Hey everyone, Im up in Canada and Ive grown with RO water for about a year now but going fully organic this winter. My issue is outside tap is not an option (frozen af) and I have softened water for the house. When doing a “water only” type of grow, should I keep buying RO or will softened suffice? I know the salt isn’t good for the plants but that’s before I switched to such a beefy soil mix. Thanks in advance! -Nate-
I won’t lol, I’m just trying to figure out the best water source for the time of year. I’m assuming it’s still going to be RO water
Trying to figure out what's happening here. I assume it's the RH that I've had a hard time keeping over 40 and I may have over watered them. I'm using the soil mix from this thread, using COM lobster compost and promix with added perlite. With the same amendments listed. The strain is Sundae Driver and they're 4 weeks into flower in 20gal hardpots. And I'm using snowmelt as my water supply. (Fill my 55gal drum and let it melt off Lol) any help would be appreciated.
I’m not a defficiency expert but I’ve had some similar symptoms in the past and mine were, in part, related to PH lockout. I was just looking at the COM Lobster “compost” that people on here seem to like and noticed it has a bunch of peat moss in it as does ProMix, I believe. Since peat moss is acidic and needs a buffer, it’s possible that you have more peat in your mix than the original recipe; which would require more buffer than the OP recipe. If that’s the case it’s possible that you are getting some pH fluctuation in your soil that’s resulting in some lockout. I know there’s a lot of “forget about pH” in organic gardening but I think that’s taken too far. PH is very important to cannabis. Organic soil gardening can REDUCE your pH concerns but it still requires a balanced and fairly pH-stable soil with the capacity to buffer the particular water you are inputting. These successful and popular mix recipes are properly pH’d and stable (at least after a cure time) whether they were formulated in conjunction with lab testing or plain dumb luck and anecdotal evidence of their balance in the form of problem-free grows. It’s very easy to mix up an “organic” soil that’s very acidic or very alkaline and feed it water that’s out of whack the same way and you won’t be able to grow a durn thing. That’s why, if you listen to most organic gurus they use soil testing all the time when developing or adjusting a soil recipe. FWIW- Logan Labs is only like $30 for a basic soil test and like $50 for a very complete test. So, unless you follow a recipe PRECISELY and use the identical ingredients, you’re swinging in the dark that your mix will produce the same results as the original recipe. Coots mix is a great example: unless you have HIS worm castings and HIS compost you aren’t reproducing HIS recipe and you may not get exactly his results. In fact, there are those that complained about their results after following his “recipe” without realizing that his inputs are unique and not equal to what they used. I’d test my soil pH as well as the pH and TDS of your water AND the runoff coming from your pots. Chasing deficiencies with inputs before checking the conditions in your soil and water is like the thinking of hydro growers, imo: ‘Oh, it’s missing this so I’m going to add it to my water and feed it.” I use an Accurate 8 soil pH probe, a Apera PH60 pH pen and an inexpensive TDS/EC pen from Amazon. If your results come back within acceptable perameters, THEN it makes sense to begin looking at what the plants are lacking and, therefore, what’s not available to them in the soil. Odds are: what the plant needs IS in the soil but something is causing the plant not to be able to take it up. JMO. It’s always an adventure! Lol! HTH! Happy Growing!
Do you run a dehumidifier at all? I use the condensate from my dehumidifier to water my plants. My dehumidifier gives me roughly 5 gallons of clean water / condensate every 38-40 hours. Since there is literally nothing in this water (calcium, magnesium, etc.), I fill up my 1 gallon jugs about 70% full with condensate, and then I top it off with tap water that has been dechlorinated. This puts my water (no nutes) at 100ppm...which works great for me. It’s free water! It is important to add tap water because there are trace elements in the tap water the plants use such as calcium, magnesium, and other trace elements I can’t pronounce. Condensate from a dehumidifier is very similar to distilled water in that it has nothing in it. It is also difficult to modify and hold a stable pH because there’s nothing in the water to buffer the pH. By adding some tapwater, you are providing a buffer in your water that will make it easier for you to pH your nutrient solution or plain water and not have to deal with any pH up or down swing. I’m sure there will be some people who will tell me this is a bad idea, but I’ve been doing it for six months and have not had a single deficiency or problem in my grow. I just thought I’d throw that out there. My dehumidifier has paid for itself dozens of times over by eliminating my expense for reverse osmosis water. Happy growing. “Tyranny anywhere is a threat to freedom everywhere.” — someone awesome
Is there a spigot or tap that you can draw water from, before the softener? Most systems have a provision for this. If this has been mentioned, I apologize for mentioning it again. Just wanting to help. cheers os
For people using containers, Is 1/3 aeration still recommended? I'd like to hear what ratio people would use for aeration when making a new soil.
I've found, over the years, with using more seed meals, the 1/3 ratio just doesn't get it. I now start with 40% perlite and end up closer to 50% with the addition of pine bark mulch and biochar. There is such a thing as too much organic material (OM), in a mix and it ends up too dense. Wet
HD or Lowes has Dolomite regulary and is ~$4.50/40lb bag. The Ag or calcitic lime seems to be more hit or miss from year to year. I didn't see any at all last year and no one had any info. I do know that deposits of pure calcitic limestone are much less common than dolomite deposits, but I haven't researched it all that much because the dolo has worked well for me for nearly a decade. Good luck in your search. Wet
Sorry to but in ppl. But I have a pH problem and just wondered after reading some of the comments on RO water . Could using it for the odd freshener drink raise the pH in coco??? Sent from my TA-1020 using Tapatalk
I have no idea what that means. Odd freshener drink? “Tyranny anywhere is a threat to freedom everywhere.” — someone awesome
Original poster is I believe looking for answers on why they are seeing high PH after adding Iron Sulphate which should have dropped PH. I grow in soil so her Coco questions are for somebody with experience in the stuff. BNW
I figured that much. Experience in coco. One reason I left it alone. But I Like to be informed a little on all subject in the stuff that interests me(in this case growing marijuana). So when I see questions that are out of my realm I light to look it up
By all means step up to the plate. We need more inquisitive people on the forum. It's a low priority for me as I have a few to many subjects I'm already deep into. I'll lose focus if I get spread to wide on to many subjects. BNW