felicianick
Member
I’m growing organic is it OK to use distilled water for the plants ?
Water
- Thread starter felicianick
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Bugeye
Well-Known Member
Cal/mag is required in organic gardening and micro life need some too. Not sure if is an organic compound, think that depends on carbon being present?
Considering they've been adding salicylic acid and not listing it, possibly.
https://www.oregon.gov/ODA/programs/Pesticides/Documents/2018Advisories/BudCandy.pdf
Sorry, not bro science
Bugeye
Well-Known Member
I don't think Bud Candy is their cal/mag product.Considering they've been adding salicylic acid and not listing it, possibly.
https://www.oregon.gov/ODA/programs/Pesticides/Documents/2018Advisories/BudCandy.pdf
Sorry, not bro science
using distilled water and RO water straight isn't recommended. it leaches water out of the plant.... you water it and a wonderfully redundant process of REVERSE OSMOSIS happens in the roots. you end up leaching water out of the plant into the water in the soil.... then the plant stops eating b/c it knows it's dehydrated so it goes into survival mode .... since it stopped eating the soil gets full of the nutes you put in... this throws the soil into disarray, now your medium is messed up... .....all the while you keep watering it because you see your plant dying, looking dry and thirsty - but the pure water you are putting in it ends up dehydrating it some more - and it cycles into death...
there are 'organic' cal mag supplements on the market - however that US 'Organic' label is so bastardized that right now companies can get away with all sorts of stuff while still calling it organic....
google Wood Ash. it works as PH up and also has traces of cal/mag.
every grower I know uses Dolomitic lime, when needed if needed..... not sure how much help that is....
there are 'organic' cal mag supplements on the market - however that US 'Organic' label is so bastardized that right now companies can get away with all sorts of stuff while still calling it organic....
google Wood Ash. it works as PH up and also has traces of cal/mag.
every grower I know uses Dolomitic lime, when needed if needed..... not sure how much help that is....
T macc
Well-Known Member
Or you can top dress with gypsum. Or some other calcium source.
I don't like to add cal mag to my soil, but if things start looking bad then I would add cal mag as a short term fix and get something in my soil. I'm running no-till now tho. So you can change the soil recipe to have more calcium and magnesium when you transplant if that's your method.
Distilled is lifeless. I would much rather use RO. I didn't notice too much of an I'll effect using RO. Just that there's no calcium. So I switched back to tap. Good info in the post above, but would argue not all RO being include. 3 step RO is the max I would do. There is 4 step and I think 5 step filters that purify the water more so, making it more like distilled; lifeless
I don't like to add cal mag to my soil, but if things start looking bad then I would add cal mag as a short term fix and get something in my soil. I'm running no-till now tho. So you can change the soil recipe to have more calcium and magnesium when you transplant if that's your method.
Distilled is lifeless. I would much rather use RO. I didn't notice too much of an I'll effect using RO. Just that there's no calcium. So I switched back to tap. Good info in the post above, but would argue not all RO being include. 3 step RO is the max I would do. There is 4 step and I think 5 step filters that purify the water more so, making it more like distilled; lifeless
Bugeye
Well-Known Member
What do you mean by lifeless water? I guess I might call watered softened by a salt based ion exchange lifeless, but I don't understand why distilled water would be described that way.
OldMedUser
Well-Known Member
There's a prime example of 'bro science' .
I guess the few hundred plants and pounds of pot I've harvested from them the last 18 years are a figment of my imagination then? Every single plant has been raised drinking RO water or sometimes distilled in DWC or soilless grows.
What messes up plants is hard water. Every time you water in pots using it the minerals are left behind as the plants use very little so it builds up in the pots like the scale in a kettle or coffee maker until it majorly screws up the pH and nutrient balance in the pots and the plants suffer. If leaching/flushing is required then RO water is best for that as it's lack of minerals makes it a better solvent to remove excess minerals in the pots. Distilled is fine too but generally more expensive as heat is needed to boil the water.
There is nothing 'organic' about minerals like calcium, magnesium etc. They are mineral salts mined from mother earth and essential for healthy plant growth. Same as the fancy, (and expensive), rock dusts that organic growers like to add to their witches brews to grow plants. Just use a little calmag or add some gypsum and dolomitic lime to the soil mix so the plants can get what they need. Epsom salts are good to add in flowering to boost the Mg and also the sulfur which plants need more of then to help resin and terpene production.
Not really I read that on RQS's website years ago and it's still there today.
I guess their experience in growing stable, reliable genetics over generations, trying and testing tens of thousands of plants hasn't taught them shit.
Fucking bro's.
https://www.royalqueenseeds.com/blog-reverse-osmosis-water-and-growing-great-cannabis-n410
OldMedUser
Well-Known Member
You must be referring to this quote from that article.
