Water: The Most Essential Compound

I've got well water, high in manganese. I collect rain water that tests PH of 5.5, so pretty pure. I've read that rain water has low buffering, so will not affect the PH of soils. I'm not sure I fully understand this. Should I be adjusting the PH, and what should be the target? Any comments on buffering? Hope this is an appropriate subject for this thread. I can't seem to find any good threads on PH.
 
How soon before the light cycle comes on do you people water? An hour? Two hours? Half an hour, 15 minutes? I've been watering about an hour before start of the next light cycle. I was thinking about watering 2 hours before the light comes on to give plenty of time for the roots to drink up. I'm in the flowering stage in soil. I let my soil get semi dry between waterings (3 days).
 
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Thanks for the posts. Living in a hard water area I now collect my feeding water from my house gutters (via the classic water barrel) instead of letting it slip down the drains :)
 
grassy007 said:
How soon before the light cycle comes on do you people water? An hour? Two hours? Half an hour, 15 minutes? I've been watering about an hour before start of the next light cycle. I was thinking about watering 2 hours before the light comes on to give plenty of time for the roots to drink up. I'm in the flowering stage in soil. I let my soil get semi dry between waterings (3 days).
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Never water before the lights come on, especially during flowering. During flowering the plants need their 12 hours of uninterrupted darkness. Uninterrupted is the key. I water when they need it and only during the light cycle.
 
Thanks for posting this! Definitely bookmarked. I used variety bottled waters but I always felt there were different complexities to them
 
Kerovan said:
Never water before the lights come on, especially during flowering. During flowering the plants need their 12 hours of uninterrupted darkness. Uninterrupted is the key. I water when they need it and only during the light cycle.
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Just why so? Outdoor growers water just before the sun comes up. Why would opening a tent an hour before (for 5 minutes) for watering be so terrible. Do you really think a flowering plant is going to freak out because it got 11 hours and 30 minutes uninterrupted darkness instead of 12 hours every 3 days or so?
 
grassy007 said:
Just why so? Outdoor growers water just before the sun comes up. Why would opening a tent an hour before (for 5 minutes) for watering be so terrible. Do you really think a flowering plant is going to freak out because it got 11 hours and 30 minutes uninterrupted darkness instead of 12 hours every 3 days or so?
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Yes, it can freak it out. It can cause the plant to become a hermaphrodite. And there is no benefit to watering in the dark. The only reason you might want to do that is if you use a sprinkler system, then you may not want the water drops on the leaves in direct sunlight where they can magnify the light causing a slight chance of a sunburn in that spot.
 
Kerovan said:
Yes, it can freak it out. It can cause the plant to become a hermaphrodite. And there is no benefit to watering in the dark. The only reason you might want to do that is if you use a sprinkler system, then you may not want the water drops on the leaves in direct sunlight where they can magnify the light causing a slight chance of a sunburn in that spot.
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You're overstating your point about keeping plants in the dark for 12 hours (after flowering has started). You exclaim "no more no less, note even by one second" (paraphrased). Gimme a break. My flowers are female and are well on their way, and they get like 10-60 minutes off their sleep cycle when I water them before the lights come on. Understood?

I agree, that, at trying to start the flowering stage, if you grossly ignore the 12/12 rule during the flowering startup stage, your plant may turn into a hermaphrodite. However, if you keep said plant in total darkness for 36 hours straight (shortcut), it will go into the flowering stage. A good two weeks into flowering, it's not going to change to an hermaphrodite if they get less than exactly 12 hours of darkness. Wanna bet?

My plants are showing me they're not going anywhere but further into the flowering stage, as female. I firmly believe, that, I could interrupt their sleep cycle by 2 hours, and they still wouldn't go back to the vegetative stage (some do this on purpose to start their 8 month harvested plant into a new growing cycle, but more light time) nor will less than exactly 12 hours of uninterrupted darkness suddenly turn a healthy flowering plant into a hermaphrodite.

The determination of a plant to propagate its species is pretty powerful and overlooks many shortcomings to its environment.
 
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grassy007 said:
You're overstating your point about keeping plants in the dark for 12 hours (after flowering has started). You exclaim "no more no less, note even by one second", gimme a break. My flowers are female and are well on their way, and they get like 10 minutes off their sleep cycle when I to water them before the lights come on. Gimme a break, will ya?
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If you are such an expert then why did you even come here and ask the question? Gimme a break, I did not "exclaim no more no less, not even by one second". And you have given no reason whatsoever for doing it in the dark. It has absolutely no benefit, and does carry risk when you break up the light cycle in flowering. If you want to do it that way, fine. They are your plants and it's your time. Next time don't ask a question if you don't want to hear an opinion that differs from yours. Plus you asked about doing it a couple of hours before lights on, big difference than giving them light 10 minutes early.
 
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If such an expert....then, take it easy. You're uptight about growing weed in a tent.


What type questions are appropriate?

No light after midnight or your plants become hermaphrodites.

I was polling growers, not elite snobs.
 
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Sorry for my light cycle post and watering. Back on subject.

"If there's magic on this earth, it is contained in water." Anonymous
 
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Is 300ppm tap water considered Hard water? Is that perks per million low enough to feed to my plants with?? I use RO water but I hate having to fill up the 5 gal jugs everyday!
 
SdMEDgrower said:
Is 300ppm tap water considered Hard water? Is that perks per million low enough to feed to my plants with?? I use RO water but I hate having to fill up the 5 gal jugs everyday!
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By water treatment standards it would be considered rather hard. I used to work in a conventional water treatment plant we would range typically anywhere between 120-180ppm. Anything under 100 ppm total hardness is soft by drinking water standards.

Sometimes minerals are added to water to prevent it from being aggressive and in other cases the source water is very hard and the cost of removing the calcium-magnesium /non carbonate hardnes is exorbitant.

RO or nano filtered water makes for a nice blank canvas. it's not like the Mg and Ca are plant available like they are in your ferts/ solution.
 
Toxic Avenger said:
By water treatment standards it would be considered rather hard. I used to work in a conventional water treatment plant we would range typically anywhere between 120-180ppm. Anything under 100 ppm total hardness is soft by drinking water standards.

Sometimes minerals are added to water to prevent it from being aggressive and in other cases the source water is very hard and the cost of removing the calcium-magnesium /non carbonate hardnes is exorbitant.

RO or nano filtered water makes for a nice blank canvas. it's not like the Mg and Ca are plant available like they are in your ferts/ solution.
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My tap runs between 15-25 ppm. I’m in soil and I read to add cal/mag until ppm’s are between 125-150. I don’t know if that’s a sweet spot for plants, but mine completely turned around in a week. I’d been having problems for about a year.
 
Outdoors I like watering my plants before sunset, it gives the water the most time to sit around. As daytime humidity is low and it can get quite warm. This way the pot starts off nice and cold in the morning.

P.S. look up Grander water if you want to see something else.
 
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