What type of water do you use, and why?

[Keith]

I don’t drink my tap water so I didn’t think I’d want to use it for my plants.  But the more I learn, it seems like it’s not all that bad.  Currently I use about 1/3 a gallon of bottled spring water and the rest spring water from a local spring.  I do that bc the spring water is pretty hard and takes a lot of ph down to adjust.  I recently moved up to 5 gal pots though and am growing 3 plants instead of 2, so I’m thinking the spring water may not be feasible too much longer.  I’d love to hear what others water with.

[Somatek]

I use tap water as the EC is in an acceptable range and I just make sure I dechlorinate it before use so it doesn’t affect any beneficial microbes.  The key is understanding what’s in the water and how that’ll affect the chemistry so you understand any potential issues it may create.

[Keith]

Yeah, maybe up there Canada where the water is clean and pure.  Prob like glacier water straight from the tap.  Haha.  I get what you’re saying.  I bet my county has done a survey of the tap water and I’m sure they make that info available to the public.  That’s a good starting place.  I’ll try ry to see what’s in the water and go from there.

[Somatek]

Lol, I live in Hamilton; the sweaty asshole of ontario filled with steel mills and other heavy industry and streets filled with crazy, homeless addicts.  Definitely not pristine or natural by any means, although our tap water comes from Lake Ontario which is pretty sterile and inert.  Canada does a good job of creating the illusion we’re a green, nature friendly nation but the reality is far different.  Good to know the illusion still holds though and our dirty, not so secret climate atrocities aren’t front and center in peoples minds lol

[Keith]

Well, I should say I’m incredibly uniformed about current events or news.  Especially lately as all my times been invested in growing or learning about it.  I grew up not far from Youngstown Ohio and it was a steel city that had been abandoned by the steel industry.  It was crazy to see all the abandoned steel mills covering the dead city.  It was like a graveyard.  By the time I was old enough to explore those abandoned steel mills we didn’t live there anymore.  My greatest regret.  I still think about what we could’ve found in there.

[Somatek]

They actually just blew up one of the blast furnaces this summer as the industry is slowly shutting down, it was quite the boom randomly mid morning, especially as I live in a rough area and you never know about long bangs.  It’s an interesting place to live, I kind of like the urban decay/grunge vibe mixed with the hipsters moving this way from Toronto.  There’s a couple abandoned buildings that I’d love to explore with a camera if they weren’t filled with addicts/homeless people.

[Nate]

I also just use dechlorinated tap water. It might be worth checking out your tap water, since feeding bottled water or water you have to collect must be a pain in the ass. Is there anything in your tap water that you’d be worried about feeding your plants? I understand not wanting to drink tap water, as it can taste funny sometimes, but unless there’s high levels of undesirable minerals/chemicals in it, I would definitely consider it myself.

[Somatek]

A lot of the time rural tap water tastes funny because of the sulfur, which is great for plants as it’s been shown to help produce more aromatic oils in a lot of crops.  Always good to know what’s in your water, often rural areas offer free testing as well.

[Nate]

Interesting to know that about the rural water and Sulphur. I live in the city, and it just tastes better if I filter it. I’m sure it’s perfectly fine to drink, I just prefer it to be filtered.

[Somatek]

Usually that’s chlorine but some places definitely have odd tasting water, especially in old buildings with old pipes.

[Nate]

Yeah I’ve lived in a few places in the city that had really funky tasting pipes. Mostly in the older part of the city now that you mention it lol.

[Keith]

No nothing in particular.  I’m going to try to find out what’s in it.  Also going to look up how to declorinate. I thought it was something like leave it out without a lid and the chlorine will evaporate?

[Nate]

If it is actually chlorine in your water, then yeah it’ll just evaporate. But some cities/ towns have started using chloramine which won’t evaporate. Not sure about where you are, but at least here in Canada I was able to look up online if my city used chlorine or chloramine. I’m not sure what exactly you need to treat water with chloramine in it since I’ve never had to deal with it. I just Googled something along the lines of “Does ___(My city) use chlorine or chloramine in tap water” and I found a list of cities and which one they use.

[Somatek]

Chloramine needs to pass through a carbon filter as it’s stable until it contacts carbon.  Although if I’m making a tea I’ll just soak my rock dusts and bubble it for awhile as  that’ll work just as well, it’s not like you need a carbon filter they’re just convenient.

[Keith]

Nice thanks.  Im hoping I can find the info about everything that’s in it.

[NeuroticTurtle]

I’m in the middle of nowhere, our water is pretty hard. The district assessment shows it as ~390ppm, mostly calcium and magnesium for this aquifer, the plants love it, but I have to use hard water micro nutes.

[Somatek]

That’s convenient, who needs calmag when the ground water is choked full already.

[NeuroticTurtle]

yeah, I’m switching from calmag to straight epsom salts for my magnesium soon, because under a stronk LED fixture they still need more magnesium than the tap water and my base nutrient provides.

[Somatek]

Always sharing the useful info, cheers.

[Brad104]

I’ve been using tap water for the longest and do well with it

[Keith]

Do you declorinate it?

[Brad104]

I will admit though I have to call the water Co and find out if it’s chlorine or chloromine that was great information I picked up on here

[Brad104]

@keith yes I do de chlorinate my water but I just found out about the chloromine and I have not found out what the water Co in my area uses as of yet,so I still decloronate until I know for sure.

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