Soft or hard water
- Thread starter ab2t2000
- Start date
oHIGHo™
Member
I've always been told, and I believe, soft water produced via a water softener machine will eventually kill the plant. I turn mine off in the spring and summer, it has a bypass lever in the back. I've never actually killed a plant with soft water but I had the same question as you many years ago.
It makes sense though, I mean you are softening the water with salt. If anyone knows any different please chime in, I would love to know.
It makes sense though, I mean you are softening the water with salt. If anyone knows any different please chime in, I would love to know.
Nutty sKunK
Well-Known Member
Deffo hard water! That’s about 300ppm. In Scotland here my water is 38ppm.
Always the odd plant which wants more calcium!
You don’t soften water with salt. The purpose of the salt is to flush the medium that that water passes through to soften the water.
DanKiller
Well-Known Member
Lol
Soft water are 0.0 ec water, meaning distilled water on the end of the soft scale, RO is a bit above that but still counts as extreme soft water.
Anything above that will be considered hard but the scale is forgiving until 0.3 ec...
Above 0.3 is hard when growing for high production results in coco for instance
So 0.6 is not hard to give to plants but hard when you wanna add nutes to them or maximize their growing potential.
The 0.6 ec is already most of the ec in your water solution therefore making you give less nutes.
As to your 2nd question, follow the hard water chart.
Soft water are 0.0 ec water, meaning distilled water on the end of the soft scale, RO is a bit above that but still counts as extreme soft water.
Anything above that will be considered hard but the scale is forgiving until 0.3 ec...
Above 0.3 is hard when growing for high production results in coco for instance
So 0.6 is not hard to give to plants but hard when you wanna add nutes to them or maximize their growing potential.
The 0.6 ec is already most of the ec in your water solution therefore making you give less nutes.
As to your 2nd question, follow the hard water chart.
ab2t2000
Well-Known Member
Thank you
ab2t2000
Well-Known Member
Not even close mate.
ab2t2000
Well-Known Member
Thanks aswelll mate
oHIGHo™
Member
Ok, I am not an expert on this and this is in fact NOT a hill I want to die on so please go easy......
if you are correct, why is information like this out there? https://swanhose.com/blogs/general-watering/what-you-should-know-about-watering-with-soft-water
DanKiller
Well-Known Member
First, they don't define what soft water is in their sense, if it's referring to some kind of element which "soften the water" (again how can you "soft" water other than removing contaminants from it ?)
Second, this sentence:
"Softened water contains high amounts of salt"
Is just wrong without defining what you actually talk about.
Maybe there's a new definition about this subject that I'm not aware of, but soft water is just as clean as it gets water
Hard water are considered hard because they are laced with a lot of salts.
Second, this sentence:
"Softened water contains high amounts of salt"
Is just wrong without defining what you actually talk about.
Maybe there's a new definition about this subject that I'm not aware of, but soft water is just as clean as it gets water
Hard water are considered hard because they are laced with a lot of salts.
You really need to know what that .6EC is coming from.Na is alot different from Ca,Mg. If the pH is high try adjusting the pH down to around 6 with citric and then take a EC measurement, that may drop the EC in half. Some of that .6 could be bicarbonate registering on the meter.
ION-EXCHANGE. 
Conventional water-softening appliances intended for household use depend on an ion-exchange resin in which "hardness ions"—mainly Ca2+ and Mg2+—are exchanged for sodium ions.[6]
en.m.wikipedia.org
Conventional water-softening appliances intended for household use depend on an ion-exchange resin in which "hardness ions"—mainly Ca2+ and Mg2+—are exchanged for sodium ions.[6]
Water softening - Wikipedia
en.m.wikipedia.org
Beeswings
Well-Known Member
Soft water or hard water doesn't mean contaminant filled or not, it depends on what's in it. Around here, wells can have high amounts of iron in them, making them "hard water". They also can have low iron but higher amounts of bicarbonates and have the same ppm but not be nearly as hard.
DanKiller
Well-Known Member
Hard water is not dependent on that or this salt or mineral, it's a term that means (in our growing subject) water that has a measuring point above 0.3 ec.
Anything less is considered soft
Anything more is hard
About what those 0.3 or 0.6 mean in terms of what are they, you need a lab analysis.
Either way go by the hard water chart with that ec, if your water source is special and all that ec is just one mineral or salt the plant will show the corresponding symptoms.
Anything less is considered soft
Anything more is hard
About what those 0.3 or 0.6 mean in terms of what are they, you need a lab analysis.
Either way go by the hard water chart with that ec, if your water source is special and all that ec is just one mineral or salt the plant will show the corresponding symptoms.