Need EXPERT harvest advice and a show of hands

dunno, GG. I use Canna nutes, but I don't know if that's the key.

Which brings me to RO and other heroically purified water... I've done >4400 plants in the last 8 years of running a SoG op, all on tapwater. I've run a few batches on distilled water, since my dehumidifier makes 10-15L of it per day. The plants in distilled water required Ca & Mg supplementation, both normally found for free in tapwater.

feh.

No I tottaly agree to just use tap water for everything.

I only splurg on RO water for flushing....

Where do you live AL?

The reason i ask is
I would like to know about your tapwater.

The water in ohio is 350 ppm and 8.3pH,
and I can tell you that it will reduce your yield,
because when I switched to RO,
my yields went up.

I don't need or use any calmag supplements.
.

Dang!! water here is 135ppm and ph 7.1, then again im 5 miles from from a water treatment place. Does being closer to the treatment place help?

Earl said:

Where do you live AL?

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Sydaneeee, Orstraylia.

The reason i ask is I would like to know about your tapwater.

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Sandstone catchments around here yield naturally soft water.

The water in ohio is 350 ppm and 8.3pH, and I can tell you that it will reduce your yield, because when I switched to RO, my yields went up.

I don't need or use any calmag supplements.

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Tapwater here varies from 150-250ppm, 7.1-8.1. pH goes up after we've had a big wet because the treatment plant puts in more pathogen mitigation to counter cryptosporidum and giardia which gets washed out of the catchments into the reservoirs.

Some nutrients include Ca & Mg, perhaps accounting for why you don't need supplements.

I get yellow spotting on occasion, indicative of Ca deficiency, when my tapwater ppm is unusually low.

As an aside, I was born in Summit County and lived in Ohio until about 1976. I still hang out for Barberton chicken. Small world, this. I DON'T miss soap scum in the bathtub/shower doors and replacing water heaters every 3-4 years, which the very hard water in Ohio will usually cause. You have my sympathies, but I am not entirely sure Ohio municipal water is entirely evil.

Your ppm has nothing to do with the distance to the treatment plant, but more to do with the source of water. Surface water tends to have lower ppm while groundwater (325+ in AZ) is higher ppm and higher pH due to dissolved metals (Na, Mg, Ca, etc...). Dissolved oxygen, ozone, chlorine content, and BOD (Biochemical oxygen demand) do vary a lot in distance but really have no impact on the end user, provided the treatment plant is doing their job. There's a chance your plant is also reducing the hardness of your water by raising the water's pH to precipitate out the metals then bubbling carbon dioxide through it to lower the pH back to drinkable levels. That's why it's important to have th pH of your nute solution right, it is directly related to the solubility of metals at certain pH levels.

Interesting stuff, mrfake. Chemistry in municipal water systems really is fascinating. How you maintain a massive reticulation system to keep a few million people healthy is a big responsibility and I'm amazed that muni water systems don't have more problems than they do.

DAM U GUYS, I have lived in three houses in past 2 yrs and my max was 60ppm out of the tap. I now enjoy a max of 30 ppm and have never purchased distilled water. its all them hobos u guys got pee'in on the street in Cleveland. also earl dumps coolant into ppls watersheds across the state just to make growing harder for them. LOL. informative thread thou thanks. earl those purp widows are super sexy.

That's it!
The people that make RO units
are contaminating the water
so everyone needs to buy a machine.

I envy you with water that clean.
No wonder you have a green thumb.
.

Home water-softeners are the biggest problem, they pull Ca and Mg out of the water then on off-hours they purge them selves of all that sludge by super-saturating the water with salt and discharging it all into the wastewater system. Its gotten so bad in SoCal that some areas can no longer grow salt-sensitive crops like strawberries and avocados because the treatment plants cannot strip the unnatural salt down to acceptable levels. Well, actually they can but it'll require a totally new facility that'll more than quadruple the waterbill. RO is a little better in the sense it just has a membrane that fills up and is thrown away instead of adding ridiculous amounts of TDS to the system, in other words it cant generate more shit than was already in the water.

