Thanks for your answer. My tap water is at 75ppm, one of the best in the country, but it still has some fluoride and chlorine (I could not find Chloramine in the report but I am pretty sure they put some) and PH is at 6.5. Is it worth installing an RO system still?
The answer to that is whether or not you plan on doing a true organic grow. If you are, ANY chlorine in your water will be detrimental to your rhizosphere and RO is the answer. The rest of the particulates in your water are inconsequential... none of them will kill the microlife and some of them can be used by the plant. Also, if you are going organic, there is no need to worry about or adjust the pH.
 
The answer to that is whether or not you plan on doing a true organic grow. If you are, ANY chlorine in your water will be detrimental to your rhizosphere and RO is the answer. The rest of the particulates in your water are inconsequential... none of them will kill the microlife and some of them can be used by the plant. Also, if you are going organic, there is no need to worry about or adjust the pH.

I am starting with Doc Bud's Hi Brix, so I am debating whether I start with RO for my cooked soil, or distilled or my tap water. I guess the chlorine and fluoride will kill all microbial life in the soil.
 
I am starting with Doc Bud's Hi Brix, so I am debating whether I start with RO for my cooked soil, or distilled or my tap water. I guess the chlorine and fluoride will kill all microbial life in the soil.
Yep, stay away from the tap water and you will be ok. Either distilled or RO will work just fine. What does Doc recommend?
 
Yep, stay away from the tap water and you will be ok. Either distilled or RO will work just fine. What does Doc recommend?

hmm actually here is one of his post:

Doc Bud said:
03-10-2016, 09:58 PM #1700
Doc Bud

Re: In The Lab With Doc Bud

I like to use tap water whenever possible. If you've got toxic water, get RO. If you can, get a copy of your city's water report. It's public domain and is usually on the web. If Total Alkalinity is higher than 200 or so the RO unit will be helpful.
 
curious that Doc seems to allow tap water in this statement, but if you think about his system, new microbials are being added all the time and maybe he is not worried about killing off stuff inbetween. He does mention toxic however, and I have to believe that by that he is referring to chlorine, and not nuclear waste. In my grows, if I managed to kill off my microlife my grow is going to be greatly damaged, and I would struggle to get a new compost tea in there teaming with microbeasties as fast as I could. Tap water would not work at all for what I am doing, nor for creating compost teas.
 
nuclear waste :laughtwo:
I figured I'd get a single filter specifically designed to remove chloramine and chlorine, such as the clean water fun filter. it connects to a garden hose and cost only 40 bucks. Last for 10000 gallons!
 
Flowering addendum:


It seems upon gaining more knowledge and experience; I have found that my watering guide is lacking a complete explanation of the process all the way from seed to harvest. Although everything said above is valid in veg, there is a point in the grow where things must change in order to give the plants everything that they want. Also, this watering discussion was meant to cover all container grows, but upon more experimentation with cloth grow bags (smart pots and the various clones) it became clear that the rules change a bit when using these cloth bags. Instead of adding a qualifier that this watering guide is only valid in hard sided containers, I decided to cover what happens in smart pots too.


First, let's look at our goals in veg. We are attempting to build as big and robust of a plant as we can to take to flower, and we do this by concentrating on developing a strong rootball. We tease out the watering and entice the plant to grow more roots, by forcing the plants to find the last bit of water on every wet/dry cycle. There is an adage in the plant (and coincidentally in the metaphysical world) that says, "As above, so below." We can interpret this to mean that as long as the plant is growing in width and height, so are the roots. When we flip to bloom, the plants dramatically stretch, and of course, the roots below are also stretching. There is a point however, about 2 weeks into bloom when all this stretching stops, TOP AND BOTTOM.


ShiggityFlip coined the adage first, and I now use this to explain the bloom part of watering. We build roots in Veg and use them in flower. — ShiggityFlip


As soon as the goal is no longer to grow new roots and the vertical and horizontal growth of the plant has mostly stopped, it is then time to USE those roots. I have found that my plants thrive best in bloom when I switch gears and stop trying to dry them out, and instead try to keep them damp inside the core of the rootball. I finally give credit to the knuckle waterers, and concede that when in bloom, when the top roots dry out, it is time to water.


