RO water

green_machine_two9er

green_machine_two9er

Well-Known Member
Anyone useing reverse osmosis and adding minerals back to water?? I’ve been blessed for years with great well water. Now in the city and I’m having trouble getting water dialed in.

For now I’ve been using cal mg from general organics. Which is doing the job, but it looks like now I’m getting the slightest iron, and mg deficiency on a few strains.

Anyone have a go to method for getting minerals back into filter water?
 
bk78

bk78

Well-Known Member
green_machine_two9er said:
Sorry to have bothered ya bob. But I’m not sure how “nutes help” Would solve any water problem, even if I was using a bottled regimen. Specifically I’m wondering how to get minerals balanced, starting from zero. Ca, mg, fe.... If you know of a nutrient that would work well for that I’m all ears:)
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Dude has nothing better to do then comment on every post made. I’m pretty positive he’s never even grown a plant either.
 
green_machine_two9er

green_machine_two9er

Well-Known Member
youraveragehorticulturist said:
What's up with your water, what problems are you having?

What's in your soil?

Maybe there is a way you can get away from using R/O water.
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Thanks for the reply. Just on city water and scared of the chlorine and other wierd things in it.

Soil is rich in organic ammenents( kelp, Neam, crab and alfalfa )and minerals( buildasoil basalt, greensand, azomite). Similar to coots. Only gypsum and oyster shell for buffer. In a new house. New grow and fresh soil. I was thinking over time minerals will break down more in the soil. I’m gunna look tm7
 
Y

youraveragehorticulturist

Well-Known Member
I'm not an expert on R/O water, I just use my tap water. Earlier in the year, lots of guys were talking about having issues with magnesium and other minerals because of R/O water. It almost seemed to do more harm than good.

If chlorine killing off your microbes is the main concern preventing you from using tap water, I wouldn't even sweat it. Microbes are tough! You can also use a teaspoon of kelp extract or molasses to neutralize the chlorine in a bucket of water(citation needed).

If you keep having magnesium issues throughout the whole grow, consider adding 1/2 cup of Dolomite Lime per cubic foot of soil when you re-amend before next time. Keep all the other stuff you use for calcium, plus a little Dolo for more magnesium.
 
green_machine_two9er

green_machine_two9er

Well-Known Member
youraveragehorticulturist said:
I'm not an expert on R/O water, I just use my tap water. Earlier in the year, lots of guys were talking about having issues with magnesium and other minerals because of R/O water. It almost seemed to do more harm than good.

If chlorine killing off your microbes is the main concern preventing you from using tap water, I wouldn't even sweat it. Microbes are tough! You can also use a teaspoon of kelp extract or molasses to neutralize the chlorine in a bucket of water(citation needed).

If you keep having magnesium issues throughout the whole grow, consider adding 1/2 cup of Dolomite Lime per cubic foot of soil when you re-amend before next time. Keep all the other stuff you use for calcium, plus a little Dolo for more magnesium.
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I’ve also read somewhere fresh compost can neutralize water. Never heard of molasses and kelp but cool. Anyway my City water is basically stripped of all minerals too from what I can tell. I do have a rain barrel. I was even contemplating that route. But winter is coming and that really wouldn’t work long term.
 
A

airedog

Well-Known Member
green_machine_two9er said:
Thanks for the reply. Just on city water and scared of the chlorine and other wierd things in it.

Soil is rich in organic ammenents( kelp, Neam, crab and alfalfa )and minerals( buildasoil basalt, greensand, azomite). Similar to coots. Only gypsum and oyster shell for buffer. In a new house. New grow and fresh soil. I was thinking over time minerals will break down more in the soil. I’m gunna look tm7
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Try a KDF filter to remove chlorine or chloramine, rather than the r/o that takes out everything.
 
Richard Drysift

Richard Drysift

Well-Known Member
I had nothing but problems with my own tap water. I know everyone says unfiltered tap water is “fine” for microbes but that’s not what my own experience has showed me nor what I have read in prominent books I trust such as Teaming with Microbes. So then I bought an expensive RO system hooked up to my garden hose which was wasteful.., 1 gal RO to 3 gal of wastewater. Then in the dead of winter it exploded. Word of caution; always install an RO filter inside an insulated room. The basement foyer was bad placement.
So I started to use dehumidifier water as a main water source. I was dumping it down the drain anyway and decided I had nothing to lose in trying but found they thrive on it. It is stark...30 ppms. When I started out using this I was giving gen organic calmag plus just as I did with RO water. Gen Org Calmag+ is safe for living soils; OMRI listed.
Over time I began adding eggshells to my worm bin and amending with garden gypsum, D-lime, and crushed oyster flour. The problem is it takes a real long time for macros in organic solids to break down and become available to root systems. It took 8 months of this before I ran out of cal/mag + and stopped buying it altogether.
 
A

airedog

Well-Known Member
Check out the 2 stage HydroLife (sediment and KDF), or some of the Camco filters. Both will work in-line with a garden hose; there is a pressure drop but no wastewater.
 
W

waktoo

Well-Known Member
green_machine_two9er said:
Anyone useing reverse osmosis and adding minerals back to water?? I’ve been blessed for years with great well water. Now in the city and I’m having trouble getting water dialed in.

For now I’ve been using cal mg from general organics. Which is doing the job, but it looks like now I’m getting the slightest iron, and mg deficiency on a few strains.

Anyone have a go to method for getting minerals back into filter water?
Click to expand...

Get your water tested.

Takes all the guess work out it, and provides the relevant data needed to proceed with appropriate filtering/processing, if needed at all.

Chlorine/chloramines in irrigation water aren't a concern for use on soil with high organic matter content...
 
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