Here's a random link in case anybody is interested....

http://www.valleywater.org/media/pdf/Salinity_Management_Workshop/DWR On-Site Self Regenerative Water Softeners in CA.pdf

Back in Oh High Oh, I always hated bathing with softener water. Left the skin feeling slippery/soapy. One place I lived in had softener water only running to the water heater while all the cold taps were plain hard water. That was nicer for bathing but still gacked up taps and tubs with mineral film.

I did some recent reading on water softeners- I always wondered where all the friggin' salt went. Soil salinity is a big deal in Orstraya due to the amount of irrigation necessary for agriculture. When you pipe in water, it brings all manner of ionic compounds, which stay in the soil once the water is long gone, eventually making the soil unarable. I've never seen a water softener here- and considering the gack discharged from these things, there may be more to that aside from the water not being terribly hard in most of the continent due to it mainly being sandstone.

RO machine is not water softening.

.

Doesn't it accomplish the same thing, without reagent salt, instead disposing of the minerals with the membrane?

Water softening adds salt.

RO removes everything.

Bathing with RO is actually very nice.

The soap does not linger like soft water.
.

That's what I thought.

People with sodium restricted diets are even being warned these days not to drink softener water, as well. Can be up to 320mg/L NaCl in softener water. I wouldn't put it on a plant.

Use Distilled, RO, or rainwater.

.

Earl said:

I have gone both ways,
and now I have to flush for
at least a week of RO only.

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I use a method like Earl's. I use Clearex for the first 24 hours and then tap water for the the rest of the flush. I time it for a 2 week flush. I go longer if needed.

My tap water is 200 PPM @ 7.1 Why not RO water? I'm too fukin lazy. I already change the water every couple of days during the flush so fuck it. I just take another bong hit and try not to overfill my res like an idiot. I used to adjust the ph during the flush. Then I figured WTF the plants aren't getting anything out of the water anyways so I just leave it at 7.1 and it works fine.

I learned my lesson about flushing 14 years ago when I used fish emulsion right up until harvest! The plants grew like crazy so I thought what the hell. I still remember the fish like taste of the buds. Nasty as fuck! They tasted like butt! Fish butt. The debate on flushing ended right there for me...

I prefer a little more head buzz so I time my flush so that the buds will finish at peak ripeness. My AK47 has a real nice Sativa like high when harvested at 67 days. My Blueberry on the other hand is a little on the ripe side at 67 days but the flavor is better. The high is more Indica like also so it works out well for me. I have a nice Sativa for the day and a super dank Indica for evenings. Both finish in 67.

Earl you got it right about commercial weed. It's hard to buy epic weed here in the States. You have to grow it yourself.

Commercial strains are all about making a profit at the expense of quality. Commercial growers need to turn their crops fast. They can't have massive amounts of weed sitting around curing for months. They can't afford to have long flush times because they need to bring in the next crop. Many of the younger generations have only smoked Indicas their wholes lives and have never even tried a nicely cured Sativa. Sad but true...

I have a new strain I'm trying now that's just about to finish. It's called Tutti Fruiti. It smells just like the name! I sampled a little nug and it seems like it might be worth keeping.

I'd like to find a good old school Hawaiian skunk with a decent finish time. You guys know of any?

I just had some hawaiian skunk... but I was In hawaii at the time it was exspensive but good, VERY SMELLY. glad to hear your ideas on flushing and curing sbud, maybe I will work on my patience and flush and wait for the looonnngggg cure.

StinkBud,
High Grade Seeds has Kona Gold seeds for sale.
.

StinkBud said:

Earl you got it right about commercial weed. It's hard to buy epic weed here in the States. You have to grow it yourself.

Commercial strains are all about making a profit at the expense of quality. Commercial growers need to turn their crops fast. They can't have massive amounts of weed sitting around curing for months. They can't afford to have long flush times because they need to bring in the next crop.

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Unless it is built into the rotation.

I flush for 1 week, and cure for 3.

The Bud has to meet certain standards when going to medical marijuana patients. Medicinial marijuana is always better than the shite you can buy on the street, because of this fact.