Help perfecting my grow plans - Almost ready to start!

[Derbybud]

Dark and Temps 75-80 degrees

 

[KevinL]

Dark, warm, moist, best environment for seeds popping.

 

[vyserage]

Thanks! As for RO water, Arrowhead filtered water will do the job correct? I imagine it test low in ppm

 

[Scientific]

Isn't Arrowhead a bottled grocery store brand? I think that's gonna be expensive if so. Walmart (or wherever) RO machine put the gallon jug under the spigot RO is probably gonna be what you want to keep the price down, ya know?

 

[vyserage]

Ooooh so those machines outside Walmart where u can fill your huge ass jug with water IS RO water. I wasn't sure haha.

 

[Scientific]

Actually, I'm not entirely sure. My tapwater is 28 PPM so I never needed it. But I think so.

 

[vyserage]

Ok, I should be able to figure things out from here. Let's say I do use tap water with 160ppm, I just add that ppm to my target range ppm right? Like if I'm shooting for 200 ppm, I actually want it to read 360ppm. Safe enough? And past that, if I do use tap then when do I actually start using calmag?

I know if I use ro water I'll always mix in calmag with feedings, but tap has cal in it I guess so that throws me off. I don't want to nutrient burn.

Sorry for so many questions! I'm a specific details kinda guy haha. Especially when doing something completely new to me! Thanks for all the help up to this point everyone!

 

[knighthawktfc]

All great tips! I'll be using the clear cups and likely transplant after a week or atleast 1 1/2 inch tall. I'm still stuck on the water a bit, i would really like to just use tap water for convenience sake. I thought 0160 ppm was rather low compared to other people's post's ? Cant i still use it and just subtract that from my range of ppm i want to get with the nutes? (So for seedlings say im shooting for 200ppm and it reads 360, thats 200 from nutes and 160 from water, correct?)

If i must, i can use the distilled water i purchased from the store. A 1 gallon jug of it and it reads 0001 ppm. Or maybe even a mix? Like for the first 2 weeks of its life, i use distilled water with nutes if the soil water runoff reads less than 201, and after its 2 weeks i use tapwater as well as a new reading for low veg state for ppm. ?


Finally, my seeds have been sitting in water for 25 hours and 21 minutes as of right now. i noticed a couple of the 5 seeds total have cracked open so thats good, but the rest have not cracked open yet. What do i do, leave them all be for a while longer? Take out just the cracked open ones and begin wet paper towel transfer?

Once i have all the little details down, i can begin recording my steps! and make a post about my journey! haha

160 is pretty high for water straight from the tap, some people have higher, but too much higher I wouldn't want to drink it without at least filtering it a little.

Take the recommendation to use RO or distilled (the cheap light blue caps (ro) or pink capped ones (distilled) at walmart will do fine, they're like 0.79$ and 0.89$ respective where I am). The distilled from walmart will be 000 ppm, I've never tried the RO version but it should be similar (0) unless you buy the version that in fine print says 'with essential minerals added'. Personally I just went with distilled for first couple weeks even though my tap is 40-45ppm, removes any question of what I'm putting in or not putting into the mix for the first couple weeks of life. If you do use tap, listen to the recommendation about letting it sit and evap a little for 24-36hr, check with local water company website for recent water quality report as Scientific said. It'll tell you what's in your water and in what ppm quantities, good info to have and to know if you have chlorine or chlormine(sp?) as latter doesn't evap i've read, and what trace elements are or are not present. I really would go the RO\distilled route, least the first couple weeks, yes it's a pain in the butt lugging all that water home but I think it's worth it early on to keep it simple and safer while roots are getting established and your getting accustomed to your plants habits. Another option is filter system, or container filters like Zero Water, runs about 40$ for the largest one (and comes with cheap ppm meter) and the replacement filters are about 30$, you only get about 25-30 gallons per filter though... so technically the w-mart gallons are usually cheaper, but less lugging water around if you only need a gallon or two every few days, and if you want you can use the filters a little longer say 40 gallons, ppms will still be low just not 0-5 though like they are when new.

As for ppms out, I'd be far more concerned about what's going in the first couple weeks than what exactly they are coming out, unless otherwise running into problems.

As for the seed that have not cracked.. if they still floating on top, give them light dunking..should sink at this point, give them a few extra hours and then pull them out and start the moist paper towel routine if that's the method you will be using, if they don't crack and taps not starting to show after few days, back in the water till they do or you give up. The ones that have cracked already you can start that routine now with them.

Yes, by all means start a journal, the earlier the better, they're a great way to share and keep track of your grow both for yourself to look back on when you forget something, and makes it much easier for others to help ya troubleshoot as most the info will already be there.

**Take everything you just read from me with grains of salt, I'm brand new to this as well. Looking forward to your journal.

 

[knighthawktfc]

Actually, I'm not entirely sure. My tapwater is 28 PPM so I never needed it. But I think so.

Damn and I thought my water was pretty good, that's great.


Also apologies... most of questions were already addressed by Scientific before I hit post on previous one. lol

 

[Scientific]

Let's say I do use tap water with 160 PPM

The question is, "160 PPM of *WHAT*?" Calcium carbonate? Sodium chloride? Something else? What you're actually measuring is how much electricity the water conducts. The pen reports that as though it was PPM of NaCl, but that's just for the sake of convenience. You don't actually know what is conducting the electricity. (Adding molasses to my flush water doubled the PPMs, for example.)

If you don't know, and can't/won't look it up at your water utility, them it's best to start with pure H2O.

 

[knighthawktfc]

Ok, I should be able to figure things out from here. Let's say I do use tap water with 160ppm, I just add that ppm to my target range ppm right? Like if I'm shooting for 200 ppm, I actually want it to read 360ppm. Safe enough? And past that, if I do use tap then when do I actually start using calmag?

