Is water quality/source important in organics?

[Icemud]

Hey everyone... I know this is a pretty petty question, but I was high and pondering some thoughts and haven't yet come up with a solid answer.... what do you think...

The question...

If using all organic/natural soil/medium, nutrients and additives......does water quality also matter for being 100% organic? let me elaborate...

If you using city water you are receiving all kind's of unknowns within that water including organic and inorganic compounds, chemicals, bacteria, virus's and even pharmasutical's and other unknowns.... now...if chlorine and chloramines are being added to your water also..... would this make your grow not completely organic....? or is there certain guidelines that organic growing must follow for water source and quality? like does it have to be from a natural source such as spring/lake/river/rain...? or does it matter at all?

I know that being 100% organic vs 90% organic probably doesn't mean much when speaking about the final product, but really was curious if this is even a factor in organic growing... any thoughts?

 

[Icemud]

I just found the answer to my own question...lol...

As far as Organic Standards are considered, water used must meed all requirements put out by the Safe Water Drinking Act...

This does not include private wells, which have to be tested for MCL levels to make sure that they do not exceed standards, and bottled water which seems to be regulated by the FDA under "food"

 

[whitey78]

Does it include city water for the most part? I would think it would seeing it "has to be" but we all know how safe federal guidelines are. Safe for drinking.....(for animals in super fine print or something).

As I said in the other thread, my opinion is there's to much trace minerals to leave it up to straight RO water and added cal-mag. If I was worried about all the other stuff that won't bubble off after 24 hours a good chlorine house filter would be more than enough for me but you have some issues @ 400ppm.

Most towns can test your water if you bring them a sample as well as some hardware stores will have the tests you can take a sample and send in yourself, this way you could know exactly how much of what's in your water.

 

[Smokemupm8]

Ive heard of ppl using RO water or distilled water.. My tap water has chlorine added and has a ph of around 6.8, if i leave it overnight the ph is usually at 6..2 and chlorine shouldve evaporated.. I add my seaweed extract and water. I use organic nutrients, and have noticed way better root ball structure growth since using Seaweed extract, my last 35 litre pot was basically all root! it like ate the potting mix! lol..But yeah, if your tap water has high levels of additives it may be best to boil water and let it cool or if u must, buy distilled water?? Good luck and Happy Harvesting!!

 

[Fuzzy Duck]

R/O water is normally used in hydro set ups from my own understanding due to very low PPM, where as tap water used in hydro will have a PPM of 200 to 500 this can severly off set your PPM value depending on stage of growth if not countered for !


Tap water will always contain trace micro nutrients & other stuff this may differ at different times of year tho as to where the water was sourced from ? e.g when water is is in good supply in my own country it comes from deep under ground aquafiers when this is of short supply, water is pumped from major rivers etc this can varie the differnce of PPM / PH value slightly & trace micro nutrients plus other stuff...


But i am a fan of my hard water as is supplys calcium & magnesium with in it from the bed rock its pumped from & have never suffered Ca/Mg defeciency to date.


Could always collect rain water tho... but think of all those fumes from factorys/cars etc which go up in the atmosphere ! some of that shit got to come down with the rain water !

Anybody ever had rain water tested for pollutants ?

 

[Fuzzy Duck]

A link to chloride being benifical to plant growth from a califoina instute - pdf format (i think)


https://www.plantphysiol.org/content/60/1/69.full.pdf

 

[Icemud]

Thanks for posting the link to that FD!!!!

It would be interesting for a future experiment to have 2 plants, same environment and strains, but different water sources to see what happens. One being R/O or distilled water with nutrients added vs one with city water and same nutrients added.. My guess would be that the one with city water would probably lock itself up over time because of the sodium, but it also has much more other good minerals like you mentioned so would it make the plants grow healthier?? hmm I'm going to have to look around and see if I can find an answer... sorry FD, kind of high with this thought and was typing/thinking outloud..LOL

 

[Droopy Dog]

RO and distilled are pretty much *dead* water and really not that good for soil and even less for organics. It has to do with the lack of ions if you feel like researching.