Smart Pots:
It is also clear that to completely cover container watering, we have smart pots to consider. If you use these bags correctly, by allowing air flow on all sides, including the bottom, amazing things happen. First, the rootball produced in one of these bags is far superior to anything else I have been able to produce in a hard sided container, whether they be round, octagonal, square... air pruning works. Because you get more roots and better air absorption, your plants go crazy in one of these bags if you let them. I find that I am watering every other day in 5 and 7 gallon smart bags, and the plants are taking 90% of what they would have taken if I had allowed them to dry out completely in 4 or 5 days. Water use has exploded in my tent in bloom, and by keeping up with it, reading the plants and giving them what they ask for, I have the biggest and healthiest buds that I have ever seen at this point in a grow. For flower, I find that I have to modify the lift method, and change it to not waiting for feather light as we do in veg, but in just becoming "lighter." After two days, popping my finger in the top to the middle knuckle confirms that the top root mass has become dry, and with those two criteria met, I water to runoff. At the present time, my 6 plants are using about 25 gallons of water a week, at least twice what I have ever given my plants.


Summary:
So, no matter the type and size of container, watering needs change once bloom has started and the stretch has ended. Don't be afraid to water more often in flower. If you keep letting her dry out, she can handle that too, because she is a weed, but if you really want to see her thrive, "use" those roots in flower, and give her all the water she can take. This doesn't mean watering 5 times a day every day... she can't take that much... but if you have done well, flowering roots can take a lot more water than vegging roots can. Change the equation that is valid in veg, that wilting is better than overwatering, and try instead to give water every time the top and sides dry out and the lift method tells you that "most" of the water is gone,. You WILL see the difference.
This wins. Thank you!!!

Sent from my Nexus 6 using 420 Magazine Mobile App
 
Ok I am concrened about ph water I have high ph? well water but thought soil is a buffer?
happy growing
Hi,
Soil is a buffer, but that doesn't mean you can take brackish water and mysteriously make it all good by putting it in soil. I have a friend who mixes well water with rainwater and ends up with a pretty usable water. There are all sort of things you can do, IF you have a need to adjust it in the first place.
For instance, have you ever noticed how good well water is on your outside vegetable garden? It is because, as you said, the soil acts as a buffer and the plants can handle the high pH of the well water, and actually enjoy the mineral content. The reason these plants outside can do this is because they are being grown organically, and the microbes in the soil are not hurt by nor care about the pH of the well water.
You only need to be concerned about the pH of the water when you start using synthetic (chemically based) nutrients in your garden. These artificial nutrients are held together with chemical salt bonds that are designed to dissolve when they are in a solution within the correct pH range. It is critical to water with everything adjusted to the proper pH range for the chemicals to be effective when using synthetic nutrients. If you are using organic nutrients or just letting the soil supply what is needed, like when outside, pH is unimportant, within reason. Also, if you are growing indoors in containers, special care needs to be taken to have a truly organic garden with a living organic soil that can supply the nutrients to the plants. If you do not have a living soil and are not supplying compost tea's to the system so as to grow the microlife necessary to grow a plant in organic soil, then you will need to use nutrients at some point in the grow, usually right as you go into flower. Your well water will work fine here too, as long as you never get chlorine near the mix, and you could easily use that well water as it is in an organic living soil, and if nutrients are used, making sure they are organic nutrients not needing a pH adjustment. Again, if you instead decide to not actively try to cultivate a living soil, and just want to get some off the shelf synthetic nutrients to use, you can do that too... no problem. But to use those nutes, you will absolutely have to get the pH into the proper range before applying it to the soil. Soil outside is a great buffer. Soil in a container... not so much.
 
Thx Emilya, my outdoor garden does great. So I was not going to use synthetic nutrients. Using 50o/o compost home made 25o/o perlite & 25o/o manure. I will keep a eye on the ph. The rain water is a good idea. Thanks for all the help.
happy growing
 
Is it good idea to amend the soil with coffee grounds and I think it is, about how much do you use?
happy growing
the coffee grounds are good food for the microlife, and I add them to my worm farm and let the worms break it down for me. I wouldn't add a whole lot to an actual grow however, the pH hit to the soil could be detrimental and I would not add more than a couple of tablespoons per container, because that coffee isnt going to break down very fast all by itself in the soil... certainly not during the time of a single grow. Coffee/tea in the compost pile would be a very good idea though... or outside in the garden... just be reasonable with it.
 
Back
Top Bottom