hey guys newbie here I'm just wondering what type of water is best to use for watering? I know rain water is good and if you let tap water sit open for 24hrs is ok but what about purified water? and distilled? what's the best way to go? happy growing!!! -JT
[quote name='"JOHNDOE206"']hey guys newbie here I'm just wondering what type of water is best to use for watering? I know rain water is good and if you let tap water sit open for 24hrs is ok but what about purified water? and distilled? what's the best way to go? happy growing!!! -JT[/quote] Find out what's in your tap first. Municipalities usually have that info online. If your on a well have it tested. I use tap, bubbled off for 24hrs. RO systems are wasteful. IMO if your going to filter go with a filtration system instead of a RO system. Filtration still leaves the minerals in water. Distilled and purified would get expensive quickly. My 2 pennies.
ok sounds good, as far as a filtration system If I bought a pure filter that screws on to my faucet work?
My tap water is all jacked up. Even after bubbling, we still have all sorts of issues because of its hardness or whatever else. I just got tired of messing with it and started using the water machine outside my local grocery. I can get 5 gallons of RO water for .50, so I fill up 10 gallons at a time just for my plants. I do this twice a month on average...equating to $24 a year. Tha machines have a notice on them that tells how the water is filtered. I take that with a grain of salt...but still its been working for me much better than my tap ever did.
right on, I'll start using the water machine as well. hey just wondering what does RO water mean? my tap water is fucked off as well my plants started having a deficiency and I'm sure my tap water isn't helping one bit neither was my Scots moister control soil I was useing I'm gonna do a soil swap in the morning I went n got some humbolt natural & organic soil so I hope it help Idk what caused it in the first place.... ne-ways thanks for the help I really appreciate your feed back JT
lol...I like the water that is wet...... But,seriously, check with your water company. All water companies use chlorine to kill bacteria and will dissipate off after setting a day. Some water companies add chloramine and very seldom will you see this with water companies but, can happen. Chloromine will not dissipate like chlorine and needs some compost and an air stone for that job... Never ever had an issue from any water source and believe the standard is much the same across the board... One thing for sure with me is, if it tastes rank or, smells I won't feed to my plants... I would consider a good water source as one with 300ppm or less of minerals. I think water is more a concern when growing with chemical fertilizer and especially with coco mediums...The benefits of using RO water is you know your at 0 ppm and because you control the environment you replace the minerals the plants need in proper ratios that are detrimental to their health... I always used my tap water @ 600ppm and the plants were healthy. I went to purified just to cover all the bases of a good grow and feel comfortable with that decision. Her's a good source and inexpensive RO system to consider if you tap water is unsatisfactory.... PureWaterClub.com
I use mineral water… is it OK ? But when it rains I collect the rainwater. Sometimes I use water from the ground ( from 15 m deep ).
I hear of growers that use mineral(spring)water with good results....I'm content with my 10 cent a gallon purified water.... As for rain in most all case is good but, you might want to read this: Acid rain - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The bottom line...If your plants are showing positive results your good....
[quote name='"colafarmer"'] I hear of growers hat use mineral(spring)water with good results.... As for rain in most all case is good but, you might want to read this: Acid rain - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The bottom line...If your plants are showing positive results your good....[/quote] Thanks bro! I'll read that
Useful info, i was thinking about going for an RO system for my organic grow. When you are referring to filtration could you give an example of a product that does this? Kinda like brita filters? I am sick and tired of carrying 80 liters of water every week (and they will be about 200 the week in the not so distant future, so you can figure out my situation...).
I use tap water I fill a five gallon container immediately after every watering and let it sit out, I adjust the ph my tap is usually at 8-9.0 get it back down to 6.3-6.5 and im golden, works great. It's a fucking weed, not a newborn kitty. Outdoor grows work great because people tend not to finger fuck there outdoor grows. Do you know why so many grows fail? People overthink, overwater, overfert and over fuck with there grows. Once again it is a weed it practically grows itself, provide environment, water it when its dry, add ferts once a week, with ferts less is more, it is easy to recover from a nute deficiency and next to impossible to recover from nute burning your plant. Deficiencies are a normal occurance in nature, burning caused by over fertilization is not. The same is true of water easy to add water very hard to take it out. Great rule of thumb ease up to everything I usually dont ever go full fert's till im in flower.
lowryder....This works pretty good ZeroWater ZJ-003 Filtration Water Cooler Bottle with Electronic Tester, Filters Included: Amazon.com: Kitchen & Dining and can set up in a 5 gal bucket with a spigot. The only concerns I had at the time I was considering is that my tap had a lot of minerals that would require changing out the filters to often, making it expensive. The filters are not that cheap. If you only had to replace a couple times a year would be good. The system is pretty cheap to get started and would not be a major loss if one decided replacing the filters was impractical..... I would prefer one of these over RO if practical and economical....RO filters do need replacing from time to time also....
