To the OP, if I were going to use tapwater I would run a test on some bagseed or other annual plants that have similar requirements before using it on expensive seeds. It will at least give you an idea of how well the plants can handle it. I have a general prejudice of treated water for irrigation mainly because my tapwater sucks donkeyballs. I just find it easier to sleep at night knowing my water falls from the sky via the Gulf of Mexico, and runs off an old tin roof into 55 gallon barrels. No dissolved solids,no chlorine, no chloramine, no problems. While getting rid of chlorine may be easy, until you know what the TDS of your water is it's still a shot in the dark.
Sure does. I'd love to see the cost of materials and fabrication to 'de-chloramine' an organic farm of 250 acres or so. Must be a real hoot to conceptualize. More than a hoot - maybe even the perfect way to spend an afternoon with a few grams of hash playing "What if we........??" LD
LOL!! Kind of reminds me of when I moved onto this piece of property 15 years ago after living where we had well water for so many years. Everything in the garden in check-plants keep turning yellow.Draw up 200 gallons of water, bubble for 3 days-plants still yellow. Get a soaking rain-plants are green again. I threw my hands up in the air a long time ago with our city water, and they don't even use chloramine here. One thing to note about chlorine though. The closer to the end of the line you are from where it's treated, the MORE will be in your water.
Hi all, and thanks for your continued interest and help! I discovered my water quality is "considered to be moderately hard at an average level detected of 99.7 ppm or 5.8 grains per gallon" I have no idea what grains per gallon really means, but almost 100 ppm seems like it must be really bad for my plants? what should I do now? would you suggest going for the RO? / some kind of filter? or should i go with the EWC / rich soil + bubbler methods now? ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh 99.7 ppm!? Thanks again GC! -Sustain
MI W When measuring the ppm of water, are there specific minerals that are needed to be identified or is it a cumulative total of whatever is present? I've always wondered about that. LD
I believe it is an electrical measurement of conductivity and so would not be perfect as something like weight. But for our little hobby we should know most of water's ppm is usually calcium carbonate At least in samples i have seen, and good soil mixes seem to tolerate pretty funky water. Heck sometimes I get pond water for compost teas, I can only imagine the ppm of that, lol. All summer I use water from my outside well, the ph is good, but it is so full of iron that it stains everything it hits, ppm is in the mid 300's and ganja loves it. I've seen stinky water full of sulfur gas grow nice plants too. All these in good soil though......MIW Super high ph's would concern me more........MIW
Always interesting to see what i posted at 1AM, lol. I think your hinting at something LD but apparently it is going right over my head. What am i missing? MIW
Thanks MI W Glad to know I don't really have to worry about my ppm since i'm doing an organic soil grow. My PH is usually around 8.2 out of the tap, I have been adjusting that with some 'organic PH down' from earthjuice (EJ is an all organic line out of chico, ca). I know adjusting PH isn't usually worthwhile when doing organic grows, but I use the same water mix for my foliar feeding as well + i'm really not sure how much of a microherd i've really established seeing all my troubles with chloramine of recent. Thanks GC!
Now this is why I love the GC organic forums. Just look at everyone really digging for information to help out another. LOVE IT.
Sustain, the ph adjuster in earth juice down is citric acid. Citric acid is very cheap and easy to find. You can find it around canning supplies in grocery stores. Mix a teaspoon or two in a squirt top water bottle. Shake it up, the acid granules melt fast, then give your water bucket a squirt or two until the ph is where you want it. My biggest reason for using citric acid to adjust high ph water is that citric acid is also one of the exudes that plants use to attract bacteria and fungus ( i don't know if it's both) in their symbiotic relationships. So it's kind of natural. In the soil I don't think the citric acid lasts long in ph adjusting department, but it takes the soil medium through a ph swing and that swing sometimes makes unavailable nutrients available. Same thing happens when we use FPE's or earth juice for that matter, it starts out low ph then the plant and soil adjust as the ph settles. And using high ph water boxes you in to a certain ph, rather than that swing. Perhaps you've seen those charts that show what nutrients are available and at what ph........MIW
thats great info thanks! because I actually just ran out of the down! any idea for an all natural equivalent for the ph up? ^this is great stuff, i know what your thinking about is the CeC relationship between the plants roots and the myco fungus! CeC or cation exchange capacity is the role that facilitates feeding the root systems of your plants through dramatically increased ion exchange. yeah I have looked at those charts, but you mentioning the whole swing that occurs when you adjust the ph has really made me think about them in a completely different way, so kudos to you sir! Thanks again for your awesome replies MI W! rep to you -Sustain
MI W Since I live in Oregon and water quality is not an issue, or at least where I live which has as its water source the pure snow melt from the Mt. Hood National Forest and down the Clackamas River. It's as good as it can get as municipal water districts go in Oregon. The discussion of ppm in water was never something that I learned about so the discussions didn't connect so that's why I asked about specific minerals. If there were a single element that would definitely affect a water pH reading it would be Calcium Carbonate expressed as C++ to show the 'extra' 2 ion exchange sites that control pH by grabbing free-floating hydrogen molecules (the 'H' in pH) which is how pH is stabilized, i.e. it's not a chemical reaction that you would expect when mixing an alkali and an acid. You answered my question succinctly. I now understand that if it's Calcium Carbonate at elevated levels that is being measured and given the soil biology aspect of the element it now makes sense. - Base Saturation, CeC, et al. LD