Hard or Soft Water?

[Budley Doright]

Doubt the filter is changing the EC unless it is an actual RO filter. They typically have three canisters.

 

[2Hearts]

Have you had a water analyses done? Because that's crazy. My waters 750-900 and my plants will die if given it for more then a week. Then again my soil mix is intended to be used with RO/distilled and I see no deficiencies all the way threw growth if using RO/distilled. Do you grow in Hydro?

Buying ro/distilled water is easier IMO then trying to deal with all the bullshit hard tap water can bring on.

Water is considered hard at 200ppm. I can't fathom how on earth you're not getting massive lockouts from feeding 1200ppm tap water. Your soil/hydro solution must be devoid of all micronutrients in order for it not to be causing issues. You must be water only feeding, you can't be adding synthetics on top of that 1200ppms right?


1200 ppms is like a late flower hydro feed of synthetic nutrients, in tap water that's going to be most iron/calcium/magnesium. More then enough to cause lockouts of pretty much everything.

Yes that is well above first world legal tollerances for municipal state water companies and were getting in sea water levels there. Possibly you have a water softener or do not draw from the mains but a local well or somthing.

That said water chemistry is a little bit more than just plain calcium, dont assume that much of that calcium is available to plants and especially if precipitated out of solution.

Start thinking above just calcium and more calcium chloride, calcium nitrate etc etc. You will see some of these words on back of fert bottles.

Water has lots of considerations, i miss having a water scientist here to explain it all. High ppm tap water isnt necessarily bad for plants....

 

[2Hearts]

Doubt the filter is changing the EC unless it is an actual RO filter. They typically have three canisters.

Ask Brita filtera, calcium is hard to remove from water, ro machines somtimes the only way. Tin foil funnel over a pan of boiling water will probably give you a litre an hour of very low ppm water.

 

[2Hearts]

Ah yes plant start ive never used it, but ive heard good things, do you start from seed or cutting?

From seed in rockwool 0.3 -0.5ec start although in all soilessid be using this approach. Most problems are over/under water or too close lights etc not ferts.

Canna,formulex ans vitalink start all list npk levels about 2-1-2 and calcium magnesium at 1-0.5 so its near on impossible to get cal mag problems. If i add calmag to this its going to start exceeding nitrogen pretty quick. Peeps who use these and say calmag deficiency probably got other problems.

A+B might have lower levels but if you have those bottles about might be worth checking calcium %.

Canna state that there is insufficient calcium in a+b till you hit certain ec levels.

Ferts is complicated just get complete ones and trust your plant has all it needs. I think vitalink is quite complete and aimed at hydro coco in that its a chem fert. Should be safe with these.

 

[ItsJustMe84]

From seed in rockwool 0.3 -0.5ec start although in all soilessid be using this approach. Most problems are over/under water or too close lights etc not ferts.

Canna,formulex ans vitalink start all list npk levels about 2-1-2 and calcium magnesium at 1-0.5 so its near on impossible to get cal mag problems. If i add calmag to this its going to start exceeding nitrogen pretty quick. Peeps who use these and say calmag deficiency probably got other problems.

A+B might have lower levels but if you have those bottles about might be worth checking calcium %.

Canna state that there is insufficient calcium in a+b till you hit certain ec levels.

Ferts is complicated just get complete ones and trust your plant has all it needs. I think vitalink is quite complete and aimed at hydro coco in that its a chem fert. Should be safe with these.

Cheers dude, ill be going from seed, would you reccomend plant start instead of a and b base nutes for the first week or so? Ill be just germanating in a paper towel then planting the seed in small pots of coco and perlite mix.

 

[2Hearts]

Ive never had a nute cause problems if you get the dosage right, either should do. Plant start and a+b both say they are complete ferts pretty sure.

You worry too much, neither will make your plants suffer, peeps blame nutes but its more user error or other things.

 

[ItsJustMe84]

Nah im not worried, just curious on wether to buy plant start for the first week before going onto base nutes, which maybe a little strong to start my seedlings on. But im not going to buy it unless i know what it is and what it does hence why i asked you.

