Watering with the wrong pH: soil grow

[Frogtownusa]

Transplanted and have been watering my plants for the last month with 4.6 pH water . Didn’t realize that’s what it was. Plant started looking a little funny so I purchased a tester. I’m growing in Fox Farm Ocean Forest. Do I need to flush this out or should I just start using the correct pH. It’s really not that bad just a little funny looking, not as green as it was Thanks

 

[Remystemple]

where is the water from?

 

[Frogtownusa]

ZERO WATER PITCHER 0 PPM 4.6ph

 

[Remystemple]

start by correcting the pH and watch her. most soil growers want it about 6.3 going in.

 

[Remystemple]

if you post some pics i'm sure you can get a lot more help than just me repeating info i've read. I'm a coco grower lol.

 

[Emilya Green]

i bet your tap water is a lot closer to where it needs to be, and your plants will love the minerals that are in it.

 

[Frogtownusa]

Chlorine ? It kills microbes ,no? :/ you did give me a great idea though!!! Creek sand for minerals

 

[Remystemple]

Chlorine ? It kills microbes ,no? :/ you did give me a great idea though!!! Creek sand for minerals

a lot of growers use tap water. i do, but let it sit out for at least 24 hours to off gas before using it. and the ppm is only 70 so it's pretty clean water. they say if the tap water is 300ppm or more, not to use it. i don't know that for fact tho.

 

[Emilya Green]

Chlorine ? It kills microbes ,no? :/ you did give me a great idea though!!! Creek sand for minerals

It takes swimming pool strength chlorine to kill everything... and the little bit that is in our tap water doesn't kill off a whole lot of the microbes... the tap water will work just fine as it is. Modern tap water doesn't have chlorine in it any more that can be off gassed, it uses chloramine that will not evaporate. No amount of setting out will deplete it. There used to be an adage that if the water won't kill you, it won't kill your plants. If it really bothers you, one vitamin c tablet will drop all of the chlorine products out of the solution as sediment in a bathtub sized amount of water. No setting out is required.

Now if you are running an organic grow and are adding microbes to your grow to complete the food cycle, then by all means don't use chlorinated water... but for most of the basement gardeners out there feeding out of a bottle in soil, tap water will work just fine.

 

[TorturedSoul]

ZERO WATER PITCHER 0 PPM 4.6ph

¿?

That doesn't make much sense. If your water has nothing in it, its pH is 7. Of course, even distilled water - which has nothing in it - isn't going to remain pure after it's exposed to the air, so its pH will probably drop slightly. But not from 7.0 to 4.6 unless the ambient CO₂ level in your house is so high... that you're dead.

Modern tap water doesn't have chlorine in it any more that can be off gassed

Depends on the location. Yes, more and more municipalities are switching to chloramine - but there are still lots that use chlorine.

There used to be an adage that if the water won't kill you, it won't kill your plants.

It's easier to kill a plant (most of them, at least) than a person .

If it really bothers you, one vitamin c tablet will drop all of the chlorine products out of the solution as sediment in a bathtub sized amount of water. No setting out is required.

Good tip! A capful or two of consumer strength (3%) hydrogen peroxide will dechlorinate a gallon of water very quickly (almost immediately) unless the water's pH is low - but it won't do a thing about chloramine.

for most of the basement gardeners out there feeding out of a bottle in soil, tap water will work just fine.

After dechlorination, you mean? The issue isn't that it'll kill the plant, but that the "free" chlorine will react with some of the organic compounds that make up the nutrients, causing chemical changes that can make those things less available to the plants. IIRC. It's been a while since high school chemistry. But one rarely forgets how to cause a reaction .

If a person was unable to or unwilling to deal with the thing, es might actually be better off with water that has been treated with chloramine. After adding chlorine, ammonia is added to the water - and you end up with a more "stable" substance, which infers that it is somewhat less likely to react with one's nutrients. Although "somewhat less likely" and "doesn't" have never lived in the same neighborhood, lol.

As has probably been mentioned, plants actually use a small amount of chlorine (it is considered a micronutrient).