Let's all talk about water

Hey there RIU!

Here is a question from a new grower (MYSELF!)

What type of water do YOU use and why?

There are a lot of options from Tap, Natural Source, Bottled Spring/RO/Distilled

I used distilled but almost always had a little of nutes (usually a touch of EarthJuice Micro Blast and/or Grow) in it cause I was afraid of the water being barren. (was this wrong?) Now I used spring water due to at least a little trace of nature in there when I don't put nutes in. I am growing using soil currently but I am curious about possible better method and what other people use for other grow medium/methods.

http://water.usgs.gov/owq/hardness-alkalinity.html

I use common tap water, left out for a minimum of 12 hours, chlorine is no biggy, my plants use it to make leaf matter

every month I record the ph etc, out of the tap, for some very surprising results, and adjust accordingly

The worst is using water to wacked out with calcium, use your ph tool to check or even pool test strips $5.00 at ur drugstore

second are noobs who use RO water that had its mineral sucked out, if you do this add a little pinch of calmag at each watering

to save you any distress with Mg.def later

good luck

I go from tap to plant ..

Tap while it would be cheaper I do not trust at my house very sulfer and iron dense well water

Both are nutes ..
Let the plant tell you if it doesn't like it

qwizoking said:

Both are nutes ..
Let the plant tell you if it doesn't like it

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My next grow I very well might do that, see how they like it

If you use nutrients than most local tap water should be fine. If you want to grow in natural soil without using nutes then you need to remove any chlorine/flouride or risk killing off the active microbes that feed your plants. My water system uses chloramine which cannot be bubbled off. I use dehumidier water which is essentially distilled & devoid of any kind of macros so I add organic cal/mag at a tsp every other watering. When it's dry and my dehuey collects nothing I go to Walmart for their RO machine at .39/per gal.

Tap.

But I get crazy pH swings so I gadda make it every day. Kinda sux but worth it in the end

Of course the best water to use is rain but then ya gotta remember to put out buckets when it begins to pour or have a rain barrel on your gutter downspouts. Rain has macros and is active with microbes at room temps. I have even melted snow and put out buckets to catch the runoff from my melting roof icicles after a snowstorm. Great for making teas too; very active with microbial life. Rainwater is not listed in the survey but it's the best source to use in your grow hands down.

Richard Drysift said:

Of course the best water to use is rain but then ya gotta remember to put out buckets when it begins to pour or have a rain barrel on your gutter downspouts. Rain has macros and is active with microbes at room temps. I have even melted snow and put out buckets to catch the runoff from my melting roof icicles after a snowstorm. Great for making teas too; very active with microbial life. Rainwater is not listed in the survey but it's the best source to use in your grow hands down.

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"A Natural Source" I guess would fit rain

Water is water... Make sure the plant is getting the nutrients it wants and make sure it has water.

Also, cal-mag is bullshit. Make sure you're feeding enough calcium and magnesium regardless of what your source of water is. If you have extremely hard water (high calcium carbonate), you will have no choice but to go RO or use nitric acid as pH down and a base nutes that's low in calcium. (or you will have too much). Most importantly, using RO water does not mean you need to use "cal-mag"... That's bullshit. If your plant needs calcium or magnesium, it will tell you which one of those 2 its deficient in. If you use half decent base nutes, it won't be deficient in either.

Getting your water tested for irrigation suitability should be done by pretty much everyone. It's cheap, usually less than $50, and tells you what levels you have for every plant nutrient. Seriously, it's a huge benefit. And then just as churchhaze has said, just make sure it's getting the nutrients it wants. Using stuff like Hydrobuddy to create a nutrient mix is a good idea.

I turn my the knob on my hose then water away ....no probs at all and I have gardens getting watered with city water and gardens watered with well water in remote farms .....no diff on plants that are the same strain and being fed the same as well .....I like to let the city water sit out for 24 hours .....but I'm usually to stoned or lazy so it's normally straight from the tap ..

Jubilant said:

Hey there RIU!

Here is a question from a new grower (MYSELF!)

What type of water do YOU use and why?

There are a lot of options from Tap, Natural Source, Bottled Spring/RO/Distilled

I used distilled but almost always had a little of nutes (usually a touch of EarthJuice Micro Blast and/or Grow) in it cause I was afraid of the water being barren. (was this wrong?) Now I used spring water due to at least a little trace of nature in there when I don't put nutes in. I am growing using soil currently but I am curious about possible better method and what other people use for other grow medium/methods.

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IMO soil grown reef tastes better. Any type of water that is "PURE" will start picking up things from the soil as soon as it is added, so doesn't reach the roots in a "BAREN" state. I use rain water, works good for me, especially the home delivery part. When using low ppm water you need to watch your Cal./Mag which might be very soluble (Epsom Salts) and can be leached out of your plants/soil easily, but as churchhaze said use good neuts. and it wont be a prob.

So I have now updated to only using Alaskan Spring Water

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g60880-d8540488-Reviews-Fresh_Spring_Water_at_Mile_109-Anchorage_Alaska.html

Awesome close by spot has unlimited amounts for free

After researching the tests of the water it is very clean with slight amounts of calcium and magnesium and all in all I can say my girls love it

I use water from a deep well. It is soft by ground water standards. .3 EC. Perfect base for gardening.

It does have a bit of extra soluble iron and sulfer eating bacteria (slight rotten egg smell) so it is important to water with good runoff to help keep salt buildup down.

I also let it sit out a day to evaporate the sulfer bacteria and get it closer to room temp.

I use rain water , no particular reason just have it available so might aswell lol

My tap water rules

Moderately Hard water 60-120mg/liter Small ammounts of Ca, and tiny ammounts of Mg and Na. Ideal for most hydro nutrient lines. Only slightly alkaline. Most of the time I run into magnesium problems not "CALMAG" problems. The point is TEST YOUR WATER, dont guess. Water testing is free at some water filter stores. I got mine tested at the culligan store.

Depending on the strain it might need a bit of Calcium or Magnesium But if I do have problems its just a little bump of Calcium or Magnesium, (not calmag) but its easy to tell the difference. If you know what you are doing, you can calculate what the nutrient manufacture calls for by looking at the G.A for the fertilizer for what they suggest for Calcium and Magnesium in the solution.

I dont really worry too much about flouride or chloramines, I brew teas all the time with plain tap. It doesn't hurt microbe activity I check my brews with a microscope. I dont guess, I observe. There is very little oxidizing capacity by the time it hits your tap that a little bit of organic matter renders the chloramine useless. Previous water tests show nothing out of specs with flouride, so no worries. here.

GrowerGoneWild said:

My tap water rules

Moderately Hard water 60-120mg/liter Small ammounts of Ca, and tiny ammounts of Mg and Na. Ideal for most hydro nutrient lines. Only slightly alkaline. Most of the time I run into magnesium problems not "CALMAG" problems. The point is TEST YOUR WATER, dont guess. Water testing is free at some water filter stores. I got mine tested at the culligan store.

Depending on the strain it might need a bit of Calcium or Magnesium But if I do have problems its just a little bump of Calcium or Magnesium, (not calmag) but its easy to tell the difference. If you know what you are doing, you can calculate what the nutrient manufacture calls for by looking at the G.A for the fertilizer for what they suggest for Calcium and Magnesium in the solution.

I dont really worry too much about flouride or chloramines, I brew teas all the time with plain tap. It doesn't hurt microbe activity I check my brews with a microscope. I dont guess, I observe. There is very little oxidizing capacity by the time it hits your tap that a little bit of organic matter renders the chloramine useless. Previous water tests show nothing out of specs with flouride, so no worries. here.

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Excellent post.