WATER Questions, Am I doing it totally wrong???

S

Smokenpassout

Well-Known Member
Ok so I have had success by always lugging in gallons of store bought water. Distilled, Spring, Purified, whatevers cheapest. No PH or PPM testing, no oxgenation, just straight from the jugs. I have done it from start to finish, and never had issues. As this is pretty cumbersome I am considerimg the tap. So I assume a good PH /PPM pen would be a good investment? I have no idea the quality of my municipal water thus my prior method. So I am assuming that I just let it sit in a bucket 24hours and check that the PH is 6-7 for soil? Also I hear the PPM should be under 350-400 to be of decent quality to use? Does an air stone and bubbling make a difference? Finally, when mixing nutrients in said tap water, are the nutrients mixed first, and then the water PH’d?
 
Your municipal water district will have all the info you need concerning what's in your water (usually on-line). An airstone will speed up the dissapation of chlorine, which only takes a day anyway (I don't bother with chlorine/chloramines, the effects are so short lived). Add your calmag, mix, wait 15 mintues, then mix your other nutes, wait 15 minutes, then check/adjust the PH to about 6.2
 
Depending on your nutrients ratios, even tap water with 0.6 EC is ok to use, just cut the ferts dose by half or quarter.
Airstones are nice but if you grow in a nice aerated medium you won't need it so much
Basic rule is you add epsom or calmag first (if needed), basic ferts (such as A&B) and additives after (PK, etc)
After you mix each one in the water (always add each fert on its own, mix well and add the following) you ph the water.
If you grow in soil, 6.2-6.5 is best
If you grow in coco or hydro, 5.8-6.2 is best
Buy a cheap china ph pen, you won't need anything more than that.
 
I'd personally recommend a good ec meter and cheap ph drops, because the latter is always accurate.

Everything else has been covered in the previous posts
 
I like the China pen with added strips for good measure haha
The strips help you zone in and make sure china is not screwing with ya
But if you buy the cheap pen, save the 6.86 powder it comes with, every 3 weeks just dip it and calibrate it.
No fuss ;)
 
If you're growing in soil, then EC/PPM is a much less important measurement. In coco or hydro it is important. I use tap water, and it's horrible, PPM's up to 1200, mostly Ca, Mg, Mn and Fe, so I don't need to add calmag, I did once, and it locked out N.
 
1200 ppm ?? you need RO, no way around it, that's just too much
I'm using tap because I'm just being lazy filling 20L a day from the RO, also it saves me a few bucks on double nutes dosage, but it's just a few more bucks all in all, nothing over the top
In my pheno hunts I don't invest too much in it, most plants are hemp anyway
Last run I got 1 keeper outta 60 plants so I ain't pushing the envelope with these hunts
Definitely gonna run RO when I have enough clones of that keeper for a production run
If your water is 0.6 EC like mine, that 0.4 EC of added A&B makes a nice difference.
 
Phytoplankton said:
Your municipal water district will have all the info you need concerning what's in your water (usually on-line). An airstone will speed up the dissapation of chlorine, which only takes a day anyway (I don't bother with chlorine/chloramines, the effects are so short lived). Add your calmag, mix, wait 15 mintues, then mix your other nutes, wait 15 minutes, then check/adjust the PH to about 6.2Gotmy municiapl water and PH was 9.0, so I guess I need to mix nutrients and oh down to
Click to expand...

Phytoplankton said:
Your municipal water district will have all the info you need concerning what's in your water (usually on-line). An airstone will speed up the dissapation of chlorine, which only takes a day anyway (I don't bother with chlorine/chloramines, the effects are so short lived). Add your calmag, mix, wait 15 mintues, then mix your other nutes, wait 15 minutes, then check/adjust the PH to about 6.2
Click to expand...
Got a good PH pen calibrated and tested my tap water. Comes in about 9.0, so I guess I need to mix nutrients in and ph down to 6-2-6.5 for soil? Still dont see why PH is so important when I used distilled, purified, and spring prior grows and everything went quite well. maybe I can expect even better results now.
 
PTS.Genetics said:
I like the China pen with added strips for good measure haha
The strips help you zone in and make sure china is not screwing with ya
But if you buy the cheap pen, save the 6.86 powder it comes with, every 3 weeks just dip it and calibrate it.
No fuss ;)
Click to expand...
I bought a fancy smancy ac infinity PH pen lol.
 
PTS.Genetics said:
Depending on your nutrients ratios, even tap water with 0.6 EC is ok to use, just cut the ferts dose by half or quarter.
Airstones are nice but if you grow in a nice aerated medium you won't need it so much
Basic rule is you add epsom or calmag first (if needed), basic ferts (such as A&B) and additives after (PK, etc)
After you mix each one in the water (always add each fert on its own, mix well and add the following) you ph the water.
If you grow in soil, 6.2-6.5 is best
If you grow in coco or hydro, 5.8-6.2 is best
Buy a cheap china ph pen, you won't need anything more than that.
Click to expand...
Thank for the tips on mixing order. Where does silicia go in the order?
 
Silica you mix with the soil most of the time, just put some on the top layer and mix with your hands a lil and water normally
Distilled water has a ph of 7
If you use distilled without ferts, you can not ph it and it will be fine (in soil)
When you add ferts, the PH changes, so even distilled with added ferts needs ph adjustment.
 
Rainwater can usually substitute RO if you have a way to collect it.
Ec/ph pen is a good tool. Well water can be even worse than tap.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

B
Do i ph rain water?
Replies
5
Views
446
biggiegallz
B
GemGrows24
Please Help! First timer /stunted growth/yellow leaves
Replies
10
Views
1K
Smokenpassout
S
JustBlazin
Easiest way to grow quality cannabis
Replies
4
Views
458
JustBlazin
JustBlazin
beansin
RO water and ph
Replies
1
Views
344
Cpappa27
Cpappa27
M
2nd Grow Autos how am I doing?
Replies
18
Views
733
MickFoster
MickFoster
Back
Top