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pH

Lately I’ve been wondering how important it is to worry about the pH of the soil/water for VFTs, Sarracenia and Drosera. I recently measured the pH of some locally purchased RO water (6.78), distilled water from the local grocery store (4.90), and a fresh mix of unwashed Peat Moss (5.60). I’ve read a wide variety of pH recommendations, and many recommendations seem to be around a pH of 4.5. I can easily lower the pH of my water using Muriatic (Hydrochloric) Acid (pool acid), but is it a good/bad/indifferent idea?
 
It's perfectly fine :)

I'd reccomend against using strong acids. If you have to use acids, vinegar is OK but you don't need it.
 
I mentioned Muriatic Acid because I have a pool and I'm constantly adding it to my pool water to keep the pH down.

When I used RO to wash the Peat Moss to get it down to around 50 ppm (at a pH of 5.60 it was at 102 ppm) the pH rose to around 6.0, which seems to be a bit high. ???
 
use a deluted vinegar solution if it really worries you.
personally I doesn't really matter what the ppm of the Peat is when you first get it, because if you're growing your plants outside then the rain will wash most of the nutrients out.
 
During the growing season my plants are inside - we don’t get a lot of rain in the summer and it gets too hot in the full sun. I do use either RO or distilled water (our tap water is about 700 ppm), so I guess as you suggest by the end of the growing season most of the minerals are washed out, so the initial washing isn’t required for me.
 
Peat is acidic, as is rainwater and distilled water. That's all that matters - trying to reduce the pH is a pointless exercise.
 
I didn’t realize that distilled water was acidic until I tested it (I figured it would just be 7.0). If I exclusively use distilled water with the Peat Moss, then yeah I won’t have to worry about the pH because it starts out acidic, and the distilled water will keep it there. Unfortunately, out here distilled water is 4 times the cost of RO water, and the RO water is just barely acidic, so if I only use RO water then the pH will slowly rise (which I saw when I washed the Peat a few times). If CPs grow just as well in soil with a pH of 6.0+ as they do in soil with a pH of 4.5then I guess pH doesn’t matter.
 
Sphagnum moss & pH

If you can get live sphagnum moss to grow in your pots, it will help keep the peat acidic. Sphagnum moss has the ability to take up cations and release hydrogen ions.

More info at http://www.answers.com/topic/sphagnum
 
RO is fine.....

Your PH is not going to be a problem unless you are watering with very hard water, and then the PH is the least of your worries. You guys worry over the littlest things.
 
  • #10
BigCarnivourKid – thanks for the link. I didn’t know there was a “natural” way to keep the pH down.
 
  • #11
JustLikeAPill – for me pH is an easy thing to check and adjust since I already own a pH meter that I use for other interests, so if there’s a benefit to look at it and adjust it then why not? I guess if it doesn’t make any difference at all then why waste my time?
 
  • #12
Because peat is an acidic substance. You can test if you want and do little experiments if you wish, but I don't think it'll matter unless you are using buffered water somehow.

By all means test it out and report your findings! I'd be interested in hearing it.
 
  • #13
JustLikeAPill – since I already have the meter I’m sure I will perform some measurements and adjustments. Unfortunately, since all of my plants share the same water tray it will be impossible to tell if watering different plants with a different pH makes a difference.

If I’m feeling ambitious I may try to divide the tray so I can experiment. I still have some time before its growing season again!
 
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