Anyone wana take the 'Evian Challange' with me?

Kingrow1 said:

Thankyou very much dude, i cant remember the chemical composition of Volvic but at least someone else noticing the benefits of mineral water over their tap water, my guess is a cal/mag supplement in with your usual water would get you back on track again. It seems to me to be the cal/mag in the mineral water that the plants love the most and those in soft water areas will certainly notice the difference.

Thanks for taking the mineral water challenge dude and proving to everyone mineral water is safe. Peace

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Thanks man, and its a great idea starting this thread bro comp mg per litre is - Chlorides 13.5 Calcium 11.5 Nitrates 6.3 Magnesium 8.0 Sulphates 8.1 Sodium 11.6 Bicarbonates 71.0 Potassium 6.2 Silca 31.7 I used one third tap water 24 hr stand to get rid of chlorine and two thirds Volvic and once again i have to say that my plants are going from strength to strength so now i know it is not just a coincidence! oh i also aerate the water for oxygen too! right, im of to read the rest of the thread and catch up

Peace out

That must rock your bank acct!

ireeman said:

Thanks man, and its a great idea starting this thread bro comp mg per litre is - Chlorides 13.5 Calcium 11.5 Nitrates 6.3 Magnesium 8.0 Sulphates 8.1 Sodium 11.6 Bicarbonates 71.0 Potassium 6.2 Silca 31.7 I used one third tap water 24 hr stand to get rid of chlorine and two thirds Volvic and once again i have to say that my plants are going from strength to strength so now i know it is not just a coincidence! oh i also aerate the water for oxygen too! right, im of to read the rest of the thread and catch up

Peace out

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Let me tie up a few loose ends for you then dude-

Once you have a calcium or cal/mag def it seems very hard to overcome it even with supplements i have seen and found, takes a while anyway. I and my plants loved the mineral water but i did go half half in the end with my soft tap water. The chart posted here seems to be a very good if not definitave cal/mag guide, i will post it below again.

And yes if your plants love mineral water there is a good chance you need a cal/mag supplement, not definate though although it seems good to use to work out if you need to spend money on some cal/mag supplements or not.

I have also gained a good understanding of recomended and max levels of things like chlorides, nitrates and especially bicarbonates which make the water more alkaline and in turn can over time raise the soil pH as they accumulate, eventually locking out iron but bicarbonates are easily neutralised with acid or ph down/ferts so not really a problem.

Mineral water has taught me a lot and calcium is almost as important as NPK. Good luck and great to hear volvic worked for you as Evian worked for me. Thanks.

jayfury said:

That must rock your bank acct!

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You'd think so wouldn't you! But no it dosent even scratch the surface. Me and my girlfriend drink San Peligrino and perrier water by the gallon at home. When i use to bake bread/sourdough or cook i would use mineral water too instead of tap water. Hell guys mineral water aint exspensive for me and wouldnt even notice the difference in my bank at the end of the week. Sorry guys i can buy what i want food and water wise when i like, i am strict and normally will only entertain organic fruit and veg and dont mind paying the premium, it taste nicer and is a lot healthier and contains a lot more nutrients.

Seriously dont worry about my bank account cause my plants are priceless and this was just a one off experiment to learn about different waters and there properties, if i can help someone with the knowledge i gain their happiness would more than pay for what i have given the Evian company the last couple of weeks.

I might add mineral water may not be suitable for everyones situation, if your soil has a lot of cal mag anyway or in your ferts it may produce toxicity so do not take my recomendations as golden or a magic bullet to solve grow problems. Peace

View attachment 1717479

Calcium on the left and mag on the right.

yo king just to let ya know one of my ladies will be starting the evian challenge tonight, will let you know how it goes!

ok so 1 of 3 plants that were all cloned from the same mother has started "the evian challenge" tonight, she has recived 2/3 evian to 1/3 tap, she has also gotten exactly the same nutes as the two that are on plain tap, i will keep this up for the nxt few waterings to see how it affects things an let you all know! let the challenge begin!!

holdenlots said:

ok so 1 of 3 plants that were all cloned from the same mother has started "the evian challenge" tonight, she has recived 2/3 evian to 1/3 tap, she has also gotten exactly the same nutes as the two that are on plain tap, i will keep this up for the nxt few waterings to see how it affects things an let you all know! let the challenge begin!!

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Good one dude, some growers here already use mineral water that i have spoken too and my plants are loving it, no cal/mag problems anymore, at least some more feedback will be good, keep us posted. Peace

will do m8! will be a good test to see how well it will do against the two on tap, kind of excited hehe!

evian spelled backwards is naive

Yea if your growing 1 plant lmao.. Let me Try to Water whats under my 2x 600w with bottled waters.. I would have about $500 worth of recyclables by the end of the month.. let alone an entire garage full of bottles.

