Can I use Distilled water without manipulating pH?

If I was to water with distilled water will I need to manipulate the pH with pH up and down? Or will I just be able to water it with the pH that distilled water comes as? I appreciate anyone who has any info

well distilled water should have a pH of 7.0, so it will probably raise your pH a little. if you wanted you could prepare for this change by making a soil mix with a slightly lower pH.

im no expert and i have a similar concern so anybody with more experience in this situation please help us out here.

Yes if you can drink it u can water ur plants with it

Well I can drink tap water but I try to refrain from giving it to my plants deeznuts.

StaySmokin206 said:

If I was to water with distilled water will I need to manipulate the pH with pH up and down? Or will I just be able to water it with the pH that distilled water comes as? I appreciate anyone who has any info

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people make such a huge deal about PH and this and that, its just a weed, im sure mother nature didnt check the PH of the water....like dsnuts said, if u can drink so can ur plants...

mazand1982 said:

people make such a huge deal about PH and this and that, its just a weed, im sure mother nature didnt check the PH of the water....like dsnuts said, if u can drink so can ur plants...

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Well, mother nature didn't set up an indoor grow space either. I have just heard the strain I am growing is fairly temperamental all around so I would like to avoid stressing out the bitch.

Definitely not "just a weed", it almost offends me when people say this.

As for Mother Nature; she's got a team of bacteria, fungi, and other fauna that live harmoniously in constant competition. In soil, where present, pH is largely up to them (indoors and out).

Nobody go ahead and answer the question.

StaySmokin206 said:

If I was to water with distilled water will I need to manipulate the pH with pH up and down? Or will I just be able to water it with the pH that distilled water comes as? I appreciate anyone who has any info

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I had a website saved but now I cant seem to find it now, it had a list of all the drinking water ph's but Arrowhead water has a Ph of 7 and it works great. Just some good soil like "Dr. Earth and some Arrowhead, and I cant seem to get the Ph on mine to move more than .2 away from 7 no matter what I do.

Heres a site that will help you, its got a Ph scale about halfway down the page.

http://www.cleanairpurewater.com/best_bottled_water.html

I never check my PH...never.

Short answer: no/yes (answers are in order of questions asked)

I grow in organic soil, use bottled water from the local convenient store and add dolomite lime (1 dry ounce per gallon of soil).

Never had a problem.

@206
Both mine n Kulongs answers are good but Its still good to check your Ph. They make probes that do Ph/ moisture (which helps)/Light intake for $8. All good things to have.

I use reg tap water...always have....I used to let it sit out overnight, but never noticed any difference when I stopped doing that....The only thing I try to do, is make sure the water is about 70ish (f)...my ph stays between 6.2 - 6.8

Choppr said:

I use reg tap water...always have....I used to let it sit out overnight, but never noticed any difference when I stopped doing that....The only thing I try to do, is make sure the water is about 70ish (f)...my ph stays between 6.2 - 6.8

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Thing is on that though is, it DEFINITELY depends on where you live! It may be ok where you live (and where i live) but about 40 miles from where i am the water is REALLY bad. The water and the whole city smells like sulfer! Would you put that in your plant. A 3 gallon thing of arrowhead is only $4 max. Its worth it.

I won't drink our tap water unfiltered, I certainly wouldn't feed it to plants.

Our tap water runs at a Ph of almost 9, I don't have a digital meter, but the color change dye goes from green ( 8 ) to dark blue which doesn't show up on the color chart. I have to Ph down the hell out of all the water I use for my fish tank and all my plants because if I don't it kills them. I also have Chloramine in my water (a Chlorine / Ammonia combination that doesn't break down in 24 hours like Chlorine does. It too kills my plants and fish (I use a fully biological filtration system for my fish tank and the Cloramine kills the who biosphere) and every plant in my house, yard, etc is in organic soil. I have to remove it with a set of 2 - 3stage filters for the entire house. Some day I'll get a full on Ph and Ppm meter and see how awful our water is, but for all living things in my house it goes through 2 'whole house' water filters and then under-sink RO filters. They irrigation system gets the only unfiltered water.

However to answer your question, all the literature I've read says the Organic set ups like a Ph of 6.5 to 6.8 for 'best results' and hydroponic like a ph of 5.5 - 5.8. Soil and Organic setups should be tested by runoff, not 'water in' because the Ph buffers in your medium will alter the Ph the roots take up. If your runoff is high Ph down your water in, if your runoff is low, ph up. Hydro setup, check your rez Ph at least once a day and keep it stable as needed.

RetiredToker76 said:

However to answer your question, all the literature I've read says the Organic set ups like a Ph of 6.5 to 6.8 for 'best results' and hydroponic like a ph of 5.5 - 5.8. Soil and Organic setups should be tested by runoff, not 'water in' because the Ph buffers in your medium will alter the Ph the roots take up. If your runoff is high Ph down your water in, if your runoff is low, ph up. Hydro setup, check your rez Ph at least once a day and keep it stable as needed.

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very thorough answer! (Like+Rep)

To complete the answer...

Ph is a small part of the whole problem with Distilled water. Most water you use will have trace elements that any and all plants simply love. Rain water is far from pure. As it falls it collects particles (good and bad) on the way down. It usually ends up with a PPM relative to that of tap water. Distilled water removes ALL microbial and metals in the water, it's truly purified. Even in a soil setup, if using Distilled water you're going to spend a small fortune replacing the micro nutrients that the plant needs such as calcium, magnesium, manganese, etc. So all in all the 'best' option for most plants is ph balanced water that is the best for that of your method and medium; and is nothing more than RO filtered water. That removes 'most' of the bad, and leaves enough 'trace' of the good that the most supplementing of your plants would be something like CalMag. I've looked at the total cost of 'custom detailing' water to your plants by starting with distilled and came to about $150 in nutes and additives to make the water right. It's better to just start with chlorine/chloramine/ammonia free water, with a relatively low ECC/PPM, and Ph to your needs after adding your nutes (if you use liquid nutes)

Peace

I use distilled water to water my plants with and I have had no problems at all just go ahead and check out my grow in my signature.

Distilled water is ok if your adding nutes, but tap would be better as it would have more minerials in the water. Just leave it out a day before you use it so the chlorine level drops.

If you use it straight, you'll likely have few to no problems, what I posted is for 'Best Results' which IMO is the only point in growing, otherwise just buy off the local dro guy.

My first grow suffered because I went overboard with sterility, and making sure I controlled every little detail. I used a coco as a medium and used hydro-organic nutrients and distilled water. I lost three seedlings because my water had absolutely no micro-nutrients and neither did my medium. It's all in your method. If you've got 2 plants in beer cups with Miracle Grow, use whatever water you want to, because that doesn't have control over the tiny details. You'll likely have great results.

I had 10 indoor 'seasons' before I closed down my grow (I got really paranoid) and my first yield was comedic, around the 5th grow I was in organic soil with bat guano tea as my primary nutrient, and a few organic biologic enhancers (good happy bacteria) and watering every 2 -3 days with RO water Ph'd to approx 6.5 at run off.

Compared to my first grow where I hadn't learned about macro and micro nutrient levels, my yield increased from 1 oz for the whole closet, to 4 oz for the closet, by the last grow I had where I tweaked the details of the nutes to the plant I was yielding just over 5.5 oz of incredibly dense potent bud. This was all in a small 250 watt 5sq foot closet. Heat and humidity were miserable to control, but I kept them under 83 and 48% most the time. I grew for myself and myself only, for me it was a science experiment in 'can I do this and do it well' at the end I was very happy with my results.