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How to buffer low EC tap water?
- Thread starter Fourtay
- Start date
Do you know if Epsom Salt would prevent acidification of the soil? The problem I am having is that my coco drifts downward in PH as the plants go through bloom. The fertilzier company suggests using Cal-mag to increase the hardness of the water to 150 ppm / .3 ec, as their fertilizer (veg bloom ro soft) is meant for 150 ppm water, but not less.
Douglas.Curtis
Autistic Diplomat in Training
There is zero need for you to buffer your tap water. You should be taking care of buffering with your setup. I've used r/o water for 16 years now, with a ppm of about 4-12.
Besides, cannabis grows the highest quality when you have a full pH swing, with a balanced nutrient profile.
Besides, cannabis grows the highest quality when you have a full pH swing, with a balanced nutrient profile.
By monitoring my input ph and ppm and then comparing it with the output ph and ppm. For example:
Input: 6.2ph 600ppm
Output: 5.1ph 600ppm
Watering the top of the plant and collecting its runoff. The ph doesn't change in this late stage acidification. You can put 10000 gallons of 6.2 ph fertilizer through and it will still be 5.1ph output.
My thoughts are (I'm no soil chemist) that the nutrient "RO soft" from veg bloom is designed for water with a starting ec / pom of .3 / 150. The hardness / alkalinity / buffer is required for the fertilizer to work correctly and have no impact on the coco. But in my garden I am stuck with 50 ppm tap water. And I need to get it to 150, however I dont like the additional nitrogen from the calmag.
Gypsum and potassium sulfate sold for hydroponics can be used to increase the EC.
Do you know if this would help buffer the starting water?
There is zero need for you to buffer your tap water. You should be taking care of buffering with your setup. I've used r/o water for 16 years now, with a ppm of about 4-12.
Besides, cannabis grows the highest quality when you have a full pH swing, with a balanced nutrient profile.
troutman
Seed Whore
Maybe go talk to somebody at a grow shop if you can't find your answer online.
A lot of Boron in some of those products.
A slurry test is far more accurate than run off.
1-0-0 or 2-0-0 at 100 ppm isn't much N. I can't install HydroBuddy on this phone but it is roughly 10-20ppm.
Douglas.Curtis
Autistic Diplomat in Training
I would add the additional calcium, if the nutrient is low on calcium. RO Soft, sounds like a nutrient designed for clean/pure water to me. I'm not looking at the label and haven't done the research on it though, since I"m not using it myself.
Tap water is nearly infinitely variable in makeup. Your best bet for growing stunning cannabis, is to learn how to use clean water as your starting base. This way your plants only have access to what you're giving them, without a random element affecting your pH and base quality.
The added benefit to using r/o water is you can reliably share information with other r/o users, and get the same results as each other.
In coco I think your over thinking the whole thing.. run off is not very accurate at all especially ph.. HOW DO THE PLANTS LOOK???? Going by what ya readings 600 in 600 out probably perfect, just keep given em what they need with the base as usual n if they look hungry , they probably won't @1.2 or 600ppm increase it... this is an area where ppl do to much over think things and run into problems later... less is more and don't worry if everything looks good creating problems out of non issues causes more problems ... coco runoff will drive u nuts... only time it matters is in a recirculating flood n drain type grow ...
now if ya plants have issues n look fucked or sumthin that's a whole different story and ya need to address it but if it's all good just enjoy growing the plants n relax
now if ya plants have issues n look fucked or sumthin that's a whole different story and ya need to address it but if it's all good just enjoy growing the plants n relax
