S. Quentin Quale
Member
A soil grow experiance.
I offer this experiance because I am sure someone else will run into this problem. And I hated the time it took for me to figure this out.
I live in an area where the city water is horrible. I wondered why I was having problems with my plants indoor and out. Whether it was herbs of any kind I had issues. I did'nt when I first moved into my home, but over a couple years the city water changed, probably with the addition of Chloromines and such. The PH went way up after two years, which can happen with heavily chemically treated water and as the city changes guidelines.
None of my plants could grow, and even the neighbors had plants on their deck all dying and all using tap water. My mom had a little bamboo plant she said looked bad. And I told her to stop using city water and use bottled. Instant change in like a couple days. My issue was not only water chemicals but the PH. This can depend on what kind of soil your using which is why PH effected me.
So I started doing some tests. I use Fox Farm Ocean forest for everything. Comes out that it likes distilled water PH'd down slightly with citric acid (Earth Juice PH down). I can't tell you Ph'ed to what because PH is horribly inaccurate from one test method to another. I can get two vile type iodine testers and have them be off by like 2-3 points on the PH scale. Thats huge.
So I use a certain kind of PH tester everytime, and found the right PH reading for that particular tester, that would work with my plants and FFOF soil. Hope this isnt to confusing. Anyway, even when I would PH down city water to the same exact levels as distilled, my plants would die. My city water kills plants PH'ed specific or not. I am sure different waters can hold certain PH's stable for longer than others. But either way you try using city water. If you are in a place that has water like mine. You will have problems, in any soil. My PH issue even with distilled just happens to be what I need to use for FFOF.
Even the run off water with PH adjusted distilled water, would rise instantly from the FFOF. My guess is that it continues to rise over the coming few days, covering the broad PH range needed to take up all possible nutrients, eventually coming back up to where the soil was before I added the PH lowered distilled water. FFOF has ingredients that will adjust PH which is why this happens. I even tried using spring water. Doesnt work. Its to alkaline. And I dont want to have to add a ton of PH down to it. Just a little to distilled and it holds its PH very good so I stick with that. I assume if I did PH down spring water it would work. But Id have to add way more citric acid. So negative ions or not, distilled water being used this way is the only thing that works. Not about to waste 2 more years trying something new. It took me a long time to figure this out. I even had a pricey 10 stage filter on my tap water and used that. Still killed plants, PH'ed or not. It does take a lot out, but most of these filters are missing something in the chemical line up, and stuff gets through.
I did a 6 page essay in college on Chloramines in the city water. Theres some pretty bad stuff about it out there. And even if there wasnt, city water as a whole is horrible. In my town it kills many peoples plants. I also have two cats. They hate the city water. I fill the water bowl twice as much when I give them spring water. City water - killing plants - housepets dont like drinking it. But it's fine for human consumption. I always thought water should make plants grow and not deture animals from getting hydrated. Scarey.
It is NOT all about PH unless your having a soil sensitive issue like myself. Others have gotten away with just using spring water, rain water, or even well water. Water is everything, for some who have city water as bad as me.
I offer this experiance because I am sure someone else will run into this problem. And I hated the time it took for me to figure this out.
I live in an area where the city water is horrible. I wondered why I was having problems with my plants indoor and out. Whether it was herbs of any kind I had issues. I did'nt when I first moved into my home, but over a couple years the city water changed, probably with the addition of Chloromines and such. The PH went way up after two years, which can happen with heavily chemically treated water and as the city changes guidelines.
None of my plants could grow, and even the neighbors had plants on their deck all dying and all using tap water. My mom had a little bamboo plant she said looked bad. And I told her to stop using city water and use bottled. Instant change in like a couple days. My issue was not only water chemicals but the PH. This can depend on what kind of soil your using which is why PH effected me.
So I started doing some tests. I use Fox Farm Ocean forest for everything. Comes out that it likes distilled water PH'd down slightly with citric acid (Earth Juice PH down). I can't tell you Ph'ed to what because PH is horribly inaccurate from one test method to another. I can get two vile type iodine testers and have them be off by like 2-3 points on the PH scale. Thats huge.
So I use a certain kind of PH tester everytime, and found the right PH reading for that particular tester, that would work with my plants and FFOF soil. Hope this isnt to confusing. Anyway, even when I would PH down city water to the same exact levels as distilled, my plants would die. My city water kills plants PH'ed specific or not. I am sure different waters can hold certain PH's stable for longer than others. But either way you try using city water. If you are in a place that has water like mine. You will have problems, in any soil. My PH issue even with distilled just happens to be what I need to use for FFOF.
Even the run off water with PH adjusted distilled water, would rise instantly from the FFOF. My guess is that it continues to rise over the coming few days, covering the broad PH range needed to take up all possible nutrients, eventually coming back up to where the soil was before I added the PH lowered distilled water. FFOF has ingredients that will adjust PH which is why this happens. I even tried using spring water. Doesnt work. Its to alkaline. And I dont want to have to add a ton of PH down to it. Just a little to distilled and it holds its PH very good so I stick with that. I assume if I did PH down spring water it would work. But Id have to add way more citric acid. So negative ions or not, distilled water being used this way is the only thing that works. Not about to waste 2 more years trying something new. It took me a long time to figure this out. I even had a pricey 10 stage filter on my tap water and used that. Still killed plants, PH'ed or not. It does take a lot out, but most of these filters are missing something in the chemical line up, and stuff gets through.
I did a 6 page essay in college on Chloramines in the city water. Theres some pretty bad stuff about it out there. And even if there wasnt, city water as a whole is horrible. In my town it kills many peoples plants. I also have two cats. They hate the city water. I fill the water bowl twice as much when I give them spring water. City water - killing plants - housepets dont like drinking it. But it's fine for human consumption. I always thought water should make plants grow and not deture animals from getting hydrated. Scarey.
It is NOT all about PH unless your having a soil sensitive issue like myself. Others have gotten away with just using spring water, rain water, or even well water. Water is everything, for some who have city water as bad as me.