 

[Sidvicious13]

I'm don't think a high ph means your water is hard. My tap ph is 8.5+ and my water is soft. And by soft I mean it makes lots of suds with soap. Ppm might determine hardness or softness, seems like the closer I am to the ocean the harder the water. Ie dissolved solids or salts. I'm no expert by any means, however!

 

[2Hearts]

I'm don't think a high ph means your water is hard. My tap ph is 8.5+ and my water is soft. And by soft I mean it makes lots of suds with soap. Ppm might determine hardness or softness, seems like the closer I am to the ocean the harder the water. Ie dissolved solids or salts. I'm no expert by any means, however!

Dude where i live they bottle and sell our tap water, theres little in it except calcium and thats why it affects our ph. Uk aint like Usa if your getting over 400ppm. Water companies here publish every reading and state 400ppm is very rare plus they themselves are governed by strict european 'safe drinking water guidelines' which they independantly monitor.

Yer our water beats the hec out of most countries cause were cleverer!

 

[MrStickyScissors]

My well water ppm reads 1200. I used it last time around and this time around only filtering it through an inline hose filter, the kind that RVs use. Plants did awesome, just as good as when I was a moron buying distilled water at 1 dollar a gallon. I give my outdoor garden unfiltered well water all the time and its always a jungle so I'm just gonna use the well water through that cheap filter and call it a day. I never had more problems with micro deficiencies than when I was using distilled water, and a good soil will buffer the pH. Just my two cents

damn a gallon of water is 35 cents at the wendmill. and just get a RO filter. Guess you had a strong strain.

 

[Cpappa27]

damn a gallon of water is 35 cents at the wendmill. and just get a RO filter. Guess you had a strong strain.

It was multiple strains. Skunk Classic by flying dutchmen, critical kush, taskenti, critical sensi star, cheesy dick, blueberry by dutch masters, kalashnikova, master kush, and herijuana jack 33. Oh and a few random autos in the corner for a half time treat. All did great except for Critical Sensi Star, worst plant i've ever grown..

 

[MrStickyScissors]

lol sensi star is always bunk

 

[ItsJustMe84]

Right im confused now, and need some sound advice preferably from someone British as i understand our waters alot different to Americas, i just got a tds 3 meter today and it reads my water at 110ppm which is soft, yet my ph tester reads 8.2 and the water company reports my waters slightly hard... how the hell am.i suppose to chose the right nute plan with those readings???

 

[ItsJustMe84]

Dude where i live they bottle and sell our tap water, theres little in it except calcium and thats why it affects our ph. Uk aint like Usa if your getting over 400ppm. Water companies here publish every reading and state 400ppm is very rare plus they themselves are governed by strict european 'safe drinking water guidelines' which they independantly monitor.

Yer our water beats the hec out of most countries cause were cleverer!

Preferably id like your input

 

[Budley Doright]

Dude where i live they bottle and sell our tap water, theres little in it except calcium and thats why it affects our ph. Uk aint like Usa if your getting over 400ppm. Water companies here publish every reading and state 400ppm is very rare plus they themselves are governed by strict european 'safe drinking water guidelines' which they independantly monitor.

Yer our water beats the hec out of most countries cause were cleverer!

Huh? Hows that work lol.

 

[2Hearts]

Huh? Hows that work lol.

Hows what work?

 

[2Hearts]

Right im confused now, and need some sound advice preferably from someone British as i understand our waters alot different to Americas, i just got a tds 3 meter today and it reads my water at 110ppm which is soft, yet my ph tester reads 8.2 and the water company reports my waters slightly hard... how the hell am.i suppose to chose the right nute plan with those readings???

Call a fertilizer company like Vitalink and ask what they recomend for your water or maybe just buy a non hard/soft water fert.

 

[2Hearts]

Huh? Hows that work lol.

Hows what work?

 

[ItsJustMe84]

Hows what work?

I dont understand how the water can test hard through ph and soft through ppm

 

[2Hearts]

Water hardness is not related to ph in any way but calcium will influence both... Voila