I think im going to do the water machine out front of the groccry store that sounds like a good idea.A TDS meter is one way to test for hardness. These meters can be bought relatively inexpensively. They give the ppm (parts per million) which will tell you the relative hardness of the water. Unfortunately they don't tell you exactly what or how much of each dissolved solid that's in your water. You can request a report from your water company. Most are obligated to do this free of charge. As for sodium softened water. You should not use this for growing! Plants need some sodium (very minscule amounts) for growth but the sodium in softened water is too much. It may not hurt your plants outright but you will have problems down the road. You would probably be better off just using hard water (depending on how hard it is). I don't know what the cutoff levels for Ca and Mg in water are. If I come across this info I will post it in this thread.
That is a pretty low ppm. If you are growing in soil you don't need to adjust your pH if it's close to neutral pH (7.0). If you are concerned about it though, you can use lemon juice or vinegar to lower your pH. Water that has a neutral pH won't alter the pH of the growing medium. If it were me I wouldn't mess with your water at all. Sounds like it's about perfect for growing.
That's what I use. It's around $.25 per gallon if you bring your own jugs and it comes out around 10-15 ppm. If you have a lot of plants you can try a mix of 50% tapwater and 50% r/o water.
r/o filters go for under $100 dollars on e-bay. I am not sure how much they cost to operate. I understand that they waste a lot of water so it may not be practical to run rainwater through one. Plus you need water pressure so you'd have to get a pump that is powerful enough to force your rainwater through the membrane. I doubt you are getting much leaching going on since the rainwater doesn't sit on the roof. It has a very brief contact time and probably doesn't pick up too much junk. Look into some sort of UV-C light to disinfect your water. I will do a search and see if I can't find something that might work. Make sure you are disinfecting your rain drum regularly and you should be ok.
The methods to disinfect things are:
You're welcome, I'm glad you enjoyed it.
Thank you for the link and the compliment. I plan on doing a more in depth look at chloramine in a future post. My town still uses chlorine instead of chloramine so I won't be able to do any of my own tests. Unfortunately there isn't a lot of well documented scientific data to guide us. And I read a lot of hype about chloramine and the potential problems it can cause so I've wondered if it has any ill effects on cannabis.
You're welcome - I look forward to your follow-up.You're welcome, I'm glad you enjoyed it.
Thank you for the link and the compliment. I plan on doing a more in depth look at chloramine in a future post. My town still uses chlorine instead of chloramine so I won't be able to do any of my own tests. Unfortunately there isn't a lot of well documented scientific data to guide us. And I read a lot of hype about chloramine and the potential problems it can cause so I've wondered if it has any ill effects on cannabis.
lol
, and have never had one fail yet. Seems if it was that toxic, it would zap that little endosperm to death. Virtually every creature in nature gets more chemical-resilient with age so, if the little endo can handle it...
Check back periodically. I plan on doing a few different articles and perhaps some experiments.You're welcome - I look forward to your follow-up.
For my part, my tap water comes out at pH 8.0 that I'm quite sure is due to the lime fraction they use. I do let my water sit for at least a day nonetheless out of habit. I don't worry about it otherwise, don't "ph down", and have never noticed anything but very happy plants after a solid watering. I get excoriated on this site regularly for it, too.
I've also germed about 30 seeds in this toxic soup
Any water that doesn't have too much in the way of dissolved solids is good for growing. It depends on the quality of the well water. Some well water is very good and some can be downright nasty. Bottled water is almost always good for growing but isn't practical to use for most people because of cost. Distilled is good but you may need to add cal-mag or another similar calcium/magnesium supplement.
Potassium won't. Too much potassium will. Look out for magnesium, manganese, zinc, or iron deficiencies.Great thread!
I have a scenario that hasn't been cover yet: The tap water in my area is pretty hard so I installed a water softener as soon as I moved in. Aware of the sodium issues, I use potassium instead of salt for ion exchange. Also this unit has a charcoal filter.
Will the potassium have ill affects on a grow show?
1st post! No more lurking!
It is possible. Are you experiencing signs of a deficiency? If so then It could be Calcium/magnesium. It also depends on your growing medium and your nutes. Check your nutes to see if they have any Cal/Mag. If not then I'd say you will probably have to add some cal-mag.
I'm not sure about that unit of measure. I will look it up and see what I can find.
