[Bobby Boucher]

I see this in my garden when my ph goes unchecked. Sometimes my tap comes out way too alkaline.

The idiot hath chimed.

[Douglas.Curtis]

Originally Posted by Wendull C.

No they mean tap water, period. I have never had to add cal mag to tap water.

That's assinine advice for cannabis. "Tap Water" is like "wrenches," available in a nearly infinite variety. Canna is dropping the ball for their customers.

With cannabis, your water should only have a balance of necessary elements in it. Cannabis can and will absorb non-plant building elements. You want superior quality cannabis? Fix the problems with your nute mix and use r/o, or water similarly clean.

[Wendull C.]

I am telling you my experience. I used ro water on my first coco grow. Defeciency all through veg.

Finally switched to a chlorine sediment filter. No more defeciencies.

I agree with what you are saying, in soilless mix. But with coco, if you have the choice between tap and ro. Use tap.

That said tap by me one city over is 50 ppm and 6.9 ph. Us a bit further from the mountains and river water table, 350 ppm and 7.3. So like ypu saud it does vary greatly.

When i have a spot over that way, i use no filter. Here i use the chlorine sediment i would use to prefilter my ro for pro mix ir rock wool.

Like its said around here. Many ways,to skin a cat.

[Douglas.Curtis]

Thank you for sharing your one coco and r/o experience. Anyone out there who's used r/o with coco for many grows? I'm interested in your thoughts. The way I see it, r/o isn't r/o after it hits your media. Soil, coco, hydro, it's all about the reaction in the root zone.

Wrong reaction? You're doing it wrong, for whatever setup you have going. It's not the water.

[Wendull C.]

One grow? You have no idea what you are talking about. I cant count how many cycles i have gone in coco...

But , i will yield to your far superior knowledge. I have been arguin enough in the political thread. With my buissiness climate, my buddies and I have started keeping shit close to the vest.

Have a good one.

[Wendull C.]

You want to know what else coco does. Why dont you research the cec exchange in the medium

Then post back and tell us what you find...

[Douglas.Curtis]

You stated plainly you've done one coco run with r/o. Your words. Coco runs with partial or full tap are useless info to r/o growers.

Yes, I'm familiar with cec and coco... one of the many reasons I won't use it with cannabis. Cec is still a root zone phenomena, the reaction (good or bad) depends on how the grower deals with it. Coco doesn't have an auto "r/o doesn't work with me" feature.

[dansbuds]

Originally Posted by indoornerd

some weeks ago i bought a reverse osmosis system. in the first time i was very happy and tried different setups. i tried mixing with tap water 50/50 and 30/70 but the result was that my moms in rockwool had bad deficits. so i bought calmag and tried nearly pure RO water with calmag. first with an EC of 0,5 later 0,8 (that destroyed my harvest) and now i use 0,2-0,3 EC. but the problem is always the same. my plants have deficits. it's strange that different stages of the plants have different levels of deficits. the cuttings in the propagator look really bad

View Image

the rooted plants look always good with slight deficits

View Image (like the ones in the back)

the moms which are made of the leftover rooted plants look shitty again

View Image View Image View Image

the plants in the flowering room on cogr are ok with slight deficits and some troubles in the first week after moving into the flowering room. but that also happened before the ro system was installed.

what i always see:
-not all the plants have deficits. some look good
-young leaves lose colour between the leave veins
-old leaves look shitty and die
-plant grows slower
-deformation at the edge of the leaves, sometimes they roll a little bit

i use calmag, rhizotonic and canna nutes (EC in the end around 1,1-1,2). does anybody have an idea what i do wrong?

thanks in advance

I'm not going to get into this stupid argument about RO & Coco , i've been using 0 water (RO/DI) in my coco for years ! & i prefer it !

Nerd , not once did you mention your PH levels & i'm 90% sure thats where your problem lies . your PH should be at 5.8 to get all the elements available to your plants , it should however have a slight swing in level from 5.6 to 6.1 . so when setting your PH levels in a rez , set them at 6.1 & let them drop to 5.6 before adjusting back up again . or if your hand feeding in a 5 gallon bucket or the like , set the PH to 5.8 when you feed . the more volume of water in a rez or bucket , the longer the PH will stay in range . a 55 gallon barrel will stay at 5.8 for days , where a 5 gallon bucket will change within hours , so never use the bucket unless you check the PH first . 90% of def problems in coco are usually PH related or salts build up in the medium because of being constantly over fed or plants sitting in the runoff to long !!!

heres the chart so you can see the points where different elements are available at different levels , but 5.8 bing the sweet spot where all are available .

PH is more important than EC levels for healthy plants !!! EC can be fed at flexible levels .... PH can not !!!

[Wendull C.]

No, i stated i had defeciencies since my first run. They were easily fixed with epsom foliars at transplant.

The ease of growth and other qualities overshadowed the negatives for me.

Shit, ten years later half the flower room is in coco.

Now i will bow out with the grace of a cow jumpi g a barb wire fence. Good luck op.

[Douglas.Curtis]

Thanks Dansbuds, you nailed it. Greatly appreciate you sharing.