itsraininbuds
Well-Known Member
PH distilled water or not? i've heard it both. but have never tried leaving it. what you think?
I think your wasting money using distiller water.
In a sense distiller water could be viewed as a reproduction of our rain water, but as to to need or benefit of using it I'm unsure, haven't honestly seen the need for it tho
Water comes out of my tap cheaper than it is to drive to the store and buy distiller water.
PH distilled water or not? i've heard it both. but have never tried leaving it. what you think?
I used to but since it is a super low ppm cus as stated before pretty much rain water. I assume you are using soil since you hadn't mentioned a res to fill with the distilled water, your soil will act as a buffer for the minor amount of ph that is off so no worries especially if your medium is organic.
Distilled water is a poor choice for growing as it generally carries a negative charge which makes it quite reactive and can cause problems maintaining the mediums proper pH. If you are growing hydro then ignore my statement.
Assuming you are talking about hydroponic applications: If you mean before adding anything into the water, trying to pH adjust it is pointless (distilled water has absolutely nothing in it). If you mean adding distilled water into an existing mixed reservoir, distilled water won't have much, if any, impact on existing pH. If you mean after adding your nutrients, additives, or whatever else when first mixing up a reservoir, then yes you should adjust pH (after mixing).
For soil, no you don't need to pH adjust distilled water (the soil becomes the buffer).
Distilled water works really well toward the end of the grow. In soil it gets all the nutrients out for the flush. In hydro all the tap water stuff builds up if you don't change your rez. You could change your rez less if you use distilled. People add cal-mag if using distilled because of the minerals you are missing out on. I guess you could use rain water instead of distilled (+ cal mag ?). Never heard of ph-distilled. I've heard of ro-distilled (reverse osmosis).
Oh, boy....To use or not to use,, that is the question?
The use of distilled or RO water is a good idea if you know why and how.
Why; Tap, Spring, or Rain water has a PPM value! You DON'T know what is IN that water to give it that value. To start out with a water that is 0 (or VERY low PPM) is conductive to PRECISE manipulation of the just what exactly goes into your plant for feed!
YOU add the "buffer" (required) of a Cal/Mag (The "HOW"). You then add the nutrient formula to YOUR needs. You now have a solution with what YOU put in it with NO unknown elements!
In any media or hydro application. This is the simplest way to better yields! (non organic)
If you add a Cal/Mag to distilled, it IS easy to control the pH.
I still like RO better!