Good to know bro! My tap water has about 250 ppm, i have tested it with my PPM meter. Its not that high but it contains some chlorium and much CaCo3 preventing me from using it with the organic soil mix i wanna make. Its ok if i have to replace the filter every 6 months, i was planning on getting a Wassertech RO filter which costs about 120$, so it would be the same more or less in terms of price. As you mentioned RO would seem more useful in a grow with chemical nutes where we want to control the exact amount of food we are giving to our babies. You are always helpful, i remember you from the coco section (i failed miserably back then, i still have the Acapulco Gold growing, check out my current grow whenever you have the chance! Its my last grow with chemical nutes.
You check ph often? My ph meter hasnt been used in a very long time for anything other than my fermented stuff...the RO water that I use is still in the very high 7's but I dont worry about adjusting it...what are you using for soil? Just curious. I would think that indoor and outdoor are a bit different since one is in the ground and can pretty much benefit frm a higher chance of buffering of some sort? My raised bed has a few items in it in that dont seem to mind the municipal water that comes from the sprinklers...but I know that if I use that same water in my potted plants inside the tent (as I have in the past) things get a little dicey... You add ferts once a week? Again, what type of soil mix are you using? Please dont get me wrong with all my quotes. Im not saying that you are wrong nor am I saying that I am right...Here's an example of why I use RO (this is just tailored to my situation). When I made the switch to RO water, I did so because I had actually called my local treatment facility. After getting bounced around from person to person, I finally got put on with the office who actually does the addition of chemicals to treat the water. I was more concerned with Chloramine but was told that they only use Chlorine (I think that I remember him saying something about flouride which I later read is a controversial issue also). Since I live in an area where there are alot of farms next to a river, I was told that there tends to be a lot of run off from the farms eventually going to the river...which further complicates issues. Everything grown out here in the desert is synthetic leading to the water treatment plants go full on with trying to provide safe drinkable tap. Im no professional but that and the fact they suggest to people out here to drink bottled water whenever possible...well you guys get my point Im sure. RO is just one way out of many to go. I collect rain water also whenever possible...but that dont happen to much out here in the desert.
I think that's your problem JD DDD, now I see your point, good call on going with the water machine my 2 cents- If you have hard water, a RO filter removes lots of the calcium carbonate that buffers the ph and that clogs the membrane quickly. Then we add lime to our soil to buffer the ph, mmmmm, see my point? The cheap RO unit can waste 10 gallons of water to make 1 gallon of somewhat pure water and with hard water will need lots of maintenance. Sometime RO is the only logical choice, like DDD's situation
im not going to lie........im really starting to think the whole "water" thing is another myth brought unto us by the grow companies, so they can make money. ive used tap water without de-chlorinizing it first, and i received no ill effects. at all. i didnt pH it either, and my plants looked happy as ever when i gave it to them. even when i clone, i put straight tap water into my aero bucket. i dont use any rooting hormone to dip into, no honey or aloe, no nutrients.......just pure tap water right out of the faucet for cloning. even though i think i would get a perfect clone ratio if i used hormone, 8/10 will make it when i clone in nothing but tap water, which is pretty good. so, unless you have extremely hard well water, i think tap will do just fine. if you want to spend the extra cash on distilled water or an RO machine, i have absolutely nothing against it. nothings wrong with tap. we had a rainless summer this year......but the tomatoes we grew were ginormous and delicious, all thanks to lake erie tap water!!!
The truth is that chlorine is a nutrient and aids in the photosynthesis of a plant... lol...Don't stop de chlorinating just yet...If I'm correct over 30ppm of chlorine will have serious negative effects on plants... Ive read documentation and tests, where growing tomatoes with de chlorinated water, that the plants did better.... My theory on this is the tomato plants were weaned and built up a tolerance to the chlorine which aided them....Same goes for outdoor plants, they have built up a tolerance to water out of the faucet... To much chlorine in the municipal water could have reversed those results.... Not suggesting to stop de chlorinating your water, just passing on some info I picked up along the way..... Anyone considering this needs to check with their water company as what ppm they use...The biggest concern here would be can you trust your water company that it never uses more than they specify... To be honest, in my early days I did use water with chlorine with no ill effects but, learned that plants do just as well without chlorine, so why risk ruining a good thing...