1.1 ec tap water. It's it bad?

kingromano

kingromano

Well-Known Member
my well water has the same base EC
i cut it half with RO, or use straight RO depending on if I find soft water nutrients

you can use it straight for soil as long you dont push the plants too hard on light intensity.. but 1.1mS i very very hard ..

and beware of phosphorous deficiency. as the calcium (making the most of the EC of the water) is antagonist to it. start to use good doses of P for bloom

as you are growing in soil, i guess you don't ph your solution before feeding ..
in this case ph will have tendancie to rise constantly because of the hardness of the base water ..
 
pulpoinspace

pulpoinspace

Well-Known Member
the water report should be on the cities website, or the water district or whoever you pay your water bill to.
if your water is worse than they say it should be, its possible you have an in-home pipe issue like someone said. if your house was built pre-1986 i'd be looking into that first.

i'd go to your neighbors house and test their water.
 
Kushash

Kushash

Well-Known Member
Hollatchaboy said:
Well something put that idea in your head, and I'm interested. If you can point me to that thread I'd appreciate it.
Click to expand...
Organic grow with start of calcium deficiency? | Rollitup

The link above is one of two I saw today about a new grower using PH down. The grower feels it's a deficiency in the thread above.
I wanted to help but it becomes a broken record trying to help someone in those situations so it was on my mind when I added the comment about it being best to not use PH down as a new grower on this thread.
 
Hollatchaboy

Hollatchaboy

Well-Known Member
kingromano said:
my well water has the same base EC
i cut it half with RO, or use straight RO depending on if I find soft water nutrients

you can use it straight for soil as long you dont push the plants too hard on light intensity.. but 1.1mS i very very hard ..

and beware of phosphorous deficiency. as the calcium (making the most of the EC of the water) is antagonist to it. start to use good doses of P for bloom

as you are growing in soil, i guess you don't ph your solution before feeding ..
in this case ph will have tendancie to rise constantly because of the hardness of the base water ..
Click to expand...
No I do ph my water to 6.5. My ph is pretty high also so I bring it back down.
 
Hollatchaboy

Hollatchaboy

Well-Known Member
Kushash said:
Organic grow with start of calcium deficiency? | Rollitup

The link above is one of two I saw today about a new grower using PH down. The grower feels it's a deficiency in the thread above.
I wanted to help but it becomes a broken record trying to help someone in those situations so it was on my mind when I added the comment about it being best to not use PH down as a new grower on this thread.
Click to expand...
Thanks. I didn't know that. I'll start leaving the ph alone.
 
Hollatchaboy

Hollatchaboy

Well-Known Member
Kdoggy said:
O ok ya im sorry i never read your first post right
Click to expand...
I prolly didn't say it. Lol yea I'm using ffhf and dry amendments, ewc when needed. I keep getting purple streaking on main stems. So I started using 5ml/ gal. R.o. water and it seemed to help a bit. I don't wanna have to use bottled nutes anymore though. I guess if I have to I will though.
 
Kushash

Kushash

Well-Known Member
Hollatchaboy said:
Thanks. I didn't know that. I'll start leaving the ph alone.
Click to expand...
The best way a new grower should start a grow with ffof IMO is to go water only until something is needed. If a person already has a green thumb they will quickly learn how to water the plant. If a person has no experience growing other plants or vegetables then they will likely run into problems just from improper watering.
With no experience they start adding ferts and PH'ing water because they read somewhere they should adjust PH or they follow a chart that tells them to feed to soon or to much.
Now with everything they are doing they might forget or not understand PH pens need special handling.
If they don't store the pen with a solution to protect the probe or if they do not regularly test their pen with 2 different calibration fluids they are headed for trouble.

This is why I say some members have great success PH'ing their water, the thing is they have years of experience and when they say they PH to 6.8 for soil I would trust they are accurate, on the other hand if a new grower says they PH to 6.8 nobody really knows if their pen is accurate.
 
Hollatchaboy

Hollatchaboy

Well-Known Member
Kushash said:
The best way a new grower should start a grow with ffof IMO is to go water only until something is needed. If a person already has a green thumb they will quickly learn how to water the plant. If a person has no experience growing other plants or vegetables then they will likely run into problems just from improper watering.
With no experience they start adding ferts and PH'ing water because they read somewhere they should adjust PH or they follow a chart that tells them to feed to soon or to much.
Now with everything they are doing they might forget or not understand PH pens need special handling.
If they don't store the pen with a solution to protect the probe or if they do not regularly test their pen with 2 different calibration fluids they are headed for trouble.

This is why I say some members have great success PH'ing their water, the thing is they have years of experience and when they say they PH to 6.8 for soil I would trust they are accurate, on the other hand if a new grower says they PH to 6.8 nobody really knows if their pen is accurate.
Click to expand...
I have a bluelab guardian. I usually use it for my dwc setup. I always put kcl solution in the cap when I store it. I also calibrate with 2 solutions when it tells me it needs calibration (usually once a month). I keep my meter well calibrated. Same with my ec probe. I'm not worried about accuracy because I know I have it. I'm more worried about doing damage by adding ph down to water that's going to be used in soil. Everybody says hydro is so hard, but so far ime, it's much easier. With hydro i know what's going on at all times.
 
Hollatchaboy

Hollatchaboy

Well-Known Member
Kushash said:
The best way a new grower should start a grow with ffof IMO is to go water only until something is needed. If a person already has a green thumb they will quickly learn how to water the plant. If a person has no experience growing other plants or vegetables then they will likely run into problems just from improper watering.
With no experience they start adding ferts and PH'ing water because they read somewhere they should adjust PH or they follow a chart that tells them to feed to soon or to much.
Now with everything they are doing they might forget or not understand PH pens need special handling.
If they don't store the pen with a solution to protect the probe or if they do not regularly test their pen with 2 different calibration fluids they are headed for trouble.

This is why I say some members have great success PH'ing their water, the thing is they have years of experience and when they say they PH to 6.8 for soil I would trust they are accurate, on the other hand if a new grower says they PH to 6.8 nobody really knows if their pen is accurate.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately, my experience has been either soil, ro water w/nutes , or hydro. Either way we always ph'd that water, and it always worked out fine, but doing dry amendments and compost is a different ballgame.
 
Hollatchaboy

Hollatchaboy

Well-Known Member
kingromano said:
my well water has the same base EC
i cut it half with RO, or use straight RO depending on if I find soft water nutrients

you can use it straight for soil as long you dont push the plants too hard on light intensity.. but 1.1mS i very very hard ..

and beware of phosphorous deficiency. as the calcium (making the most of the EC of the water) is antagonist to it. start to use good doses of P for bloom

as you are growing in soil, i guess you don't ph your solution before feeding ..
in this case ph will have tendancie to rise constantly because of the hardness of the base water ..
Click to expand...
I mixed it 50/50. Now ec is 0.6, ppm 300 on 5 scale. Ph is 8.7. Is this more acceptable to water with?
 
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