I’ve been struggling with reverse osmosis water… I have a few friends that have been helping me out… after a lonnnnggggg time I finally am realizing why I had so many issues… (besides the normal beginner bs)
It turns out ro water is very ph instable… so I got a ph stabilizer recently… then I saw a whole thread about my ph stabilizer and another article that is very pertinent good information for everyone… so I figured I’d post it to maybe help some people out going through what I went through recently… here is the link
The reverse osmosis water info is about 3/4 of the way down… but id suggest read it all… looks like baking soda is a better option for alkalinity… which is not to be confused with alkaline ( which refers to a ph of 7.0 or above) I hope this helps someone… I know it will help me moving forward. Also thought it was pretty cool the info on citric acid being double beneficial by helping the microbes… and ability to ph down.
That is a good read, for me, as I’ve ran every type of system I can think of, over the past 22 years now. I can not do outdoor, as I’m very close to a cop shop, in a dark state.
I try to change up my grow medium, every few years, and I like walking down paths many feel are worthless, but if something intrigues me, I’ll give it a go.
For someone just starting out, I’d print that out and it would become gospel, as you get your grow legs under you.
Thanks for sharing this Terpsnpurps.
Sincerely webe
Absolutely broski… I should have titled the post… the day ro water brought me to tears lol… it can be a nightmare!!! I’m so glad I’m about through it … now growing can be fun!!
I would go and find some potassium bicarbonate instead of the sodium bicarbonate (baking soda). It’s quite common in the wine/beer brewing community to condition water.
I’m going to pulverize a lemon, and see what the values read, for PH and basic PPM’s, as I just want to know.
The Morbloom I use from transition time till deep in flower, drops PH perfectly for me.
IMHO, the raise in PPM numbers, when adjusting PH should be noted, but I do not think they add to the food value, just aids absorption for the food to root process.
This is my uneducated explanation.
A decent article, if any one is interested. https://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/JARS/v55n3/v55n3-hammer.htm
Hey Terpsnpurps, I did not so far, I’m sorry to say. Let restate that, I did pulzerize a lemon to test the PH of it yet.
I do pulverize all the squeezed lemon’s rinds we use,( we use a bag of lemons a week) with a garlic bulb, and 2-3 tables spoons of some spent frying oil, with some water, to make a decent medium drench to control a bloom of gnats, when one pops up.
If I catch it early, it will work fine, a deep bloom , get the good stuff.
When I was into home brewing beer full time it is all about the water chemistry. I learned a lot and it helps in anything water related. I dealt with RO water when in west Texas. You can find water calculators online that will tell you what and how much to add, for whatever endeavor is needed. That might help you for sure. You can build the perfect water with a few things. Home brewing shops have bulk water chemicals normally.
