water quality (this is a must read for newbies)

when you use anything other than PURE water, you are not necessarily going to end up with right amount of trace elements when you fertilize. also, you are possibly leading towards nutrient lockout. many sources of municipal water are heavily laden with chlorine, which is a poison meant to kill everything in the water. would you drink swimming pool water? water, even well water, is often hard. water is often loaded with calcium.

all this stuff can get abit complex. the simple thing to know is, USE REVERSE OSMOSIS WATER EXCLUSIVELY. especially a newbie should be doing this. you dont want to learn things the hard way and have to relearn what to do when you make the switch to R O water. whithout pure water, you really wont be learning how to care for plants. you wont be learning the real needs of your plants. you need water that is pure so you can add everything plants need in the right portions. remember that water from any source can fluctuate, and you wont have a clue how to compensate.

save yourself a lot of hassle. dont bother growing until you have an adequate supply of R O on hand. th systems can be had fro a few hundred bucks. you should also upgrade the tank. they typically come with a 2 gallon tank. keep inmind that the tank has an internal bladder that occupies some of the space. so a 2 gallon tank will only give you maybe a gallon of water. thats not going to cut it. spend 100-150 bucks and get a nice sized tank.

water quality is something newbies dont really think about. it really should be a top priority in setup, not an after thought. if you cant afford a few hundred dollars for a filter system, you must have bigger things to worry about than growing a plant. maybe its time to reconsider growing. at the very least, use your first crop to buy an R O system. you cant control whats in your water unless you purify it.

some municipal water is so bad, that the PPM (parts per million) is a big problem. problems will compound unto eachother until you feel that theres nothing you can do. if your water is pretty bad, things will spiral out of control and you wont be able to diagnose, then treat, these problems. without pure water, youre setting yourselves up for failure. you wont get the best results until you realize that R O is a must have. you WILL struggle without pure water and when you see how much better it is to use pure water, you will be upset that you didnt heed my advice from the start. im pretty inteligent about water purification. feel free to ask questions.

 

you shouldnt misguide people like this. everybody has different quality water at their tap. whats "not realistic"?

i never said you cant grow good quality with unpure water. sure you can. your situation is less common than you lead people to believe. many water sources are going to cause problems. sure a crop can be grown. but why compromise plant health and subsequently the yield? anybody wanting to have less problems and the best results will shell out a few measly hundred bucks for an R O. the improved plant performance will pay for the system in short order.

test your tap water PPM and post it please. what does your journal prove to people? they dont have your tap water.

collecting rain for an indoor grow? no thanks, for many reasons. its simply not practical for alot of people. some areas get little rainfall. and it doesnt rain in the dead of winter for some people, it snows! plus, the more outside things you introduce into the growroom, the more chance of bringing in bugs. your rain water idea might work for YOU, but dont misguide people and tell them i am posting "fear mongering". who the hell would justify using rain water just to save a few hundred dollars? the system will work day in and day out, providing a cheap source of pure water for growiing and for drinking. nothing is helthier to drink.

bottom line is that none of your water sources have a constant mineralk content. so thats one more variable to contend with. not so good, especially for newbies. congrats on your success, but your post is garbage.

 

below 100 ppm is pretty good for tap water, and im sure it will grow in soil without horrid problems. but for how long? large plant setups will suffer from the water far longer than other setups. eventually it may catch up to the grower. in that 100 ppm, you have zero clue what is there. could be calcium. so a full dose of fert will then be 100 ppm too much calcium every time you add it. why deal with this? ok so youre pulling off some crops that you THINK are as heavy and good as they can be. but what about the newbie who has no PPM meter and whose water is 300 PPM? he surely will run into problems.

to those that believe in flushing before harvest, wouldnt you prefer pure water?

why bother using a flawed ingredient such as impure water? people will spend hundreds on nutes and additives that "claim" to do great things, but argue about spending on a water filter. i laugh at those who buy crap like Purple Max or whatver the heck its called. ok heres a product that claims to promote purpling of buds. what a waste of money.

ive listed great reasons to use R O. what are the reasons NOT to use it??!!

people who preach against pure water likely have little or no experience with pure water. so they arent qualified to advise against it or to promote using tap water. using R O makes things so much easier, consistent, and better results. but i guess some stubborn people will never know what theyre missing and never know how they are screwing themselves. no person will regret using R O in growing and its awesome for drinking. go ahead and drink chlorine (poison) if you dont mind it. i choose not to.

