Very hard tap water - Help

[Crianza]

Hi all, I'm about to begin growing a couple plants indoors. I mixed soil using FFOF, Happy Frog potting mix, about 20% perlite and worm castings. I've never used the soil before but everything I read says the soil will buffer the PH to the correct levels. The tap water I have is very hard with a ph of about 8.2. Do i need to add Ph down to the water or just add it and let the soil buffer it? Any help appreciated. I don't plan on growing much so probably wont spend the money on a RO system.

 

[cnile]

Hi all, I'm about to begin growing a couple plants indoors. I mixed soil using FFOF, Happy Frog potting mix, about 20% perlite and worm castings. I've never used the soil before but everything I read says the soil will buffer the PH to the correct levels. The tap water I have is very hard with a ph of about 8.2. Do i need to add Ph down to the water or just add it and let the soil buffer it? Any help appreciated. I don't plan on growing much so probably wont spend the money on a RO system.

An RO system, or reverse osmosis system will remove dissolved solids (sometimes good, sometimes bad) from ur water


On a total different note PH is a measurement of how acidic/alkaline(base) the solution is.


Get $10 EC meter from hydro shop to see how much shit in water.


For this part I don't grow in soil; I believe -
PH will have to be adjusted and monitored regularly as with any grow.

 

[farside05]

Spend the money for a PH pen and a PPM pen. You can get them on that big online store for about $25 for the pair. (You may already have the PH pen since you know your PH is 8.2). Like cnile says, the two are independent. My water is also about 8.2 PH out of the tap, and 190 PPM or .38 EC. Adding a RO system dropped the PPM to 10 to 90 PPM (depending on the age of the filters), but the PH still stayed at 8.2. I would still add PH down and not rely on your soil to do all the buffering. I shoot for a PH between 6.2 and 6.8 with my target 6.5.

 

[Crianza]

Spend the money for a PH pen and a PPM pen. You can get them on that big online store for about $25 for the pair. (You may already have the PH pen since you know your PH is 8.2). Like cnile says, the two are independent. My water is also about 8.2 PH out of the tap, and 190 PPM or .38 EC. Adding a RO system dropped the PPM to 10 to 90 PPM (depending on the age of the filters), but the PH still stayed at 8.2. I would still add PH down and not rely on your soil to do all the buffering. I shoot for a PH between 6.2 and 6.8 with my target 6.5.

Yea I use a ph kit alreay and have a soil probe also. I guess I do need to get a ppm pen b/c I keep reading that as well. Honestly, does the pen matter if I don't plan on buying an RO system. Even if the numbers are out of wack is RO the only way to correct it?

 

[farside05]

Your plants can only handle so many PPMs regardless of where they come from, so it's a good idea to know how much is going in. Simplistic example. Let's say the plant can only handle 1000 PPM. If your water is 300, then you can only add 700 max of fertilizer. If your water is 100 PPM, then you could add 900 of fertilizer max.

 

[Crianza]

Your plants can only handle so many PPMs regardless of where they come from, so it's a good idea to know how much is going in. Simplistic example. Let's say the plant can only handle 1000 PPM. If your water is 300, then you can only add 700 max of fertilizer. If your water is 100 PPM, then you could add 900 of fertilizer max.

Oh ok that makes sense..

 

[TorturedSoul]

The tap water I have is very hard

Awesome! Well... Not really, lol. But look at it this way: You know how it's not uncommon for folks to supplement with a Calcium / Magnesium product? Looks like you're already halfway there with lots of calcium. Instead of adding Ca/Mg, it's quite likely that you will be able to add Epsom salt (for the magnesium) once in a while instead. It's cheap and can be found in just about every grocery store and pharmacy (unlike the Ca/Mg product).

ph of about 8.2. Do i need to add Ph down to the water or just add it and let the soil buffer it?

If you add enough high-pH water to your soil, do you suppose those buffering agents will get used up? You can add just a bit of a pH down product to lower your water's pH. Most of it contains phosphoric acid. As phosphorous/phosphate is the P in the N-P-K numbers you see on nutrient labels, you can also lower the pH of your water by adding some. I don't think you're directly changing the pH of the soil, like you would be if you did this to a DWC hydroponic reservoir. But it still seems like a good idea to adjust your water's pH - as the last step, of course - to a range closer to what is considered optimum for cannabis plants grown in soil, as long as you can do it without spiking your water with a lot of unnecessary nutrients.

probably wont spend the money on a RO system.

"Regular" water is generally fine. Some fertilizer companies have a "hard-water version" of their nutrients. The General Hydroponics three-part Flora series has a Micro, Grow, and Bloom. They also sell a hard-water Micro. It would have less calcium, possibly other changes - IDK, but maybe a different buffering/chelating setup works better in the overabundance of certain elements (supplied by higher-PPM tapwater)?

Your plants can only handle so many PPMs regardless of where they come from, so it's a good idea to know how much is going in. Simplistic example. Let's say the plant can only handle 1000 PPM. If your water is 300, then you can only add 700 max of fertilizer. If your water is 100 PPM, then you could add 900 of fertilizer max.

As you stated, that is a simplistic scenario. You are correct that plants tolerate certain (amount) ranges of things. But - and I suppose you know this, but just pointing it out for any newbies that happen along - it's not like your water/etc. is made up of only two components, pure water and Stuff. What I mean is that "stuff" is made up of a number of things, and it is these individual elements that could cause a nutrient toxicity situation. You can, for example, have too much nitrogen and cause your plants to experience nitrogen toxicity even if your overall PPM is not a warning sign. A well-balanced nutrient regime will help, of course. And an EC/PPM meter is definitely a useful tool. However, not only does such a meter not tell you what the individual elements' - nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, calcium, magnesium, iron, et cetera - PPM is, these meters work by measuring the electrical conductivity of your solution/water... and the individual components do not affect the solution's EC at the same rate. Dump 1,500 PPM of table salt into a quantity of distilled water, and its electrical conductivity will not then be exactly the same as it would if you, instead, dump 1,500 PPM of Epsom salt.

In your simplified scenario, if you see issues with your plants @ 1,200 PPM and the issues are caused by nitrogen toxicity, you might find that by lowering the nitrogen they can actually thrive when fed @ 1,325 PPM (all numbers made up for discussion). This is another reason why multi-part nutrient recipes are helpful - the situation could actually occur during flowering when the plants require less nitrogen but are consuming more of other things; if the grower is using a simple one-part formula, the choice is to give them less than optimum levels of those other things or to give them too much nitrogen.

If you get your water from a municipal source instead of your own well, you should be able to get a water quality report from your local water department. Your water varies somewhat over time, but the information is still useful. If the fertilizer company which produces the nutrients that you use has a nutrient calculator on its website, this will also be helpful. You will be able to combine the two pieces of information and have a much better idea of exactly what you're pouring onto your plants, lol. At that point, you can develop a baseline of what different strengths and combinations of nutrients read what on your meter. If/when you later get unexpected readings, you might have a better idea of what this change in readings really signifies. That plus learning to read your plants; if one starts with healthy plants, then es can see issues as they begin and are still minor enough to have fairly recognizable symptoms.

Rambling added to prove identity of author, lol.