What Water is best for Organic?

My tap is 8.5 pH. My bottled water source is an even 7. I haven't tried RO and don't really want to because I hear you have to add cal/mag to it. My soil has beneficial fungi and microbes that I want to preserve, but run off is 8.5. I want to fix my soil/water's pH without using pH down. How do I do this? Apple cider vinegar and lemon juice lower the water pH, but it will rise again, and run off is still 8.5.

Plants are young, there should be enough nutrients in the soil for them to grow with no issue for at least another month but they are suffering because of the pH level.

If I use pH down, the microbes are dead, If I add them to the soil, they will just die off anyways when I add pH down to the next watering. So what the point of being organic when your water's pH is too high to grow??

I watched a buddy grow massive LA confidential plants with just superthrive ever other watering and with straight tap water. He used Foxfarm soil with nothing added. MY plants look like shit compared to his and they are much older. He never adjusted pH and never flushes, they are just huge.

Also, if my runoff is very dark, how do I tell what color it is with the litmus hydroponics solution test? I have to use a meter? Still waiting for my calibration solution to calibrate my POS Milwaukee meter.

Should I just use fish emulsion in water (to acidify) every watering and then flush with RO water every so often? If so who often should I flush?

so many questions, I'm real discouraged this year with this damn coco soil. Should have just kicked down the 15 bucks for Foxfarms, but this soil is OMRI listed.

i use mineral natural water

I use tap water and I haven't checked my PH in years. I starting seeds in 1 gallon fabric pots. I put them under 200 Watts. In two or three weeks I'm going to set them outside. By october the indicas should be 4-5 feet tall, and the sativas should be 5-6 feet.

To get taller plants you increase the veg time and c02 levels. You can also increase N and P, but to much can lead to lanky branching and popcorn looking nugs.

I run my water through a Small Boy 2 stage filter then aerate for 24-48 hours. No ph

Adjusting the water pH will do little to solve the problem of a soil that's too sweet. Since you are growing organically, try adding compost of an acidic nature, such as pine straw or sulfur flowers. For more reading on the subject, check out.. http://www.organicgardening.com/learn-and-grow/how-lower-your-soil-ph

Rain water is best IMHO. Next best thing is Reverse osmosis water, but you need to add some source of cal-mag to it. There is a good sticky here about using eggshells for calcium, and as far as Magnesium goes, epsom salts work wonders.

I used to use tap, until I found out most of my problems were caused by it.

spring water, rainwater, tap water(its properties are overlooked often and im talking about decent tap) than RO thats my list.

tap rated above RO for one reason, its properties as a sterile water help to regulate microbial population. that and you have to add things like calmag to RO water. but hydro the list would be in exact reverse

Add a tiny bit of molasses. I do that to bring down my 8+ water to a piss yellow 6.

really? molasses thats awesome. i never check my ph, its never been off, and i use the same recipe time after time year after year. once you get everything fine tuned its just a matter of keeping it up.

i collect rain water, and throw in the water from my de-humidifier. i store it in a barrel with oyster shells in the bottom.

Once the soil has been properly amended with a bit of lime, the water pH is largely irrelevant. The plant roots will exude nutrients for the microlife. The plant will vary the exudates as it needs to, and the resulting microlife will bring the soil pH to where it needs to be, regardless of how you pH the water.

I vote for well water being best, as it has trace minerals in addition to Ca, Fe, and Mg. If using tap water, I would de-chlorinate with a bit of molasses. RO water would be last on my list

Serapis said:

Adjusting the water pH will do little to solve the problem of a soil that's too sweet. Since you are growing organically, try adding compost of an acidic nature, such as pine straw or sulfur flowers. For more reading on the subject, check out.. http://www.organicgardening.com/learn-and-grow/how-lower-your-soil-ph

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^^^^^^Word^^^^^^

Adjusting the water is like pissing into the wind.

Get your soil's pH right and don't worry about the water.

Wet

Here is a link to whats in my soil. https://www.rollitup.org/marijuana-plant-problems/516339-help-new-brand-coco-soil.html

What is the point of adding dolomite, for the Calcium and Mag?? Lime raises the pH though.