 

this post probably should have been first in the thread.

let me just say this to all new growers. you have no experience identifying problems or correcting problems. how will you know if its your water causing the sickness??!! you wont know! you will be adding unecessary ferts, or taking away necessary ferts, or flushing with your bad water... all making more problems. you will be scrambling and scratching your head and asking questions on this forum. problems are hard to identify because many problems are manifested in similar symptoms. youre going to be pissed if you spend money and time failing, just to eventually realize that a few hundred bucks invested in the beginning would have prevented it all.

consistency is awesome. dont downplay water quality. you need certain things to grow... pots, soil, lights, and so on. you also need water. if youre willing to invest in all those other pieces of the puzzle, but not invest in water, youre being ignorant. isnt water one of the most essential things to a plant? give potted plants the best care and the reward will be the best.

 

those that would try to talk you out of getting an R O system have biased views. they havent experienced growing with really bad water. they also havent experienced the benefits of R O. they think that because they have harvested some buds with tap water, that most people can do just as well. your water may be significantly worse than these peoples water. and water from sources such as a river are subject to farm field runoff. such sources will fluctuate with the seasons. R O will remain constant.

some of these people are only speaking from their limited experiences. i mean jeez "fear mongering" is what im being accused of. how ignorant. my advice is 100% logical and cant cost you mare than the cost of an R O, or the cost of buying the water by the gallon. what can advising you NOT to use R O cost you? potentially alot of money and headaches.

you want total control of your grow dont you? you have no control over whats in your water when it comes out of the tap. the potential problems are numerous!

 

few posts and no grow journals. you are basing something on that? irrelevant!!

have you grown with really bad water?

 

i never said to give up unless you get an R O. i also never said good pot is impossible with tap water. in fact, i confirmed that is IS possible with tap water. you keep referring to quality. it is the YIELD that will suffer the most. you also said "get by with shitty tap water". why would anyone be happy just getting by? i guess not everyone wants to excel at what they do.

an RO system is a small investment and one that will pay for itself in time. it also gives you the best drinking water and ice you can imagine. nothings better to quench thirst on a hot day than R O ice water.

i will readily admit that some growers will see more benefits from filtering their tap water than other growers. but make no mistake about it, the benefits are there. R O water is the first step towards perfect health all the way til harvest. i look at some peoples pictures and see burnt leaf edges and what not. they shrug it off and blame it on the plant being close to harvest or blame it on flushing. nah bro. PERFECT health will elude many of the people using tap water, and therefore many of those people see a diminished yield, but never realize it.

my point is, and has been, if you have the means, buy an R O when your starting up as a new grower. if you dont have a lousy few hundred bucks, maybe you shouldnt be growing in the first place. and at least get the R O after a grow or two provides you with the necessary cash. ok so using rain water CAN be done. so what? the best advice to newbies is buy an R O if at all possible.

 

go ahead and continue to stalk me throughout the threads and post your insults. i will report it every time until your account is deleted. grow up or shut up.

 

thanks for chiming in.

R O is the only solution for alot of people. some can get by without it, but would still benefit from it. PPM of 300+ is more common than what some would expect or lead people to believe. R O is the ONLY filter that will correct water that bad. trust me, other filters are a waste of your time with water like that. there are disolved solids that pass through every filter except the R O membrane itself. R O wont fix your PH if its off, but most tap water PH is within tolerance.

yeah rain water isnt practical AT ALL. yet somehow im a "troll" for saying so. lol some people on here have real advice backed by real knowledge. some people just run their mouths and act like a few crops makes them worthy of giving advice. hopefully most readers can see who is worth taking advice from.