Chloramine...

I've seen a few videos on YouTube, read a few threads about chloramine (as opposed to chlorine) not being harmful to the soil web. It all seems to be debatable at the moment so I've always added "aquasafe" to my water to neutralize it. Which is a pain in the arse/ass to be honest..and does not really help with my stealthy grow.
Seems like I'm doing the right thing though, since I just found this;

"...I am the Director of the Chloramine Information Center in PA. Chloramine cannot be evaporated or boiled out of water and is more persistent than chlorine. Therefore it maintains the chlorine around the roots longer than chlorine would. While we are not aware of any scientific studies on the effects of chloramine on plants, we have heard from a number of MJ growers, who are the best record keepers for plant growth, measuring yield, root and leaf health. They have recorded stunted growth, diminished yield, 'burning' of roots and browning of leaves.

We also know that outdoor pond plants have been killed off by chloraminated water as well as frogs and fish. We also suspect that bees and birds are being effected. One beekeeper in PA lost 70 hives of bees overnight after his fall sugar feeding was made with chloraminated water. A neighbor also noted that the bees from other hives stopped landing on her backyard pond when the chloramine started. We have anecdotal information regarding humming bird feeders, where the birds stopped feeding when the water district switched to chloramine..."
(http://gardening.stackexchange.com/questions/4427/chlorine-vs-chloramine-both-harmful)

Anyone growing with chloraminated water?
(Nice to know we MJ growers are such good record keepers! pmsl )

Honestly I've never even checked my water. I probably should bc we don't drink it out if the spigot. If anything I'll aerate it overnight with an air stone, don't even know if that does anything haha it's just one of those things I do just bc in my mind it seems like it works. Most people with that problem though get a reverse osmosis filter or some other filter system before using on their plants. Luckily I haven't had any problems with my water but the minute I do I'll probably get a filter or a better, more legitimate system. Right now though it's not broke, so I'm not gonna fix it.

I have been using Denver tap not pH'd and it definitely contains chloramine (like most city water). No issues that I can trace back to the water. I grow in organic soil, no bottled nutrients fwiw.

sworth said:

I've seen a few videos on YouTube, read a few threads about chloramine (as opposed to chlorine) not being harmful to the soil web. It all seems to be debatable at the moment so I've always added "aquasafe" to my water to neutralize it. Which is a pain in the arse/ass to be honest..and does not really help with my stealthy grow.
Seems like I'm doing the right thing though, since I just found this;

"...I am the Director of the Chloramine Information Center in PA. Chloramine cannot be evaporated or boiled out of water and is more persistent than chlorine. Therefore it maintains the chlorine around the roots longer than chlorine would. While we are not aware of any scientific studies on the effects of chloramine on plants, we have heard from a number of MJ growers, who are the best record keepers for plant growth, measuring yield, root and leaf health. They have recorded stunted growth, diminished yield, 'burning' of roots and browning of leaves.

We also know that outdoor pond plants have been killed off by chloraminated water as well as frogs and fish. We also suspect that bees and birds are being effected. One beekeeper in PA lost 70 hives of bees overnight after his fall sugar feeding was made with chloraminated water. A neighbor also noted that the bees from other hives stopped landing on her backyard pond when the chloramine started. We have anecdotal information regarding humming bird feeders, where the birds stopped feeding when the water district switched to chloramine..."
(http://gardening.stackexchange.com/questions/4427/chlorine-vs-chloramine-both-harmful)

Anyone growing with chloraminated water?
(Nice to know we MJ growers are such good record keepers! pmsl )

Click to expand...

I can say undeniably that chloraminated water has no adverse affect on the plant directly, I can say this cos I've grown for over 15 years using chlorinated and chloraminated water. This WAS in coco or hydro with chem nutes and although our water has these chems in, it's also full of micro nutes at low levels.........never had any issues with the water growing this way.

Organic growing IS a different kettle of fish though. We use the micro-organisms in our soil to feed our plants and these chemicals are used specifically to eradicate this microbes. The thing is that these chems immediately oxidise when they come into contact with organic matter, so if you pour it into your soil? I'm guessing it's full of organic matter, no ?

I've read all sorts about RO and filtered water etc, and it MADE me invest £100 in a pond carbon filter/pump, I do still use it, but only if I'm making an aact. I reckon if you aerate your water over night and add the mollasses(organic matter) before the EWC, you're good to go though.

I share a 'sort of' allotment with a friend, during dry spells it only ever gets watered with tap water, straight from the hose. I've seen signs of fungus growing the next day, obviously I can't see if I've killed all the bacteria, but my plants never show signs of nute def after being watered this way and you'd expect that if you'd wiped out all of your microbial population.

I read an article on a tap water study recently that found beneficial bacteria actually living in both chlorine and chloramine treated water. These chemicals do kill microbes, but they don't wipe them out or eradicate them. Micro-organisms can be hardy little buggers.

I'd say getting the rest of the environment dialed in is a far better thing to spend your time on, rather than worrying about a little bit of chems in the water

I'd agree there are other things to concentrate on with a grow.
Maybe it's reactionary of growers to think "Chemicals! Must be bad!"... But then we're always fussing over tweaks and improvements.
Kind of academic for my grow now, since the landlord turned up with a rainwater butt yesterday...just as I was considering water quality Strange world...

Sometimes i think people over complicate growing. At the end of the day it's a weed, and weeds grow anywhere. Like DonB said, it may kill a few microorganisms, but isn't there like tens of billions in just one handful of soil? I think when people have a problem and they can't quite find out what's wrong they'll blame their water source and spend a few hundo on a filter.

I found this video to be pretty interesting which supports much of what has already been said - that it may kill some life but it's not going to eradicate everything and it will bounce back pretty easily.

^^^That guy does some very good videos^^^

My water system uses chloramine and when I used to grow with nutes my plants would get a papery texture to the leaves and it seemed like I had to give massive doses of calmag just to fight off the rust spots. I stopped using it when I went organic & now I use mostly collected rain and dehumidifier water. I always wondered what would happen if I went back to using regular city tap water even though several books I read say not to use it on organics. My houseplants don't seem to mind it at all; I water my veg garden with tap water too but I assume the rain washes it all out.