Mellodrama
Well-Known Member
This seems to be the part of the forum where the chemists hang out so I'd like to ask for some help with water chemistry and plant nutrition.
We're on a well. I've seen pH as high as 8.2 but it's been 7.4 lately. Maybe the time of year? We've been knocking it back to 6.0 - 6.5 with phDown.
I bought a TDS meter recently. An HM COM-80. Then I read on the forums that people don't use a meter for soil so I chalked that up to dumb. But figured I might as well check the water at the faucet. The COM-80 sez TDS of 182 ppm.
We've got a reagent-based pond test kit. It's only a year and a half old so the reagent still oughta be OK. KH comes out to about 200 ppm, GH about 50 ppm.
I've read some of the hydro threads where guys take their water chemistry into account when adding nutes. I understand the general concept but not the intricacies.
If you were in soil, would any of the above water data change the way you approached fertilizing? Our two plants are in FFOF, recently transplanted from 3 gal. fabric to 10 gal. fabric, so it'll be a few weeks before it's time to think about fertilizing.
We're on a well. I've seen pH as high as 8.2 but it's been 7.4 lately. Maybe the time of year? We've been knocking it back to 6.0 - 6.5 with phDown.
I bought a TDS meter recently. An HM COM-80. Then I read on the forums that people don't use a meter for soil so I chalked that up to dumb. But figured I might as well check the water at the faucet. The COM-80 sez TDS of 182 ppm.
We've got a reagent-based pond test kit. It's only a year and a half old so the reagent still oughta be OK. KH comes out to about 200 ppm, GH about 50 ppm.
I've read some of the hydro threads where guys take their water chemistry into account when adding nutes. I understand the general concept but not the intricacies.
If you were in soil, would any of the above water data change the way you approached fertilizing? Our two plants are in FFOF, recently transplanted from 3 gal. fabric to 10 gal. fabric, so it'll be a few weeks before it's time to think about fertilizing.
