordableGarden Design&Setup
Hi everyone, Jason from Jason's Indoor Guide here. When I got started with hydroponic gardening more than 24 years ago, my first garden used rockwool cubes and B.C. Nutrients....and I remember thinking to myself yeah, sure, there may be a lot of advantages to gardening with hydroponics, for example there are very few pest problems, therefore very little pest control, no weeding, no plowing or tilling the soil, no soil testing or having to add things into the garden soil, no watering the garden....but for someone who just wants to grow their own vegetables and have more control over their food supply and the quality of the food that they eat, the cost of constantly having to buy grow media and hydroponic nutrients makes this an expensive hobby for most people...
Epic Nutrient Change
I suppose when you take into consideration how much money you save NOT
having to buy food at the grocery store, it is surely cheaper to grow
your own food hydroponically even with the cost of high quality
nutrients. Nevertheless, I didn't have a whole lot of money to work with
and I needed to make my efforts as affordable and effective as
possible....and in the last 24 years I HAVE learned a thing or two!
As you browse through Jason's Indoor Guide, you will notice all of the
systems that I use personally are homemade systems. As I got 3 or 4
years of experience under my belt, I quickly adopted a preference to
standing water systems and systems that use expanded clay pellets or
lava rock, because the media is re-usable and it eliminates a huge
operating expense. So once a hydroponic system is built, garden
maintenance is minimal- check and adjust the nutrient solution daily,
and to change it completely every 2 weeks....and the biggest operating
cost is the hydroponic nutrients. (and the electric bill, lol)...
Homemade Cloner
And, regarding the cost of the nutrients....I experimented for about 3 years with making different compost teas and nutrient teas, but there is still a lot of expense $$$ associated with making high quality nutrient teas....like kelp meal, liquid seaweed, rock dust, bat guano, un-Sulfured molasses, worm castings. You can eliminate a lot of this expense by becoming an expert at making high-quality colloidal humus compost, and use your properly made compost as the basis of your hydroponic nutrient solution.
Unfortunately, I have been gardening for over 24 years and I have only
just recently mastered this difficult skill....and even then, only
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and decided to follow the instructions to the letter. I produced more
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And when I say decrease operating costs, I mean decrease them to almost
ZERO, especially if you are producing your own nutrients...
High Efficiency
Hydroponics
The ultimate solution to eliminate the cost of your hydroponic nutrients: Imagine a hydroponic system that does not require you to buy any nutrients, does not require you to make your own compost, and does not require you to brew your own nutrient tea. Seriously! No cost and no effort as far as providing nutrients to your plants! Plus, at the end of the gardening cycle you harvest all of your garden vegetables, PLUS YOU HARVEST FISH from the system--->
Aquaponics
This solution is aquaponics. If you are serious about producing all of your own food and being self-sufficient, this is the ultimate solution for reducing expenses (as much as possible), reducing the total amount of work required, and maximizing the productivity of your gardening efforts. I have been gardening for over 24 years, and it is the perfect food production solution in my opinion.
Besides mastering how to make high quality compost, learning aquaponics is one of the top 3 things you can do to increase your garden productivity, reduce your total costs, and reduce your total work. The product that I learned from is called Aquaponics4you. With all of my hydroponic gardening experience, the first time I came across the Aquaponics4you product I knew immediately that it was something very special! Place an aquaponics system outdoors and use the sun instead of grow lights, and you have reduced every garden expense to nearly ZERO!
The Same System/ 10 Weeks Later!
