Growing Lettuce With Different PH Levels
This Video is from the Youtube channel: “Growing Answers”.
Mars Hydro Grow Light and PH Comparison Series
Are my containers food safe? –
Lettuce doesn't tend to show nutrient deficiencies quite the same as other plants. Lack of nitrogen usually results in less growth rather than noticeable yellowing leaves. Also, in case anyone is wondering why the PH levels came out the way they did…Carbonic acid doesn't really take hold very quickly in the Kratky method. If the water is aerated however, then the PH tends to drop more easily. Another reason is likely due to tap water containing larger molecules of calcium carbonate and isn't really adsorbed by the plants, so as long as is a fair amount of PH buffer in the water, it will tend to stay neutral.
You should get a refractometer and test the brix (sugar) levels in each plant that way we can see if a certain ph or ppm makes a difference on flavor.
Nice call. Brix is the trix
@North East Slingshot yea, higher mineral content and sugar content should mean much healthier and tastier food. They look the same or close with your eye but when you test it the results may show that one or the other is far superior to the other.
HIBRIXXXXX
Great videos as usual! The sad part of the hydroponic diy videos on the net is most are focused on medical grows which not all of us are into. Granted I have done those grows myself but it’s nice to be able to use the same concepts but with a different outcome. Your videos are very informative for those who choose to grow food for themselves. Your videos always include in depth conclusions and don’t just sit there showing off your plants like most.
you should try out Jeb Gardener. Not only will he show constant experimentation with food crops, but he is absolutely wonderful to watch. His editing and music are always fun.
Agreed, and cannabis has a very different nutrient profile from something like basil or lettuce.
@Dying Moths: I love Jeb but think he’s better as entertainment. mhpgardener has a lot of information but he did it when cameras weren’t near what they are today so the quality suffers.
I like your experiments. If you could make one on co2, I would appreciate. Thanks
Very helpful, especially in my case i dont check for my pH, because im only growing leafy greens and in small batches, for my takeaway if your growing in a commercial scale the weight will be significant because of the quantity, but if your just growing for consumption pH balancing is optional.
Cube Root Farming sort of. If you run aeration, then the ph can drop easily and become fairly acidic rather quickly. That can lead to root rot. Although much of the time having extra oxygen at the roots combats the anaerobic bacteria that is associated with rotting. It usually just means that you have to change out the solution once or twice.
Why include aeration when im just growing green leafy? Kratky system is best for leafy vegetable as per my experience.
What a great little test! Thanks for sharing your results with the rest of us!
Love your very scientific approach to your experiments. Thanks for sharing your expertise. Bravo!
I don’t grow lettuce but your video gave several bits of info that Explains some of the problems I’ve had! Your explanations and reasonings are exactly what I would expect from a video of this type. I just subscribed!
One of the best channels I have ever subscribed to. I learned a lot about lights here. Thank you and Keep up the great job!
I ordered butterhead buttercrunch lettuce seed earlier today and was hoping i can grow some in the home under a grow light, but not using hydroponics. The butterheads are getting rather pricey in store…up to $3 per one. The butterheads storage life is better than most and has a more milder less acid effect on the stomach.
I happened to “like” this almost immediately just because I appreciate you discussing/sharing this. Anyway, right as i liked it when was the audio kicked in a little more. It was like I got an upgrade for liking
Nice experiment, thank you for that. But one note: it is not possible to say it is significantly different or not, since you had only one plant and one experiment. You would need at least 3 plants of each pH (best in separate containers) and repeat it 3 times. That way you could do some statistical test (T-test, ANOVA…) to inffer the SIGNIFICANT differences. 12% diff in head mass and 15% in root mass looks pretty simmilar to me. Also it would be good idea to completely dry your samples before you wieght them. But still thanks for your effort.
These type of experiments are so good, keep them coming!!
Very good fair test, impressed by your quick and Precise delivery.
these are very cool. the plants put effort into controlling the pH around the roots.
The problem with this experiment while it seems to be pretty well done is that the pH in DWC is different than in soil, at least the requirements for uptake. You should have done 4.0, 6.0 and 8.0. The reason why I say that is because when you do anything above 6.2 in DWC you’re leaving more than half of the nutrients in the water as the plant simply can’t process them at that pH.
So what you essentially have is a too acidic bucket(4.5pH) grows badly, the closer to normal(6.5pH) should grow better but since you’re .5pH above where most of your nutrients including your nitrogen can be absorbed what you’ve just done is make the normal and all the other test plants equal, in the sense that none of them have proper absorption at all.
If you were doing soil the proper pH would have been 6.5 – 7 but not in DWC.
Funny how the plant still grew.. huh? With your dead certain that half wasn’t available at high pH.. it still functioned. Maybe you need to rethink things about how dead certain you are that pH does what you think it does.
@superkillr nope, sure don’t. Plants like to grow as best they can, and you can grow them in all kinds of different PH settings, but the difference is, how they grow. When you start getting them up towards the end you’re going to see a whirlwind of issues that came directly from depriving them of nutrients throughout the grow. And it’s not “what I think ph does”, it’s what ph does, please read a biology book sometimes.
I know this is an old video, but it has caused me to dig some more into your channel. Very much appreciate your no-nonsense delivery.
Love the fact that you are using grams! Makes it much easier for us (the rest of the world) to understand! Again, thank you
That’s normal when working with chemistry. Even the us does that. Jeez
@LXW-Arts ?
I would redo the experiment and readjust ph to 4.5 6.5 and 8.5 each day like you normally would in a hydroponic unit. Many nutrients contain ph stablizers. I’d rn with Jacks 123, or another professional powdered line that has no stablizers. For instance with some nutrients like sensi grow ph perfect. As soon as you added nutrients to all those tubs the ph in all of them would have gone to 5.8.
The root in High pH are more because the plant is trying to get more nutrients or recover the pH expanding the roots. Low pH do not help plant grow roots, neutral pH, has the perfect pH , and root growth to have more weight in the leaves that is the important we want. Thank this was an awesome experiment!
You’d really need to test a few rows of lettuce in each pH and average their weights to control for seed variance. Even from the same packet some some seeds do better than others. I also suspect pH effects the availability of nutrients from the soil..and rocks..the whole process of microbes retrieving them in exchange for sugars. I’d think the process if just absorbing it ready nutrients in solution is very different. Lastly, lettuce is a light feeder. It would be interesting to see how a heavy feeder did. I assume the latter needs a wider variety of elements and more of them would be more or less available with the variance in pH.