Just use it for one plant then not the whole grow, if its a soil grow it should be very easy, just use evian for that one pot, i paid 20pence a litre in the end through bulk buying so was well cheap and if you stand and compact the bottles when empty you wont need much space to store them, a small plastic bag should do.

Anyway this thread is dead, Evian worked for me and now onto Sensi's cal/mg supplement as through using Evian i was able to determine that i was cal/mag deficient in my water. Well i already knew this just wanted to work out what mineral water had to offer, seriously read the thread, like the millionth person to say the same thing even though that is not what i asked.

Anyway good luck. Peace

Why not just get q quart of cal/mag and just make sure the ph is correct?

marleyofthebob said:

Why not just get q quart of cal/mag and just make sure the ph is correct?

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Not to sound annoying but do you guys actually read the whole thread and take it in or just skip to the last post and make up some random comment! Seriously, threads dead unless you have somthing constructive to say?????

I can make my own cal/mag solution for a fraction of the cost of what you buy it for, calcium nitrate and maggnesium sulphate, total ingredients of final solution - Magnesium, Calcium, Nitrogen and Sulfur and in what ever ratio i want namely 10 to 1 calcium to magnesium for veg and 3 to 1 calcium to magnesium for flower or any other ratio strain dependant.

The thread was about understanding cal/mag not using it, you guys just add the cal/mag whilst i fully understand it, if you get stuck let me know, till then good luck and Peace.

Anyone else wana take the easy route or someone wana discuss the fundamentals of cal/mag? Peace

My only experience with bottled water was that the bicarbonates it contains buffered the PH very agressively in my compost (!), to the point it was very hard to alter the PH of the medium after using bottled water during the first 2 months. (I needed it down).

This is why I gave it up, but I confess I don't really understand bicarbonates.
Also, not all brands of mineral water is the same, and some contain uneeded salts. Evian is not available here.

Kingrow1 said:

Yo guys you got it all wrong, just try it on one plant for few weeks and see if it makes a difference, if it dose i would almost say you were having cal/mag problems but this is why i urge you to take the challange and try it, i have and it worked amazingly.

To those who can't buy it or afford it it is certainly cheaper than shelling out the money for a bottle of cal/mag without even knowing if you have it! I am mainly aiming at those who want to deal with cal/mag and can get a few bottles of Evian.

This is a cal/mag challenge and evian seems perfect water for plants, find out wether your water is at fault or not. Only for soil growers please. Peace

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you have to do it to more than one to actually have a partially true statement, because for all you know that one Evian fed plant could have had something genetically wrong with it or might of just been a very strong plant.

Mr.Grønn;6098421 said:

My only experience with bottled water was that the bicarbonates it contains buffered the PH very agressively in my compost (!), to the point it was very hard to alter the PH of the medium after using bottled water during the first 2 months. (I needed it down).

This is why I gave it up, but I confess I don't really understand bicarbonates.
Also, not all brands of mineral water is the same, and some contain uneeded salts. Evian is not available here.

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Ph down acid should neutralise the carbonates, evian has 300 or so ppm of bicarbonates, these join with ions to produce alkaline or acidic compounds which in turn buffer the soil as you have seen, too many bicarbonates is bad but probably the reason why the water had a high starting pH. Consider calcium, add a bicarbonate or carbonate and you should get calcium bicarbonate or similar to whats in dolomite lime. These are the buffering principles of bicarbonates as i understand them.

You are right about some of the uneeded salts in mineral water, sodium levels can be quite high and sodium bicarbonate is not very healthy in large doses for plants, think that this is just plain salt. I looked at many different mineral waters and Evian was the best in all departments and dissolved ingredients. Real shame Evian isn't available where you live, it is reputed to be the best mineral water in the world, not a bad comment about it anywhere.

Should your tap water be between 100 to 200 ppm straight out of the tap and live in a first world country i would use this.

beginner.legal.growop said:

you have to do it to more than one to actually have a partially true statement, because for all you know that one Evian fed plant could have had something genetically wrong with it or might of just been a very strong plant.

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Not true, no matter what the genetics of the strain and plant if you suspect cal/mag deficiency then Evian should have an effect, i have weaker and stronger genetics show the same deficiency at the same point. Just cause a plant is an F1 generation or genetically quicker and stronger growing it still needs nutrients, a stronger plant will assimilate nutes quicker and hence need more feeds and water not necessarially stronger doses. Peace

How about determining you have a cal/mag problem when your plant shows you it has a cal/mag problem?