"Straight up reverse osmosis water will deplete your plants of calcium and magnesium so fast your head will spin."
That's just wrong. It will not remove either from your plants but won't provide it. If you are using soil with a good supply of those minerals the RO will dissolve those and your plant will get them. In a good soilless mix like the ProMix HP I use it has lots of calcium and magnesium in it in the forms of dolomitic and calcitic limestone added to maintain pH.
To cherry-pick one inaccurate statement from one article you found on the interweb and state it as fact is showing poor judgement and spreading erroneous bro-science that the less informed will think is true when it's not.
It's easy enough to replace the Mg and Ca not provided by the water and you don't have to worry about the alkalinity in hard water or harmful mineral salts like excess iron, sodium, lead etc. Not to mention chlorine, chloramine and fluoride. Chlorine will evaporate from an open pail of water but the others won't.
We buy RO water for drinking as our house water comes from a dugout on my property that is pH 8 and 400ppm and likely loaded with farmer chemicals that leach off the fields around it thanks to the dickwad farmer growing his GE crops right beside me. Water with a RoundUp chaser is not what I want to drink. Sprays lots of other crap as well and shows no consideration to wind direction when he sprays.
I add some minerals in the form of pink Himalayan sea salt and coral calcium to the RO we buy for drinking and a bit of CalMag once in a while to the RO I give my plants tho I use less than half the recommended amount. More is not always better.
I know a little bit about the chemistry of water having gone back to school in my 30s to get a diploma in environmental chemistry.
https://www.maximumyield.com/understanding-reverse-osmosis-and-how-it-benefits-plants/2/17264
Logan Burke
Well-Known Member
I've always heard that dolomite lime is great for supplementing calmag and also helps to support PH stability. As far as RO goes, right on OldMedUser! RO will only leach out your minerals if you are flat out flushing your soil with it...in which case this is desirable...but not watering your plants for a regular watering it won't, it will just make the minerals available to the root zone as it does with all of the other nutrients in the soil. Follow OldMedUser and you'll be fine, he's helped me and I'm sure he can assist you, OP!
LOL you think they only lie on one label? They did that on more than one label. Also they had been caught out for using different sources for major nutrients than stated. I won't trust a liar.
Bugeye
Well-Known Member
No, I don't buy their products because they are seriously overpriced junk. lol
all I'm saying is that you called what I said 'Bro Science' and it's the opposite... it's established fact... so screwww you. 
keep on selling the RO water BS I'm sure there's others that'll bite. I think it is snake oil..... I think tap water is better and you're not changing my mind
I have a degree in accounting and trust me you don't want me signing off on your financial statements...
keep on selling the RO water BS I'm sure there's others that'll bite. I think it is snake oil..... I think tap water is better and you're not changing my mind
I have a degree in accounting and trust me you don't want me signing off on your financial statements...
Bugeye
Well-Known Member
I've read not to use straight RO or distilled water in more than a couple of gardening books that talked about it not buffering well and stripping ions from the soil. I can't say it ever made sense to me because it seems like it will still buffer and aren't you stripping ions from the soil with any water? Anyway, the idea that soft water should not be used in gardening is out there, but seems like rain water is soft, so very confusing. Can you explain if there is any real difference between rain water, distilled water, and ro water, let's assume they are all 0 TDS. Thanks!
Edit - I'm wondering if the comment above on distilled water being dead or non living is referring to the O2 levels? That seems like an easy fix, just bubble it or shake it up a bit.
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T macc
Well-Known Member
My bad. I had to go Google this again. Distilled is fine if your soil or nutes are right. I thought I had read something years ago about it not being good for plants. Maybe I'm thinking about human consumption? Disregard my comment above. Deleting that part of the post so there's no misinformation.
Edit: too late to fix the post
OldMedUser
Well-Known Member
Distilled and RO are virtually the same if treated the same. By that I mean that they get passed thru a carbon filter after they go thru the still or membrane filter to remove any VOCs, (volatile organic compounds). A de-ionizing filter is good to have for post treatment too as it will remove any radical ions from the water for even higher purity. When I make colloidal silver I use Distilled, De-ionized water I buy from the drugstore for about $4/gal. That's about as pure as it can be.
Rain water is not as pure as it picks up all sorts of things in our atmosphere on it's way down. Every drop of rain, or snowflake, needs a particle of dust to form. As it falls it picks up molecules of whatever it hits on the way down. Remember acid rain? That is caused by raindrops picking up things like oxides of nitrogen and sulfur. NOx and SOx which are produced in abundance from burning fossil fuels particularly coal. Since many of the coal-fired power plants have converted to natural gas and vehicles use low sulfur fuels now levels of those compounds in the air have greatly decreased. Rain water is generally slightly acidic and can be as low as 5 in places.