Thermal Spring water rich in Phosphorus???

Good idea, bad idea?


  • Total voters
    7
  • Poll closed .

Xeno420

Active Member
Can it be used in flowering when I can't get my hands on anything else? It occurred to me last time I went to this one place I often go to & relax in near-scalding hot spring water that happens to be rich in phosphorus. I really do not know what else is in this water but I'm sure it has all sorts of minerals in it but nothing too hard because there are no water lines on the in-ground tubs. I even tasted it (with swooshing sounds) to taste for salt but it has a very light taste of dirt instead. It's kinda' a cloudy greenish--greyish-yellowish... color. I go there to get my muscles and bones in a chill state after a hard workout....

The good part: I have a thread on here with an all organic grow and I am not going to use anything else but unsulfured Blackstrap molasses which I keep seeing an NPK ratio of 1-0-5. Well I know that the water is chock full of sulfur. The plan is to mix 1 to 2 tbsp of molasses per gallon with 1/3 of that gallon being this sulfured water and the other 2/3 gallon would be from 5 gallon jugs of reverse osmosis drinking water ($1 per 5 gal is ok with me ^_^). My grow can be seen @ https://www.rollitup.org/grow-journals/420260-organic-window-grow-michoacan-bagseed.html

Input? Ideas on what to do would be appreciated. Most viable answers will be +rep'd. Thanks d(o.0)b i,,,, (make sure to leave a response for the reason. I might get scientifical with testing the water before I proceed if I have to). I've seen other posts about "well water" but this is not necessarily well water, it is more like geyser water that has been filtered through underground rock caverns that emit sulfur gases which in turn get ionized into the water. The color and smell of the water is not that nasty smell coming out of your average city water faucet. It is cleansed by mother nature and given hot, it just needs to cool off to room temp before administering.
 

Xeno420

Active Member
Are you exaggerating?
Yes, but hypothetically speaking "no". I want to see it as the only alternative other than buying anything that wasn't already in the house and seeds from bags of fresh (local not imported :wink:) Mexican bud. I'm not poor but I'm not rich either and the land will provide what my plants need. Call it a journaled experiment if you will.:hump::hump::hump:
 

Xeno420

Active Member
*bump* Anybody else? You people are voting but give me reasons as well for your decisions, thanks
 

Xeno420

Active Member
Time is almost up and I need some solid answers. Any takers? Deadline for voting is tomorrow @ 7 pm but since I go Sunday morning, you'll have until 10 AM... help out people! I'll test on one of my plants and post results later if I am convinced. Peace :SMILE:
 

thrash4ever

Well-Known Member
Simply wouldn't do it. Good you identify that it has lots of Sulphur in it (correct), but what else? Besides tasting ("tastes like dirt, not salt") you don't know what kind of salts or metals or whatever are in there.
I guess it depends on the kind of porous rock it is being filtered through. I assume there would be high calcium content, too.
I'd go for something more regular, measurable and quantifiable, this process just has too much risk despite the nice idea. Then again, I'm not experienced (none growing with hot spring water; swimming in them, around the world: quite a bit)... but that doesn't inhibit my scepticism.
That or test it out on one plant or two with a couple of other variables, rather than a whole crop.
 

Xeno420

Active Member
Simply wouldn't do it. Good you identify that it has lots of Sulphur in it (correct), but what else? Besides tasting ("tastes like dirt, not salt") you don't know what kind of salts or metals or whatever are in there.
I guess it depends on the kind of porous rock it is being filtered through. I assume there would be high calcium content, too.
I'd go for something more regular, measurable and quantifiable, this process just has too much risk despite the nice idea. Then again, I'm not experienced (none growing with hot spring water; swimming in them, around the world: quite a bit)... but that doesn't inhibit my scepticism.
That or test it out on one plant or two with a couple of other variables, rather than a whole crop.
Correct. The plan is to test the water on one of the clones. There isn't much to go on for using sulfured hot spring water on cannabis plants so I had to bring this up. As far as I'm concerned, there are not too many thermogeologists roaming RIU than can give me tips. I tried looking online to see if I can get a report on content in the water but I might have to go to my local agricultural department and ask for test results for that water (wonder if that will work/wonder if they even have that info). If all else fails, I just try it on one of my 4 sativa clones. Thanks ^_^

P.S. Some of the greatest discoveries and some of the worst are via trial and error...
 

cowboylogic

Well-Known Member
Seems like the calcium content would be very high also. Possibly even calcified lime due to the heat. I cannot say from experience but I would not use it until it was tested to reveal its content... If you need a source of P then you may want to look into rock phosphate....0-3-0 in most cases.
 

cowboylogic

Well-Known Member
Also remember that the amount of P needed in container gardening is much less than outdoor growing. Mineralized(outdoor)soil leaches P at a much faster rate than potting mixes....
 

Wolverine97

Well-Known Member
I would possibly consider it in the second to last week of flowering for the sulfur, magnesium, and calcium that it probably contains. Not to mention the phosphorus. I don't think I'd try it early in flower (except maybe on one tester) because the ratio's are bound to be way off from ideal. Toward the end you could get a nice flavor boost from the sulfur, and the other elements help in general but wouldn't cause too much damage that late in the game if things went bad. Epinion.
 

cowboylogic

Well-Known Member
I would possibly consider it in the second to last week of flowering for the sulfur, magnesium, and calcium that it probably contains. Not to mention the phosphorus. I don't think I'd try it early in flower (except maybe on one tester) because the ratio's are bound to be way off from ideal. Toward the end you could get a nice flavor boost from the sulfur, and the other elements help in general but wouldn't cause too much damage that late in the game if things went bad. Epinion.
Unless it does contains enough(and it does not take much)calcified lime. In which case the extreme ph shift would lockout everything with about no way to recover.......its nasty stuff...
 
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