Rain water

[grapefruitmarmalade]

Now I decided I was gonna use rain water so I collected some rain water that dripped from the roof. It has a yellowish colour... kind like pee. Now I assume that is because of all the dust, sand, wood, pollen and all that from the roof. But is it safe for my plant?

 

[Flash63]

I use pee coloured rain water all the time,mix it with tap 70/30 rain/tap...ec @ 0.2, then i add nutes...been doin this for years now

 

[vostok]

The choice is yours,
the real question is would you drink it, if so
drink it then feed it to your plants if not, give them nice tax paid for water, like form your tap

 

[Flash63]

Depending on where you live, the tap water can be very hard,thats why i use rain water or r/o.not to mention that my water bill is $ 200.00 for two months useage.I do keep my eavestrough clean as well as my rain barrel.It is also acidic thats why i add tap to bring the ph up to 5.8 for my coco....

 

[MonkeyGrinder]

Plants love some rain water in soil. Not sure about soiless. Just check and play with the PH accordingly like Flash stated. It worked well for a girl I played with in a vermiculite/perlite mix this year. It only got rain water.

 

[butsack]

The choice is yours,
the real question is would you drink it, if so
drink it then feed it to your plants if not, give them nice tax paid for water, like form your tap

would you drink everything you feed your plants?

 

[Flash63]

I am really surprised that people don't use rain water,it has no ec and it is free,only thing it's a little acidic,i use H&G line it really brings the ph down in rain or r/o water.i use on seedling right to finnish...

 

[tangerinegreen555]

I started using rainwater a while back. I redirected a down spout to fill a series of plastic 55 gallon barrels, using submersible pumps, etc. Used it the last few grows, all was well.

I'm wondering what's in that roofing grit on new shingles?

If you catch water in a bucket in the middle of the yard it has a 6.8ish pH...
Running off the roof through aluminum down spouts it goes up to 7.9ish...

where's it pick up a over a point in pH? the roof is a couple years old. there is roofing grit (maybe a teaspoon) at the bottom of the 55 gallon barrel. It's so fine it pumps into gallon storage jugs, a couple grit pieces in some.

what is in that grit? you can google it and still not know what it is other than some kind of aggregate or "natural mineral product".
WTF is it? anyone know?

 

[ttystikk]

I'm not sure about rain water; in Colorado we don't get enough of it to play with much.

My water chiller cooled op uses water cooled air handlers for climate control. They can produce up to ten gallons of distilled water daily... each. 0.0 EC, the ladies love it, been using it to top up my RDWC for years.

 

[Richard Drysift]

I use rainwater- that is when I remember to put out a bucket to catch it off my roof. Rainwater contains macro nutrients like calcium and beneficial microbial life so it's good especially for organic living soil grows. My tap water system uses chloramine which would otherwise kill off the microbes that feed my plants so I use water from my dehumidifier and I have an RO unit hooked up to a garden hose but it wastes like 3 gal to every gal of RO water it makes....not terribly efficient. Although RO & distilled water from my dehumidifier is around 3 ppms I need to add liquid organic cal mag to offset the lack of macros unlike rain which is ready for use as it falls from the sky for free.
I would be concerned that the discoloration may be from your roofing shingles or maybe just dirt but if the ph is normal it should be ok to use. If you are doing hydro i would think you would be better off with tap water because a bit of chlorine could actually help control bacteria plus provide macros.

 

[Darth Vapour]

The choice is yours,
the real question is would you drink it, if so
drink it then feed it to your plants if not, give them nice tax paid for water, like form your tap

Well rain water is full of life bacteria Fungi, algae blown from the wind and sucked up into the clouds coming back to earth lol
man My 1000 liter tank rain water storage turns green from Algae growth now would we drink it ??? Fresh rain water boiled i see why not hahah

 

[Richard Drysift]

Well rain water is full of life bacteria Fungi, algae blown from the wind and sucked up into the clouds coming back to earth lol
man My 1000 liter tank rain water storage turns green from Algae growth now would we drink it ??? Fresh rain water boiled i see why not hahah

That is what I need: a huge water storage tank....the empires resources are limitless lol. I am trying to figure out how to collect water for my plants in winter as my backyard hose hooked to an RO unit will be frozen over and it's been too dry around here for the dehumidifier to fill up. Might be melting snow before too long if I can't figure out a better solution but yeah that's a badass tank ya got there Lord Vapour

 

[tangerinegreen555]

That is what I need: a huge water storage tank....the empires resources are limitless lol. I am trying to figure out how to collect water for my plants in winter as my backyard hose hooked to an RO unit will be frozen over and it's been too dry around here for the dehumidifier to fill up. Might be melting snow before too long if I can't figure out a better solution but yeah that's a badass tank ya got there Lord Vapour

Winter is a problem. I can handle storing 150 gallons or so. Been on an OCD milk crate hunt all summer to store and stack 1gallon plastic bottles. Got 39 crates now... but with 9 or 10 plants in flower later, the shit goes fast...

 

[tangerinegreen555]

Well rain water is full of life bacteria Fungi, algae blown from the wind and sucked up into the clouds coming back to earth lol
man My 1000 liter tank rain water storage turns green from Algae growth now would we drink it ??? Fresh rain water boiled i see why not hahah

It's the sun hitting it that makes the algae, right. Just like if you leave a 1 gal. Plastic bottle in the sun a few days.

 

[tangerinegreen555]

Algae is good anyway.

 

[Alienwidow]

Rain water is fine as long as your not doing dwc. The end

 

[Labs Dexter]

I am thinking of using rain water because where I live it never stops raining lol.. I been buying 5litre mineral water Ph is 6.2 and plant thrive on it compared to tap water, but was concerned by rain water there is an industrial estate near to me and was wondering if it would collect their poop from fumes into the clouds and onto my roof??!
And I grow in soil

 

[Darth Vapour]

I am thinking of using rain water because where I live it never stops raining lol.. I been buying 5litre mineral water Ph is 6.2 and plant thrive on it compared to tap water, but was concerned by rain water there is an industrial estate near to me and was wondering if it would collect their poop from fumes into the clouds and onto my roof??!
And I grow in soil

Well your going to get trace elements of the pollution, in your area i would think
shit hit up a rona and purchase UV sterilizer and have it circulate or even a RO system from there lol
Rain water or DWC i wonder if anyone tried i mean have it set up so that rain water goes through UVB sterilizer unit and maybe a membrane making it RO

 

[Labs Dexter]

I think I'll stick with me bottles lol

 

[stnr420]

I've used rainwater a lot....also ran a full cycle with just snowmelt! Ph of 7 0 ppm.