Nice read Serapis. I do have a redwood tree outside, but bringing needles in would bring in unwanted bugs right? My plants have no pests at all right now. This stress plus spider mites would be devastating. I really don't want to buy anything.

I have a big bag of this Dry Fert: http://www.espoma.com/p_consumer/pdf/products/tones/Esp_Citrus.pdf

And I just transplanted into FFOF. If I top dress with the above fert, would this make it more acidic? It does have sulpher, and a good bit of cal/mag

When should I top dress?

Dol lime is a buffer. What ever the ph is at it will keep it there. I use tap water and aerate it for a day or 2 then throw molasses in there for an hour before adding every thing else. The molasses neutralizes any chlorine left if any and chloromine, amonia, and other chemicals. I have not checked my ph in a long time. I feed with guano teas which is a buffer too along with coco which is in the roots soil I use.

The lime only raises the PH if its below 7 its a buffer as mentioned but keeps everything neutral or at 7. As for the water I use Tap and store it in a 12 gallon tall kitchen trash can that is aerated. I am also hanging a cheap fish tank filter with a large nylon sack of activated charcoal that I change every 6 months. So I fill the container with 12 gallons of tap water and run the external fish filter so it runs through the charcoal for at least 12 hours. Chlorine will dissapate in about 12 hours with aeration helping speed that up but Chloramine does not dissapate so I use the charcoal to remove that, I have not needed to add anything to get through the grow with either my own mix (pro mix with following addings: earth worm poop, bone meal, blood meal. rock phosphate, bat guano and lime) if I am not using my own mix I use a combination of Happy Frog and Ocean Forest. But either mix I go with I dont need anything but charcoal filtered tap water. I would go with the lime so the soil stays as close to 7 without modifying the water and allows the plant to not get nute locked and turn bright green with the ol brown spots on yellowing leaves.

i usually really don't mind about the water but 8.5 pH is really high! :S

I use domonite lime to ph down. You'll find it at your lumber yard in the concrete section.

Im in favour of decent tap water in soil/soiless. I never needed to adjust pH as my nutes were designed for tap water use. If and when I encounter a problem I'll address it. Thank u PROMIX for making life so easy. My buddy swore by distilled but some argue it loses it's structure during the distilling process.

The lime only raises the PH if its below 7 its a buffer as mentioned but keeps everything neutral or at 7. As for the water I use Tap and store it in a 12 gallon tall kitchen trash can that is aerated. I am also hanging a cheap fish tank filter with a large nylon sack of activated charcoal that I change every 6 months. So I fill the container with 12 gallons of tap water and run the external fish filter so it runs through the charcoal for at least 12 hours. Chlorine will dissapate in about 12 hours with aeration helping speed that up but Chloramine does not dissapate so I use the charcoal to remove that, I have not needed to add anything to get through the grow with either my own mix (pro mix with following addings: earth worm poop, bone meal, blood meal. rock phosphate, bat guano and lime) if I am not using my own mix I use a combination of Happy Frog and Ocean Forest. But either mix I go with I dont need anything but charcoal filtered tap water. I would go with the lime so the soil stays as close to 7 without modifying the water and allows the plant to not get nute locked and turn bright green with the ol brown spots on yellowing leaves.

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This is very interesting.. sparking lots of reading, or re-reading.. This must be why during my last grow, when I used FFOF and mixed in dolomite lime at planting time, there were literally no problems. The bag was balanced at 6.3 - 6.5 and the lime must have kept it there. I just took a soil science class, but my instructor pounded the idea that Lime will raise our pH in soils and they will become alkaline. Maybe what he meant (or what I misunderstood) was that it fixes acidic soils and levels off at 7?? Goodness, a got a fucking A in the class, and here I am having basic soil science problems in my grow.. LMAO.. This goes to show, school isn't education, it's schooling. I got schooled by my govt. and the board of edu.. Crooks

Thanks everyone for the awesome info.

Don't trust anything but your ph tester/test kit(s). Domonite lime has different properties than other limes.