Tap water

[Guest]

hello every1,Just wondering how long tap water needs to sit b4 watering, I think it has effected my plants,Slight leaf curl on only a few leaves,Only after switching from rain water and veg nutes to Bloom booster and tap water i noticed the prob Im thinking in the morning fill with hot tap water/nutes and let sit all day until that night then water,Should i flush b4 so?Thanks P.S im also hand watering using 20 litre drums of water

[MARTYR]

I gather you have been adjusting your ph,so heres a few facts.

Firstly , Australian water providers are dealin with an arid climate. cities like perth have large populations while having limited water resorces. due to this , the water that we recieve (tap water) is undoubtedly comprimised by this factor .

secondly, we have miles upon miles of pipes that feed our homes with the water that we use significant rates. there is very little point spending millions of dollars on water treatment if the water, after leavin the catchments, is polluted in the pipeline system befor it is consumed or (in this case) fed to plants.

ultimately, water is a controversial subject. suspect water supplies are play down by the water authority spin doctors. according to our water authorities our water is of pristine quality. critics, however argue strongly against this. Chlorine, fluoride,metals (alum,iron,lead), bacteria and so on are just some of the things found in scheme water supplies.

leaching of contaminates into ground water supplies, and nasties know as THMs (trihalomethanes)- chorine combining with humic acid from decayed leaves, soil, algae and other natural debris - are ever present dangers in scheme water. dangerous because they are carcinogenic

so feelin better they say if you let your tap water sit for 24 hours, the chlorine will evaperate, which is a good thing cause like me, plants dont like it.

if you are using a recycling system it is desirable to dump your used nutrient at least weekly. it is necessary to dump and replace the nutrient on a regular basis due to the progressive accumulation of sodium chloride (NaCi). tap water contains salt around 0.5 - 1.2 EC (approx 350 - 840ppm. this may alter depending on your location). plant roots dont take up NaCi, so as they use water the salts increase.

Eg. say that you have a 10ltr system. at 500ppm the system holds 5g NaCi. your plants use say 2L/day. after five days another 5g of NaCi has entered the system. it now holds 10g of salt or 1000ppm.

oneway to work out how regularly to replace ur nutrient is to compare the percentage of daily uptake to the volume of nutrient in the tank. if ur plants take up 5ltrs a day and ur tank is 50ltrs then the entire volume would be used in 10 days(if u werent toppin up ur tank) based on these figures it is desirable to replace ur tank every 10 days .

using 10ltrs a day from 50ltr reservoir would mean replacing your nutrient every 5 days and so on.

top up with water only (dont add nutrient)

this applies to those of u who r using tap water in recycling systems:

tap water has salts in it, then you add more salts to it (in the form of nutrients) which are taken up by the plants.

you then add more water that contains salts and mor nutrient(salts). what can happen is that ur salts can become very imbalanced as a plant food and to concentrated. this imbalance and over concentration can harm the plants. in the worst case scenario the plants can burn.

you r better off just toppin up ur tank with water(ph adjusted) (and not addin nutrient) to a level where the desirable salt levels register on a EC meter. over the cause of several days ur water /nutrient levels in the tank get lower. that is there is less volume of nutrient/water than when you first started. after 5 - 7 days or so dump ur nutrient and start again.

if you are fortunate to be using rain water this dose not apply.

and yes flush your plants with ph adjusted tap water every week or so to take out the excess salts build up.

I THINK I WIL JUST USE RAIN WATER

i hope that helps mate, happy growin

[F420]

great read, it also answers an earlier post that we had where I was told that some tosser from OG just keeps adding nutes to their water and doesnt change it.

 

I knew There was a reason other than what I said about Nutrient lockout due to chemical imbalance.

Its also a problem with build up of tap water salts eh.

[LongFingers]

Sounds like nute burn.. aah I love my trusty truncheon!! I have a 55 litre res that I flush every 10 days or so, but only when I am on 12/12, I never flush it in veg, it seems to be ok.

 

I only use Bud rite and it works a treat. I don't worry about the growth nutes or any thing, I just add a little liquid pot-ash here and there, although Melbourne water is pretty much neutral, it doesn't salt up as bad it seems......

 

LF

[Tom]

Just let the drum of mixed tap water and nutes sit overnight with the lid off and the chlorine will eveporate, I have always used tap water for my grows in Vic, Tas and now WA without any problems.

 

My previous watering system:

 

I used a 60/40 perlite/vermiculite mixture in ”self-watering” plant pots with a home made drip system. It uses one standard dripper per plant, the dripper is connected via 3mm (1/8") flexible tube to a 12mm (1/2") main feeder pipe which in turn connects to a 2 litre (3 pint?) reservoir, a plastic drink bottle with the bottom cut out. The main feeder pipe is fitted and sealed into the neck of the bottle which is hung upside down by a piece of wire from the tap of a 25 litre plastic drum. I mixed my nutrients in the drum and twice a day opened the tap on the drum to fill the bottle and feed the plants. A simple and cheap (under $10) run-to-waste hydro system that worked so well I stuck with it for over 20 years.

 

[Tom]

The pipes and drippers.

[Tom]

I only use Bud rite and it works a treat. I don't worry about the growth nutes or any thing, I just add a little liquid pot-ash here and there,

I was using them in Tassie and they were brilliant, pity they haven't reached WA yet, try using their "Grow Rite" Add Bud" too.

 

[kombi]

i read that calcuim makes stunts growth ,but increases buds ,so if u want a bonzia mother feed it high calcuim nutes or use tap water!