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babalubird

Aluminum Sulfate--What NOT to do!

babalubird
15 years ago

The nursery sold me aluminum sulfate in place of Ph Down since none was available locally.

Boy! Bad mistake! Do NOT use this to balance Ph in a hydroponic system. The guy assured me it desolved in water. NOT! It lays in the solution and takes too long to affect the Ph. Then when you keep adding trying to make a difference, hours and hours later you have a Ph so low, its off the charts.

After babying my tomatoes, peppers and eggplant for months, I have 5 out of 6 dead bodies or close to death. The acid cooked the roots. Don't use this product in hydroponics.

Connie

Comments (3)

  • chadg
    15 years ago

    You can find pH up and down in the aquarium section of pet stores.

    Sorry for your loss. I lost my first crop of lettuce to hydrogen peroxide thinking it would be safe for the plants and take care of the algae.

  • greystoke
    15 years ago

    Sorry to hear this Connie. But then . . . you learn from these things.

  • garysgarden
    15 years ago

    I could've warned you off about that. Aluminum is just best avoided when it comes to plants.

    I'm not sure if the link between aluminum and Alzheimer's is 100% proven, but I'm sure as heck not gonna feed it to plants I want to eat later on.