So most of the threads I have looked up about rain water say that it is good for your plant. Well snow is just crystallized rain, correct? I was thinking during this down time before my first grow I can take a few milk jugs and fill them up with snow (fresh,clean snow of course). Then when Spring comes around I will have a few extra jugs of water. What I'm asking is, Is melted snow water good to water your plants with?
It depends, not necessarily. As you noted, it's the same thing as rain, and rain grabs pollution out of the air, which can introduce contaminants and whack the pH (hence acid rain). Personally I would skip it, snow/rain certainly isn't something valuable that should be stored and horded. If your tap water is decent then I would suggest just getting a filter and using filtered tap water that you let sit open 24 hours before using.
Yes but that defeats the purpose because you have to lug the water. I'm going all organic, so ph isn't a big issue.
rule of thumb around my house is that anything from the outside garden never goes into the inside garden for fear of contamination especially dirty rain/snow water also it takes alot of melted snow to equal a gallon of liquid water
On average, 10 inches (25 centimeters) of snow is equal to inch (2.5 centimeters) of water. Heavy, wet snow may contain as much as 16 percent meltwater by volume. A dry, powdery snow may be as little as 1/13 meltwater by volume. Lets say if I packed a 5 gallon bucket of snow it would be equal to 1/2 gallon of water when melted, on average.
Thank you that is a good think to keep in mind, I can pack it tight, but will it be safe for the plants?
There is a stream by my grow site I have water, but why is everyone avoiding the question? I just want to know if it will be safe for the plants
I have been told that in organic soil the pH is regulated by something in the soil(forgot what it is) and that you don't need to worry about it if its all organic.
that's not true... different soils will give you different ph reactions... that's why you check the ph in the runoff water.... but if it's an outside guerrilla grow then things change.... anyway... I do it indoor and hydro and use melted snow right now because in winter here it does not rain ... don't live in the city so it's very good quality water and never have a problem... of course I need to adjust the ph level now and then....
this "something" is called Dolemite, and yes it will regulate your soils PH to 7.0... however if you water with lets say 5.0 PH, the plant will still burn before the Dolemite can effectively level off the the soils PH. Dolemite can be bought at any garden store. and most quality soils already contain Dolemite my pro-mix #4 has it already in it.
pH most definitely matters. Your plants can only uptake nutrients if the pH is within a certain range, and that pH is influenced by multiple factors, including very importantly the water you use.