Surprised to see that my city tap water is about 8.5 pH.
I put about 15 ml/gal to get it down to 6.5 AFTER liquid nutrients added to the water.
My neighbor who was growing was only using tap water and was not pHing . His plants looked bad . I helped him and bought him a basic oH meter.
pH is a different than EC/PPH. pH can measure pure water (7.0). pH is measuring the concentration of hydrogen ions.
I knew I should have paid more attention in Science class. Thanks,
Mike
You are correct. However, because of the lack of ions (particles) the presence of an electrical charge from which ph is determine is not accurate
From Vernier
pH electrodes will NOT give accurate pH values in distilled or deionized water because distilled and deionized water do not have enough ions present for the electrode to function properly. The readings will drift and be essentially meaningless. If you want to test the accuracy of your pH electrodes, use pH buffers.
From Westlab
Have you ever wondered why you canât get a consistent pH reading on your distilled or deionised water? Here is whyâŚ
The electrodes of a pH meter will not give accurate values in pure water because distilled and deionised water do not have enough ions for the electrode to function accurately. The readings will most likely fluctuate and be meaningless. For calibration purposes, pH buffer solution is the best way to test your pH electrodes because it has a defined and accurate pH.
Again, pH measures concentration of Hydrogen ions which are, of course, ânativeâ to water. [H2O] Personally, I have used cheap pH (calibrated) pens which settle at 7.0 in RO water, which is not the same as distilled, but close. Also, I donât think there is such a thing as de-ionized water in the strict scientific sense. Conductivity of water is another matter, and that does require âparticlesâ to achieve. I found a good site for how pH probes work at Anatomy of pH Electrodes