CalMag Issues. Soft vs Hard Water??

Im thinking the root of my mid to late flowering issues has to do with my water.

Im in SW Mich, have well water with a water softener because of the high iron content. I never seem to show issues while in veg but come flowering time, my leaves start to spot brown, yellow, and turn crispy. Never seemed to have as bad of an issue until now

Would I be better grabbing water straight from the well (before softening) or continue to use the soft water?? I think the salt build up is what's causing the issues

Thoughts??

Bump

Here's what I'm dealing with. Im thinking CalMag

Water softener is doing nothing to help the plants so i would definitely pull the water before that. what is your ppm of raw water? Are you growing in soil or hydro?

No idea on PPM, don't have a meter but I know I have "very hard water" per the well guy. Growing in FFOF and usually ph my water down to 6.7-6.8

Do you know what type of water softener system you have? Some use citric acid to soften the water and that is going to drop the pH quite a bit while also depleting the calcium from the water.

TreeFarmerCharlie said:

Do you know what type of water softener system you have? Some use citric acid to soften the water and that is going to drop the pH quite a bit while also depleting the calcium from the water.

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Salt water softener. Im assuming the salt is causing lockout

this is somewhat happening to me. first two are the plant its been happening since about a week into flower. and the second two photos are from my other plant its beginning to happen to. and i am almost 4 weeks from flip

Yep, identical. Seems to be affecting my Gelato more than the other strains

MidwestGanja said:

Salt water softener. Im assuming the salt is causing lockout

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Your are spot on. If you are using salt with iron out that is probably worse as the iron removal locks out the cal mag.

I time the withdrawal of water to when my softener runs out of salt. Or you get and RO filter setup prior to the softener system and pull from that.

I was having issues from well water as well. I did not have a softner but RO filter solved the problem for me. I'm not sure wether to use the filter after the softner or directly with well water. I'm sure if it's real hard water that it might go through filters faster so maybe try a prefilter if your going directly from the well.

Okay so I googled it and apparently it's common practice to run the RO filter after the softner. Remember to buy a unit that is much larger than your anticipated needs. For example a 100 gpd filter is only 100 gallons of you have 60 psi and water is 77 degrees. Since that is rarely the case and colder water with lower psi reduces output just remember to oversize the filter you buy.

MidwestGanja said:

Im thinking the root of my mid to late flowering issues has to do with my water.

Im in SW Mich, have well water with a water softener because of the high iron content. I never seem to show issues while in veg but come flowering time, my leaves start to spot brown, yellow, and turn crispy. Never seemed to have as bad of an issue until now

Would I be better grabbing water straight from the well (before softening) or continue to use the soft water?? I think the salt build up is what's causing the issues

Thoughts??

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I'm thinking you're right...

Your water softener is replacing the high valence ions in your water with sodium.

Sodium concentrations build up over time, and then begin to wreak havoc on nutrient availability.

If you have problematic water, you should have it tested to find out exactly what's in it, and then determine what course of action to take when it comes to filtration.

TreeFarmerCharlie said:

while also depleting the calcium from the water.

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ok so Citrate actally chelates Ca & the plant can even recycle it.
In an org. grow its a good addition to make Ca available to a plant. not unreasonable but also should be handled with care.

but whats not good about hard water is high levels of Sodium & Chlorine.

Apalchen said:

Okay so I googled it and apparently it's common practice to run the RO filter after the softner. Remember to buy a unit that is much larger than your anticipated needs. For example a 100 gpd filter is only 100 gallons of you have 60 psi and water is 77 degrees. Since that is rarely the case and colder water with lower psi reduces output just remember to oversize the filter you buy.

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Yes, if it is a whole house filter you would run it after the softener. Depends on the size of the RO and how much you want to put through it.

so i am currently using water from my facet. its not from a well, its city water. i just receieved some cal-mag today i ordered as i was going to try that. is that not going to fix my issue? im honestly kinda confused as to what you all are talking about im sorry lol

dmatt0927 said:

so i am currently using water from my facet. its not from a well, its city water. i just receieved some cal-mag today i ordered as i was going to try that. is that not going to fix my issue? im honestly kinda confused as to what you all are talking about im sorry lol

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you have unknown variables in your water.

take RO water + CalMag to EC 0.2-0.4 mS, or take soft-mediumsoft tapwater of unknown Ca Mg etc mineralic content

GrowRijt said:

Your are spot on. If you are using salt with iron out that is probably worse as the iron removal locks out the cal mag.

I time the withdrawal of water to when my softener runs out of salt. Or you get and RO filter setup prior to the softener system and pull from that.

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That's exactly what I'm using, Iron Out Softener.

Im able to pull straight from well, so I'm hoping that unfiltered well water with PH Down and CalMag should help

Not to divert from my original question but here's what I usually do during winter and I've never known whether it's good or bad......

In winter I run my dehumidifier 24/7 to keep humidity down and warm the room. When I empty the reservoir, I actually just feed it right back to the plants. No PH, no nutes, etc. Are there any issues with this?? I've never ph'd or known whether it was good or bad but my plants never seem to care. Could be why I don't run into these lockout issues over winter