Water PH and Plant Growth

PH is a measure of acidity or alkalinity. It's usually measured with regard to the soil, but I recently learned that water PH may be a factor when starting plants.

A professional grower, M.L., mentioned that the water he uses has a PH of 11. Seven is neutral, so he reduces the PH down to around 9.

I called my local water company and found out that my water's PH is between 9.5 - 10.1 - very alkaline. I did my own measurements, but because of the limits of the testing strips all I could determine was that the water was at least 8.4 or higher.

I bought some test strips and here's what I found:

Miracle Gro added to tap water - 1/4 tsp/gal. acidifies my alkaline water enough to bring it close to neutral - PH 6.8.

If you'd like to read more about this topic, here's a good article:
http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/floriculture/plugs/phpandect.pdf