I know if I use ro water I'll always mix in calmag with feedings, but tap has cal in it I guess so that throws me off. I don't want to nutrient burn.

Sorry for so many questions! I'm a specific details kinda guy haha. Especially when doing something completely new to me! Thanks for all the help up to this point everyone!

You can skip the cal-mag the first 10 to 14 days I'm told, seed should have enough on it's own. I would not worry about the calcium in the tap water, still add the cal-mag eventually, generally speaking you're unlikely to burn them with a little extra calcium around from the tap water. Personally I started adding it to distilled around day 9 in a very very low dose, then more toward recommended a week later.

Yes subtract the 160 from your mix result if you use your tap for the basis of calculating your feed-mix (though I could be wrong but you're still throwing 360 at it in some ways in your example, question is what's in it), keep in mind you don't have to be exact with this stuff, pretty close...counts, don't fret if you end up at 191 on one gallon and 218 on another.

 

[knighthawktfc]

The question is, "160 PPM of *WHAT*?" Calcium carbonate? Sodium chloride? Something else? What you're actually measuring is how much electricity the water conducts. The pen reports that as though it was PPM of NaCl, but that's just for the sake of convenience. You don't actually know what is conducting the electricity. (Adding molasses to my flush water doubled the PPMs, for example.)

If you don't know, and can't/won't look it up at your water utility, them it's best to start with pure H2O.

^^^This^^^

Keep it simple and start with known 0 water.

 

[knighthawktfc]

Dark, warm, moist, best environment for seeds popping.

On plate on top of a gas water heater in dark room with some light but constant airflow worked great for me, though a dozen other things will work just as well.

Moist, not wet.. ie keep it misted every 6-8 hours.

 

[vyserage]

Scientific, i was able to find this!
EWG Tap Water Database | City of Porterville

but im not entirely sure how to read it, not sure what im looking for in terms of value's and such. Care to take a look and tell me if that means my tap is definitely not usable or is?

Also thanks guys! All the info helps, especially when i want to read back on these!

 

[Scientific]

Scientific, i was able to find this!
EWG Tap Water Database | City of Porterville

but im not entirely sure how to read it, not sure what im looking for in terms of value's and such. Care to take a look and tell me if that means my tap is definitely not usable or is?

Also thanks guys! All the info helps, especially when i want to read back on these!

Like a lot of water websites (and especially after Flint, MI) most of the info there was about contaminants like pesticides. I didn't see anything about hardness. I know that the water in Ventura is ungodly hard, and I'm guessing that's probably true for SoCal in general--that those 160 PPMs are calcium and magnesium "permanent" hardness. In that case, you'll want to use a hard water fertilizer formulation (I think Advanced Nutrients has one?) or better yet go with RO.

What you really want to make sure of is that your tap water isn't going through and ion exchange softener (2 resin tanks and rock salt) that softens the water so it will suds but loads it with salt. That would be bad for your plants!

 

[vyserage]

so essentially any water closest to 0 ppm is best to use to water my plants as i can take the guesswork out of the equation. Seems im gonna go with filtered water 1 gallon jugs from walmart! haha. I'm gonna buy 4 1 gallon jugs tomorrow and test the ppm. i believe its RO water.

 

[Scientific]

so essentially any water closest to 0 ppm is best to use to water my plants as i can take the guesswork out of the equation. Seems im gonna go with filtered water 1 gallon jugs from walmart! haha. I'm gonna buy 4 1 gallon jugs tomorrow and test the ppm.

Sounds good. You asked earlier about mixing tap and RO. I do think that as long as you don't have that ion exchange setup I mentioned that you could do 1 part tap to 3 parts RO, or maybe even 1:1. The fertilizer manufacturers say they assume 0 PPM starting material, but the first thing I do to my 28 PPM water is harden it up with Ca and Mg salts, but you kinda get that for free. You could experiment, or even maybe post a question for other SoCal growers about what they're doing. (Or ask as the grow shop, but be very wary of confidently misinformed guys behind the counter. )

 

[vyserage]

Thanks! i may just end up using nothing but the filtered jug water. If i start needing lots of it, i can always switch to tap later down the line when the plant can actually take the higher ppm. What i plan to do is test the ppm tomorrow when i get it and once i start watering my plants, ill test the ppm runoff to see what the soil water runoff tests at and if its not quite in the 200's or close to it, ill add the ca/mg to my 1 gallon jug to get it there. I wont use the nutrients until atleast a week in, maybe 2 depending on plant size. I'm hoping the potting soil i have will test close to 200 so i dont have to worry about ca/mg and nutes until later, all at once.

I did a little test run in my tent. temperatures for 1 hour stay at 81 F to 82 F, and humidity is down to 33% to 34%. Without the light on, temp was 80f without fans on too, so looks like i shouldnt run into heat issues Looks like i need to buy a humidifier to bring it up to 40% minimum. Is this one good? im trying to find the cheapest one with a humidistat so i can just set it to 40% and let it auto kick on/off by itself.
TaoTronics Cool Mist Humidifier, Ultrasonic Humidifiers for Home Bedroom with No Noise, LED Display, 4L/1.1 Gallon Capacity, Adjustable Mist Levels, Timer, Waterless Auto Shut-off, US 120V

 

[Scientific]

For my small grows, I initially just had a pan of water with a fan blowing over it. Eventually I had a swamp cooler element with water being pumped over it with an aquarium pump and a small fan. Maybe just start with a pan, paper towel wicking, and fan blowing over it? It might be enough.

 

[vyserage]

Oh nice! I'll try that. So a pan of water (I'm picturing pie pan), a paper towel twisted and submerged in water and tip of it upwards towards fan to blow air on it, sound correct? Tomorrow I'll give that a try!