Hey Dude, Scotty, Guru, and the gang.
first off: I’ve been listening for a solid three years now, and suggest your show to everyone I meet who wants to learn more about cannabis.
Now the real post: I am in the middle of setting up a 50 plant indoor grow using 3 yards of KIS organic soil, and blumat drip tape. We had new sinks installed in the grow area, and I did not know we were using softened water in it. My dumb ass rehydrated our root riot plugs with softened water AND THEN watered them with it. The salts in the water killed my clones! Do not use softened water for any plant whatsoever. Guru – is this because the sodium draws the moisture out of the stem or roots? Why exactly is soft water bad to use, but hard water seems to be better? Is it a difference of EC? Or does the type of ion matter?
Same as watering with sea water
Ive always wondered how that worked. Adding salt to make water less hard. Looks like depending how hard your water is it might be fine to use. Calcium in excess can lockout nutrients and cause bonding with phosphorus. You would just need a water test and a double check with a tds meter to make sure the ppm has not fluctuated much since the test. The other thing with hard water is the carbonates bonded with the calcium raise the ph up to high 6s and into the 7s creating a ph lockout. Looks like there is a resin material that bonds with the minerals in the hard water and then they use the power of sodium to strip the resin of the mineral buildup. Says some of the sodium remains in the water which can simulate drought to plants(i would imagine creating a higher osmotic pressure outside the root possibly drawing out the water from the roots themselves) worst case enough salt is taken into the roots causing the root to take in to much and cause burning. Sodium is also known to displace plant available nutrients around the root zone in the medium. Ive read potassium is another salt option but at the downside of 10x in price.
You need an R.O. Filter. I’ve grown in a well the last 5 years. When I setup my system I considered bypassing the softener but hydrologic recommended running from the softened water. The reason being that the filter can remove salts easier than iron (which is what my well is high in). I considered not using a filter but you never know what’s in a well. I can test today, but next month the results could be different. For this reason I use R.O. water which also has its own issues. You can buy a salt alternative for your softener, but it’s potassium based which could throw things off too. It’s also about 4x the price of salt. So I really recommend adding an to filter to your set up if possible
https://www.420magazine.com/community/threads/soft-water-in-a-nutshell.158134/
good read on the subject, but from what I take isn’t RO water soft water? The higher the PPM’s of the water the harder it is no?
I have well water with 160-180pms, I have a a whole house filter, but bypass it for my canna, I have added a simple rv inline garden hose filter to my waterline and it drops my ppm by about 50, has worked fine for years.
I have done 2 water quality tests, one in the winter last year and again in the summer and the were almost identical. High Iron and Manganese
R/O Strips the water of almost all minerals, Bringing the PPM down
The way softeners work is, they remove Calcium and Magnesium out of the water replacing them with sodium and potassium.
I run well water, I run it threw a rough particulate filter, a fine particulate filter and a charcoal filter.
Yep i get that RO at days end is the way and has no TDS, but did not know a softener actually put things back into the water so thanks for the little tidbit of education dude.
Case and point why everyone’s setup and enviro is different because I do great with my well water. Would love RO but to me just seems like an unnecessary buy for what I’m doing currently. (small scale)
Don’t get me wrong its on the list just towards the end of it as I wan’t something that has a big enough res tank that i’m not having to empty it often to build up my water supply.
I just moved from tent to built out rooms so my wish list was, light controller, pulse monitor, co2 tank and emitter and then RO system. I’ll get there sooner or later once I hit the lottery haha but just got he light controller for $350 ughhh.
Thanks again ladies and germs, you learn something knew everyday.
Yep, it’s called ion exchange. A column filled with gel beads charged with sodium ions Na1+. Its removes cations like magnesium Mg2+and calcium Ca2+. You can see the charge from a periodic table of elements.
Na1+ has 11 electrons and 1 in the outer shell. From the periodic table you see Na 11 and is in the first column.
Ca2+ has 20 elections and 2 in the outer shell. From the periodic table you see Ca 20 and is the second column. In this case the column gives you the outer shell electrons or valence electrons. These electrons form chemical bonds. Example NaCl and CaCl2. You’ll see why this is important.
The beads are negative and have a positive Na ion. The water flows through column and the stronger electronegative Ca or Mg exchange two Na ions. So every Ca and Mg that is removed two Na ions are eluded from the column. You are basically removing plant loving Ca and Mg and replacing it with plant killing Na at twice the rate. You should just use hard water for your plants.
The column is recharged with a high salt brine tank and the process continues.
I’ve only ever used softened water and never had a problem. The water i get from my city is no good, some of the hardest in the country (300+) and has contaminates like arsenic and lead at near max acceptable levels. I guess if someone is trying to filter out less harmful contaminants than a softener is something they dont want, but when gardening a bioacumulator the less poison and heavy metals the better.