Water quality with organics

Depending on your water, much of the contaminants (read chlorine) can evaporate out of the water fairly easily. Setting a bucket out the night before you water, or just bubbling plain water for some time will help. A healthy population of microbes in the soil can do wonders for regulating harsh conditions, but they don't make the plant bulletproof. For the most part, whatever concerns you with your water can be fixed with a filter and time.

 

You should try to determine what is making the water "hard" by reviewing a water report. IOW , if the hardness is being caused by a bicarbonate (Ca or Mg) you might address one way, if the hardness is being caused by a sulphate (Ca or Mg) you might have to address another way. The details are in a water report.

Either way soil humus (soil organic matter) is the best "buffer" you can use to address it, without which "hard" water might catch up to you in 4 months....or it may not.

 

Can you post a copy of the report?

 

You are using municipal water opposed to well water? If municipal the report will be easily found online. If using well water and it doesn't have an unpleasant smell (sulpher) it is probably good to go right out of the ground. Getting your hands on the water report and it will put your mind to rest. I've never heard or experienced a hobby grower (like all of us) growing organically that ever have issues with well water and rarely have issues with municipal water requiring any (significant) treatment or process to 'correct something', operative word above being 'significant'.

Gimiks PDF library might have something on water hardness and what, if anything, it might have to explain or relate to your situation with your water. IDK. .....

 

As a former RO user, your tap is probably just what your plants need.

 

Chlorine is easy to evaporate, chloramine does not evaporate, most city waters contain chloramine. Chlorine is an important micronutrient. Like most things, chlorine is only harmful in excessive amounts. Your soil will not die from a single dose, but used frequently u will definitely notice some problems. Chemicals dont show on ppm or ec meters, so you probably have 450 ppm of minerals and metals. Some are great (iron), some not so much (alluminum).
Personally, i go by taste, if water tastes good to me, its probably not the worst for my plants.

lovin u (=

 

ah but chloramine gets converted to chlorine from contact with organic matter.
i think that's the third time i said that today, lol!

 

Thats very valuable information sc00by, can u elaborate any further on that? Thank you

lovin u (=

 

do you enjoy worm castings, animal poop or fish emulsions as much as plants do? Joking....Many good tasting water like ro are lacking in nutrients that then as growers we add back. Such as cal/mag. After laying off ro I no longer use no where near as much cal mag. Your plants would probably prefer mud puddle water as long as it wasn't contaminated, which I know my taste buds wouldn't. Contaminated or not. As long as soil is high in organic matter water can be used straight from the tap just about anywhere regardless to chlorine/ cholaramine etc. Look at most vegetable gardens. Most people just grab the garden hose.

 

I boiled my water let it cool and the ppm went up? Lol tf who knows what's in there started at 120 went to 230

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there's certain accidents where you may be drunk and on drugs.
but it's going to happen weather you are or your not
-Ricky

 

Well boiling will evaporate the water, but leave the contaminants, so it gets a higher ppm the longer you do it.

I was meaning using an airstone, like what's in aquariums, to bubble air through the water.

Some shit just doesn't evaporate though and you're best to use some type of filter.
But, with organics there is a lot more leeway in what your soil/plant can handle than there is with any other method of growing. Which is why a lot of us don't bother with that stuff. I wonder what my tap water would read...

 

You don't wanna know what's in it lol. Here there's over 30 chems in it that that's are "safe" in a city a million+

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there's certain accidents where you may be drunk and on drugs.
but it's going to happen weather you are or your not
-Ricky

 

I used to install water mains, from the well, to the service meter. I probably laid close to a thousand miles of pipe, thousands of water meters, and helped construct several of the pump houses, in which I got to install many chlorine lines. In the bigger cities, they used choloramine, and added fluoride. Maybe an additive here or there, of the water was red (can't quite recall the name) most of my work was installing brand new systems, In rural areas, and the only treatment I've ever seen them use, is chlorine (not choloramine). So I think there is a major difference between big city water, and smaller rural water systems when it comes to quality and what is added to our water

 

Gimik explained it on the old not till thread:
No-Till Gardening

 

I am pretty sure chlorine/chloramine is Neutralized via contact with organic matter/soil and boiling only expands and multiplies the bad stuff sadly. It may kill of somethings but other things only become worse.

Tap water should be fine, Just water the soil not the plants.