Will water softeners provide enough....
- Thread starter max316420
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bboybojo
Well-Known Member
I believe hard water is high in magnesium and calcium.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_softening "Water softening is the reduction of the concentration of calcium, magnesium, and other ions in hard water."
Increases sodium, which isn't what you want.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_softening "Water softening is the reduction of the concentration of calcium, magnesium, and other ions in hard water."
Increases sodium, which isn't what you want.
cannawizard
Well-Known Member
**i'd go with the same sentinment
max316420
Well-Known Member
But if your water softener is one that uses salt to soften the water, wouldn't that provide added magnesium the same as epsom salt would?
max316420
Well-Known Member
The reason I ask is because if I don't supplement with calmag I run into def's in one of my strains during flowering. At one of my old spots the water was well and had to run through a water softener and I never used any supplements and didn't have any problems with it. These ladies are magnesium hogs....
Uncle Ben
Well-Known Member
No. There are two salts sold for commercial/residential softeners - sodium chloride which is the most common, and potassium chloride, expensive and rarely used except by those that are salt intolerant.
What are the symptoms of your plants' Mg deficiency? Who says you need extra Mg ....some forum post or some symptom? If you have your plant nutrition in balance, you don't need supplements and when folks don't know, they always pull the lame solution of "epsom salts" or "pH your water", both uninformed, noob paradigms that just won't die in cannabis forums. Additives usually do more harm than good due to a nutrient antagonism effect. Look around, the worst looking gardens are those that buy into the supplement/additives hype, add stuff to their plants that is not needed (thinking it will produce da 'big bud' cause Johnny said it does)........always getting themselves into trouble with the necrotic yellowing leaves thingie.
Using sodium chloride in your water softener..... you're substituting Ca and Mg ions in the form of carbonates and bicarbonates for sodium ions using a resin bed that exchanges those ions. IOW, never use softened water for plants. Although the finished Na ppm is rather low after the softener goes thru a cycle, it will build up over time.
Facts over feelings mah man......
What are the symptoms of your plants' Mg deficiency? Who says you need extra Mg ....some forum post or some symptom? If you have your plant nutrition in balance, you don't need supplements and when folks don't know, they always pull the lame solution of "epsom salts" or "pH your water", both uninformed, noob paradigms that just won't die in cannabis forums. Additives usually do more harm than good due to a nutrient antagonism effect. Look around, the worst looking gardens are those that buy into the supplement/additives hype, add stuff to their plants that is not needed (thinking it will produce da 'big bud' cause Johnny said it does)........always getting themselves into trouble with the necrotic yellowing leaves thingie.
Using sodium chloride in your water softener..... you're substituting Ca and Mg ions in the form of carbonates and bicarbonates for sodium ions using a resin bed that exchanges those ions. IOW, never use softened water for plants. Although the finished Na ppm is rather low after the softener goes thru a cycle, it will build up over time.
Facts over feelings mah man......
Dennis Rodman
Active Member
dont feed your plants water that's gone through a softener....
the softener gets rid of all the calcium and replaces it with... sodium i think?
not good.
dont feed softened water to your plants
the softener gets rid of all the calcium and replaces it with... sodium i think?
not good.
dont feed softened water to your plants
max316420
Well-Known Member
I have tried everything under the sun to remedy this, more feeding, less feeding, different food, co2, no co2, tap water, ro water, calmag (2 different kinds), lights closer, lights farther away, dolomite lime (pelletized, and powered).. The only thing I haven't tried yet is to start supplementing right before the lights are switched to 12/12. Never a problem in veg only in flowering. Working on the earlier supplementing now
max316420
Well-Known Member
I don't use that water anymore because I have moved from that spot, It only happens to this one strain and Its driving me nuts. I wanna just get rid of this strain but I have had it for like 6 years. My buddy used to make my soil and never had a problem with it but as soon as I used any other soil I kept running into this problem. It is stressing me the fuck out
max316420
Well-Known Member
Not the plant foods cause I have tried many of them, that is a mag def. Here is a list of all that I have tried
Fox farm
advanced nutes
MG
General hydroponics
neptunes harvest
dutch master
earth juice
humboldt
ionic
alaska fish ferts
and probably a few others that i'm forgetting..
So yes it is the strain, what is that not believable? Non of my other stains do this, only the blueberry. Not tryin to bust your balls by please explain how that is a "micro def"? Because I completely disagree
Fox farm
advanced nutes
MG
General hydroponics
neptunes harvest
dutch master
earth juice
humboldt
ionic
alaska fish ferts
and probably a few others that i'm forgetting..
So yes it is the strain, what is that not believable? Non of my other stains do this, only the blueberry. Not tryin to bust your balls by please explain how that is a "micro def"? Because I completely disagree
budleydoright
Well-Known Member
I think UB is saying too much pk type boost may have locked out other elements. They are there, just not available to the plant due to an inbalance. Correcting the problem won't fix the damaged leaves so keep a keen eye the newer growth.
Wolverine97
Well-Known Member
It's the strain in the sense that that particular strain is probably a calcium and magnesium whore, but there is only so much available to the plant because of high p/k bloom boosters. So it's not the strain per se, but the nutrient ratio you're giving that strain (even though it's the same as you give to your others). I've had this problem in the past, the answer is that sometimes less is truly more. You need to try tweaking your ratio's, or supplementing your soil differently. If you were to add a good source of potassium and phosphorus in the soil, then you would only need to occasionally supplement with bottled nutrients. Things stay more available because the soil life does the work. Everyone's happy.
elduece
Active Member
I feel you man, it's genetics. I had two Jilly Beans out of 30 JBs I've ever grown that exhibited Mg defs from seed in rooters to harvest after 3 transplants! Neither the meristem and lateral clones of them weren't even spared from that trait.