I use plain tap water on my organic grows and it works just fine. I have ~40 gallons sitting out for spot watering, but it takes well over 100 gallons to water everything, so no, it doesn't sit out, get pH'ed or anything. I do run the hot water out of the hose though. LOL

This is for a soil garden, container veggies and lastly the mj. No water related issues in the 4 years I've been running organic..

Do your experiment and you will see the same results. Make sure your mix is well limed regardless of the water used.

DD

 

[Fuzzy Duck]

I took a look around about the sodium in water & effects on plant health.

Heres a link on tap water & sodium - Sodium (Na) and water

Heres another one regarding soil - The Basics of Salinity and Sodicity Effects on Soil Physical Properties



I could not find any hard evidence yet of sodium effecting macro/mirco nutrient lock up ! but only problems assoicated to excessive salt build up... alot of the time sodium problems are easy negated by flushing or by the leaching effect of rain etc.


As for the trace value of micro/macro nutrients aviable in tap water this will ultimately depend whether the water is Hard or Soft both types of water will have a different value of trace nutrients aviable relating to bed rock pumped from soil compersition, surface rock the water source flows through !

I really don't see to much of problem with tap water/city water for soil/organic grows tho & only aware of high dosage of macro nutrients creating lock outs of other nutrients.


Hard water comes from alkline based rocks/areas chalk/lime stone/ dolomite lime etc hence a supply of calcium & magnesium with in the water it self.

I think soft water comes from volcanic rock areas tho & not total sure of trace nutrient content of these waters tho, but i'm sure it has many interesting elements with in it.


I know of local DIY store which now stocks finely ground volcanic rock which has some 60 plus known elements with in it & sold as slow release reminerlizing fertilizer, pretty cool ah

 

[Icemud]

I actually use the crushed lava rock for re-mineralizing my soil and so far it seems to be pretty effective, I chose it because of its paramagnetic values...

I did read an article somewhere that mentions that if 15% or more of your soil becomes salt accumulated that the microbes can't do there job and slow way down... I will have to find the article somewhere..

I wish my tap water here was better quality, but its ppm is already at 400ppm and PH8.5, and smells like a swimming pool coming out of the faucets with all the chlorine and ammonia in it.. I don't even drink it now that I have my R/O filter..

 

[Jimmycricket]

Id say from the legal standpoint yes its definitely organic to grow using water straight from the tap.

In actuality probably not since people flush chemicals, pills, toxic waste, and other bullshit into the water supply.

But as far as I am concerned tap water is good enough for my plants. Unless the plants tell me different.

 

[Lester Freeman]

Its hard to really claim that you grow "organic", when the reality is that the plant requires inorganic metals, and ions for healthy growth. At the end of the day, if you are missing inorganic alkali metals. The PPM of your local tap water is public knowledge, and can be looked up on their website. It turns out, most of the time the higher concentrations of minerals ( ~300 ppm) are made up of mainly Ca, and Mg. There are a lot of things in tap water, the Fluoride (F-) ion for instance, also traces of URANIUM but measured in PARTS PER BILLION. Hard for the human mind to comprehend millions vs billions, BUT those "harmful things" in tap water are in such concentrations that they pass through your body ( or cannabis roots ) through excretion. There may be a lot of chlorine, in some highly populated areas, this is obviously there to kill microbes. ( In some cases there are beneficial bacteria that can promote plant growth ). Too much chlorine build-up and cause acidic soil, but thats why its important to monitor things.

If all you drank was pure deionized water, or distilled water, then YOU would DIE. We NEED those minerals and INORGANIC metals and ions to flourish, and grow into a healthy organism.

It goes without saying that a balance is essential in nature, but its hard to claim you really grow organic.

 

[cougartex]

Collect rain water