Is Reverse Osmosis required.

I'm a new grower and I've been using RO water. When I'm growing vegetables in my backyard they're fine with water out of the tap.
Are there any benefits to leaving the dissolved solids in the water? My thought is that there has to be some elements from mt local MWRA water supply that my plants could use that I'm scrubbing out. My idea is to use the waste hose off the RO membrane as this water is clear of sediment, chlorine, and chloramine.

My RO system is:
1. 10 μm sediment
2. 1 μm sediment
3. granular carbon
4. chlorine block
5. RO membrane (25 gal/day)
6. deionizer resin

dont use the waste water, its concentrated bad stuff, not just occurring contamination in the flow.
I would pay for an analysis (dnr, 12 bucks ?) and see exactly what is in my water, and make an educated decision from there.

The TDS from waste water comes out at about 180PPM. I've been using it for my laundry. It takes a lot of time to make enough water for growing on a weekly basis.
I've got 4 plants growing now; in their first-ish week. On the next water change, I'm going to switch one to waste water and see how it responds.

tds? how bout metals and chems, not just salts.
test that run off too why dont you, dnr does it cheap in the mail, why risk anything, especially laundry...

I wouldn't do it. First, MWRA’s target for it's distribution system pH is 9.3; the target for alkalinity is 40 mg/L. There is going to be a lot of salts in there, and you just concentrated it.

Besides, your nutes have all the chemistry you are going to need.

I'm not on mwra. I use well water but it comes out of the tap at 37 total ppm and 5.8 pH. I still wouldn't use the runoff if I ro'd it.

ahhh, i see... Metals and chemicals are not detected through TDS?

Clutchcargo_1 said:

I'm a new grower and I've been using RO water. When I'm growing vegetables in my backyard they're fine with water out of the tap.
Are there any benefits to leaving the dissolved solids in the water? My thought is that there has to be some elements from mt local MWRA water supply that my plants could use that I'm scrubbing out. My idea is to use the waste hose off the RO membrane as this water is clear of sediment, chlorine, and chloramine.

My RO system is:
1. 10 μm sediment
2. 1 μm sediment
3. granular carbon
4. chlorine block
5. RO membrane (25 gal/day)
6. deionizer resin

Click to expand...

The most reputable grow books suggest not using water with a ppm over 150...
Is there a big difference? Yes, My well comes out at 148-152 seasonally.....I've grown a few runs with the straight well in hydro when we first moved in around 22 years ago! I then got my boosted (High pressure pump that delivers 100g a day) RO system.....
The yield from the RO was around 20% better!

With the other waters - You just don't know what those contain!
Start with RO and add 5ml of Ca/Mg as a buffer and Ca/Mg source and your golden!

Shop Ebay for the pumps at a fair price.

The rest of you monkeys got his question wrong - he's not asking about using the RO waste. We tested ours and it's not that bad at all....We routed ours to water the Chickens and Hogs......waste not want not...

Dr. Who said:

The rest of you monkeys got his question wrong - he's not asking about using the RO waste. We tested ours and it's not that bad at all....We routed ours to water the Chickens and Hogs......waste not want not...

Click to expand...

He said "My idea is to use the waste hose off the RO membrane as this water is clear of sediment, chlorine, and chloramine.". Now this monkey isn't the sharpest tool in the box, but it certainly does sound like wants to add back the filtered RO waste to his plant water.

greg nr said:

He said "My idea is to use the waste hose off the RO membrane as this water is clear of sediment, chlorine, and chloramine.". Now this monkey isn't the sharpest tool in the box, but it certainly does sound like wants to add back the filtered RO waste to his plant water.

Click to expand...

Yes, that's it exactly... only because it would have already gone throw sediment and carbon filters.

greg nr said:

He said "My idea is to use the waste hose off the RO membrane as this water is clear of sediment, chlorine, and chloramine.". Now this monkey isn't the sharpest tool in the box, but it certainly does sound like wants to add back the filtered RO waste to his plant water.

Click to expand...

I deserve that! Didn't read far enough did I! He says while sitting and scratching his butt, making monkey sounds!

No don't use the RO waste water for your plants!

I thought I was on to something, I was wrong. Wastewater will continue to only be used for laundry.

Ifor you have a dehumidifier, take the water from that and it works great. Otherwise, during dry months when the dehueyear don't full up in time for waterings, here is how I use tap:

I use a 10 gallon aquarium air pump, 4 way splitter, and 4 air stones and bubble air though tap water for 24 hours before adding nutes, etc, and watering. I am afraid to try with tap water that has not been aerated to rid of chlorine but honestly I never have. However, I know that simply aerating the tap water before works just fine. I've done it from seed to harvest, and pulled the best smoke I've ever had off from those plants. No need to buy RO water.