Fixing my water to suit cannabis

MtnSkunk · Mar 10, 2018

I have been having a hell of a time with my plants indoors, especially with organic and super soils. DWC with GH nutrients worked best surprisingly of all my efforts. I have a suspicion that my water is the culprit and I'm not really sure how to address it.

I have well water, about 330ppm, neutral PH. The water seems to work well with my outdoor garden but indoors under LED or T5 I seem to get what appears to be nitrogen deficiency by about week 3. I knew that shouldn't be the case with fresh soil (I use 1 part light warrior with 2 parts ocean forest for my base organic soil), the supersoil is only in the bottom 1/3 of the pot. On a whim about 2 grows ago I decided to just say fuck it, put in calimagic into the tap water and the nitrogen deficiency went away. Ok, this makes sense however, I have been putting dolmite lime in my soil and my water is fairly high in ppm, I am starting to think I need to either eliminate the dolmite lime completely and look at a way to put magnesium back into the soil. I don't know if having an abundance of calcium in the soil is bad, at least with my PPM and added calmag.

I'm still trying to get this all figured out, I really dont want to have to deal with RO water or buying gallons of water at the market. If I can just keep this simple and have everything I need in the soil so I just water with plain water or compost teas I would be on track. Should I have my water tested to see exactly what levels of nutrients are in my water?

Any help is greatly appreciated. I am tired of having stunted stressed out 3-4 week old plants.

Kygiacomo!!! · Mar 10, 2018

what ingredients do u put in the super soil? 3 weeks is about the time that the food in fox farm is used up in my experience.

MtnSkunk · Mar 10, 2018

Kygiacomo!!! said:
what ingredients do u put in the super soil? 3 weeks is about the time that the food in fox farm is used up in my experience.

Thanks for checking out my problem Kygiacomo! I had no idea 3 weeks was it, seems like the roots haven't even really begun to dig into the soil. I probably should have prefaced this that I am growing from seed though now I have some clones I am testing out with calmag from the get go (including soaking the rapid rooters).

My super soil was composted for 6 weeks at ambient temps of around 65F using these ingredients

20 Gallons Super Soil

1.6 bags 1.5 cu ft base soil (2 parts ocean forest 1 part light warrior)
6lb worm castings
0.5lb Fish bone meal
1lb high phosphorus bat guano
1lb blood meal
0.5lb bone meal
0.6 cup oyster shell
0.6 cup kelp meal
0.6 cup alfalfa meal
0.15 cup epsom salt
0.2 cup garden lime
0.4 cup azomite
0.4 TBS powdered humic acid

MtnSkunk · Mar 10, 2018

I forgot I also added 0.4 cup of mycos and 1lb of insect frass.

Douglas.Curtis · Mar 11, 2018

Get an r/o filter and enjoy the higher quality cannabis. Only downside to r/o and soil is if you're shy on calcium and magnesium. R/O is not "R/O" the instant it hits your soil. There is nothing magical or evil about it, it's neutral.

Get a garden hose splitter and connect it to your cold water for your washing machine. Collect the 'waste' in a container or your washing machine. Use it to water the garden or lawn or wash clothes with.

Zeez · Mar 11, 2018

MtnSkunk · Mar 11, 2018

Thanks for the responses! My tap well water is 7.0 PH on the nose, about 330ppm. I really won't want to have to deal with R/O water if possible, especially during the winter and the water coming in is like 45 degrees, that takes so long to produce R/O. I am hoping to just add something organic to the water or soil to fix the problem if possible, but I will say I am getting closer to just saying fuck it and going with R/O just to start having bigger and better plants instead of these dwarfs.

Mikell · Mar 11, 2018

There are a variety of filtres, no? I would assume a 50 or 100ppm output to produce a higher volume than 0ppm.

Douglas.Curtis · Mar 11, 2018

MtnSkunk said:
Thanks for the responses! My tap well water is 7.0 PH on the nose, about 330ppm. I really won't want to have to deal with R/O water if possible, especially during the winter and the water coming in is like 45 degrees, that takes so long to produce R/O. I am hoping to just add something organic to the water or soil to fix the problem if possible, but I will say I am getting closer to just saying fuck it and going with R/O just to start having bigger and better plants instead of these dwarfs.

I completely understand about not wanting the hassle. It makes growing predictable, so once you get dialed in correctly the changes in your water supply won't matter. It becomes a non-issue, simplifying everything. Start planning an upgrade.

Look around for a 50gal food grade drum source. Hydrogen peroxide, corn syrup, something which will rinse clean. I installed a small float valve in one and have a steady supply. Drop a $10 mag-drive pump in the bottom and use hose to put the water where you want.

You'll be able to get growing advice from any other grower using your method and r/o. You'll also notice a big difference in the end quality, when compared to 300ppm tap.

MtnSkunk · Mar 11, 2018

Thank you Douglas. I can see how obtaining help is better with a cleaner canvas (i.e. water) so I think this point will drive me towards R/O. I appreciate everyone's time!

Douglas.Curtis · Mar 11, 2018

Jellyfish · Mar 11, 2018

R/O is awesome, and easier and cheaper than I thought it would be. I got some great 30 gallon barrels off craigslist, a little easier to handle for me than the 50 or 55, and plenty for what I'm doing.
D.Curtis made a good point about starting from zero being easier than chasing around a solution for your tap water issues. Good luck.

Zeez · Mar 11, 2018

Town water? Chlorine? You can ask for lab results. I have both city water and well. The well water is stinky and kinda brown. Iron and sulphur, plants love it and results are way better than the city water.

Jellyfish · Mar 11, 2018

I think that's true, but the opposite can be true too. I went from tap water to local spring water and everything went wonky. R/O filtering might not be the solution for everybody, but it is for me.

Zeez · Mar 12, 2018

If we didn't have the well water that works, RO would be my next choice.

Jellyfish · Mar 12, 2018

The house I rented a few years had well water. It tasted like shit, but the plants loved it!

Zeez · Mar 12, 2018

Same deal except ours stinks too. We had the chance to get city water so it was a no brainer over digging another well that might not be better. I kept the well going for irrigation.

MtnSkunk · Mar 15, 2018

The well water here is pristine in taste, I am at over 8k elevation and the well is 360ft deep into granite. Wish my plants loved this water but I'm going to go RO, what a pain in the ass guys, I'm on my 2nd run that's been stunted by this. Good thing I didn't chase the problem any longer. Peace and happy gardening.

Tiresmoke19 · Mar 16, 2018

Any Chace your indoor water is going through a softener? Typically outdoor spigot are plumbed before the softener.

There should be a spigot at your pressure tank for purposes of taking water tests before house lines. By code this spigot shouldn't be threaded for a hose (as its for sample use) but it would be easy to swap out.

MtnSkunk · Mar 16, 2018

We have a softener but it is not in use for quite a few years now. I can check the water at the spigot to see what it reads. Good call. Out here where I live we have no codes lol, construction workers and such say we have the "code of honor" when asked.

Fixing my water to suit cannabis

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