RO water no good for soil

chooselove

chooselove

Active Member
I heard this because it's too clean, causing an imbalance in the soil. Though I'm torn between using filtered glacier ice water from the dispenser at the supermarket and the tap water:

my tap water:
170 ppm which is just fine and not too high though it probably has chlorine, chloramine and flouride in it (LA city water)
pH is about 7.1 (too high)

glacier rise RO water from supermarket water dispenser:
006 ppm (maybe too low?)
though pH seems to be around 6.4 - 6.8 which is perfect


i plan to use fox farms or roots soil for my indoor grow. Flouride, chloramine and chlorine don't exactly sound too great , though does super clean water indeed "leach" beneficial minerals or nutrients from soil...
 
SouthCross

SouthCross

Well-Known Member
Then way I understand it, since RO water doesn't have any carbonate. It'll mess with PH and the way the fertilizer is taken up.... It'll help lock out.... It's too pure.
 
chooselove

chooselove

Active Member
SouthCross said:
Then way I understand it, since RO water doesn't have any carbonate. It'll mess with PH and the way the fertilizer is taken up.... It'll help lock out.... It's too pure.
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I see.. Looks like I'll have to do more investigating & maybe use half tap water and half RO water for now. or maybe add some minerals to the RO water. himalayan pink salt, lol... the RO pH is ideal and there is no Cl and F present
 
SouthCross

SouthCross

Well-Known Member
chooselove said:
I see.. Looks like I'll have to do more investigating & maybe use half tap water and half RO water for now. or maybe add some minerals to the RO water. himalayan pink salt, lol... the RO pH is ideal and there is no Cl and F present
Click to expand...
There's no problem making compost tea with it. Adding a micro dose of wood ash would replace all the calcium carbonate, potassium, and magnesium that was filtered out.

If you're drinking nothing but RO water, you're suppose to be taking supplements to replace the minerals. At least from what I've read.
 
REALSTYLES

REALSTYLES

Well-Known Member
I use tap water and treated with this it removes the chlorine and chloramine while adding essential electrolytes and alkalinity boosters. I make my own which is OMRI because Foxfarm isn't anymore.
 
chooselove

chooselove

Active Member
SouthCross said:
There's no problem making compost tea with it. Adding a micro dose of wood ash would replace all the calcium carbonate, potassium, and magnesium that was filtered out.

If you're drinking nothing but RO water, you're suppose to be taking supplements to replace the minerals. At least from what I've read.
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Nice, ive heard great things about compost tea and must learn more about it.
 
SouthCross

SouthCross

Well-Known Member
chooselove said:
Nice, ive heard great things about compost tea and must learn more about it.
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It's one of the most easiest ways to fertilize a plant. Extremely forgiving. No worries about burn unless you brew a super high nitrogen tea. Which is at doses not on the label of the ingredients. You gotta mess it up bad for it to hurt plants.
 
MistaRasta

MistaRasta

Well-Known Member
chooselove said:
I heard this because it's too clean, causing an imbalance in the soil. Though I'm torn between using filtered glacier ice water from the dispenser at the supermarket and the tap water:

my tap water:
170 ppm which is just fine and not too high though it probably has chlorine, chloramine and flouride in it (LA city water)
pH is about 7.1 (too high)

glacier rise RO water from supermarket water dispenser:
006 ppm (maybe too low?)
though pH seems to be around 6.4 - 6.8 which is perfect


i plan to use fox farms or roots soil for my indoor grow. Flouride, chloramine and chlorine don't exactly sound too great , though does super clean water indeed "leach" beneficial minerals or nutrients from soil...
Click to expand...
Ro isn't going to mess with your soil. If anything, all the salts,carbonates,bi-carbonates,nitrates, phosphates, etc.. found in tap will cause more problems than pure H2O.

I think the biggest problem people have using ro is up-keep with Calcium. Most people don't have enough available Ca in their mix and get it through their tap..

That being said; Ro is extremely wasteful and most of the time isn't necessary..If my ppms/ph were really high or I had a water test telling me I have high nitrates/phosphates/salts I might think about using Ro or atleast cutting half and half.
 
Bareback

Bareback

Well-Known Member
I use RO with great results, but I condition my water . It was a set for my hydro but I was going organic and stayed with my RO.
 
chooselove

chooselove

Active Member
Chlorine good too? What about fluoride? I like the pH of the ro water but eventually getting an In house filter for drinking it too. It just tastes really good to me. I figure ro in the soil should be OK. Maybe some tap for special occasions.
 
Kerovan

Kerovan

Well-Known Member
chooselove said:
Chlorine good too? What about fluoride? I like the pH of the ro water but eventually getting an In house filter for drinking it too. It just tastes really good to me. I figure ro in the soil should be OK. Maybe some tap for special occasions.
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Flouride is a trace element also, no problems. I use hard alkaline tap water with chloramine and flouride and the plants absolutely love it. They grow like gangbusters.
 
Roger A. Shrubber

Roger A. Shrubber

Well-Known Member
it does kill any organisms in your soil, so what you have to decide is, do you want the convenience of watering with straight tap and not using benes, or do you want to use ro water and get the benefits, but have to add cal-mag through out your grow
 
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