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Springfield, Oregon

My well water pH is 8.5 and I use it for irrigation and misting my pumpkins. I've been growing for 3 years and have finally decided to see if this might be one of the reasons I'm stuck in the 700-800 lb range. My plants do well in the early and mid season but late season leaves look bad and seem to age prematurely. I know some pesticides aren't very effective when mixed with water with a high pH. I'm just not sure how nutrient availability to the plant is affected. Does anyone have any advice and whether I should try to correct it? Thanks in advance, Jim

12/8/2006 2:35:20 PM

President - GPC

Besides Ph have you had the water tested for other chems and minerals? Just wondering, we had well water here too high in sulphur to use.....

12/8/2006 2:57:13 PM

Western NY

what's your soil pH?

12/8/2006 3:26:55 PM

Springfield, Oregon

My soil pH at the end of this past growing season was 7.4. I also had a water analysis done. Na=3.7 meq/l; HCO3=2.39 meq/l; conductivity=.51dS/m; dissolved solids=303 ppm. I don't know if any of these values are out of range or not. Most of my other soil tests were done in early spring and showed pH's in the 6.6-6.8 range which was fine with me. I'm concerned that after I irrigate through the summer with pH 8.5 the soil pH increases and my plants suffer.

12/8/2006 4:09:57 PM

Owensboro, Ky.

No idea what my water is like, but would love to be in the 700-800# range. LOL Peace, Wayne

12/8/2006 5:27:26 PM

Paradise Mountain, New York

My well water test at 8.0 pH. Alkaline water usually means it's hard water. Hard water has more calcium and other minerals in it.I did a search on alkaline water early this Spring. So i bought some acid cleaner that farmers use to clean the milk bulk tanks with. It's 59% Phosphoric acid. If I fill my stainles steel tank up. Which is 400 gallons, it takes two cups of this acid to drop my pH down to 6.5 when I test the water.I have a few web sites that shows about adding Phosphoric acid to your water. Growers who grow Cranberries have to have soil that has a pH of 4.0 -5.0. They also use Phosphoric acid to drop the pH of there water supply. This is injected into there water supply.

12/8/2006 5:55:49 PM

Ontario, Canada.

McKJim. I have this condition too. I was in contact with Ian Mclaughlin A & L Labs and he was not too concerned for standard irrigation use. But there are other concerns to be cautious of.

You will need to treat your water before pesticide use for best results. Alkaline hydrolysis occurs when pesticides are mixed with alkaline water; water with a pH greater than 7. The more alkaline the water, the more rapid the breakdown of the pesticides. Therefore they are generally less effective and for shorter periods.

For example the half life of Sevin is 1.5 days at Ph 8.5
and 24 to 30 days at 7 Ph.

12/8/2006 7:27:22 PM

Ctpumpkin@optonline.net

I agree with Russ (kahuna5) but would like to add something. See if there is a government water testing lab nearby. Chance are there is. Ask them to run an irrigation water test. It should be free or at least very cheap for a noncommercial situation.

*WHY* the pH is high can sometimes be a problem.

Conventional drinking water tests won't always tell us what we need to know about irrigation & spray water quality.

12/9/2006 2:34:21 AM