Grow Room Smorf's micro #1

[Smorf]

You are right on the tap water. I mix mine 50/50, city tap water. Make sure you bubble the water.

There are a lot of organic growers here and different supersoils available too.

I have some of the gbd/mephisto super soil to try sometime too, maybe next run with the same strain.
I know kindsoil is great and minor issues like this seem to be rare from what I've seen here on afn, so i wont give up on kindsoil.
Might be as simple as my soil ph is off from just using distilled water. Will be finding out soon.

KS says water PH should be 6.5-6.8
Google says distilled water has a ph of 7.0 and also says "Temperature affects pH, as temperature increases, pH decreases."
Found something else that says distilled water ph can get as low as 5.5 also.
Will find out what the ph of my distilled water is tomorrow.

Not sure if im allowed to post links like this but dudegrows.com has a page that shows citys that use chloramine and ones that don't.

dudegrows.com/watercheck/

According to this my city does not use chloramine. The list is last updated in 2012 it says, so should probably double check it.

 

[Mr.Sparkle]

I've heard if going all organic you shouldn't need to ph and the soil microbes should work everything out. Not sure if that's true.

If it DOES NOT contain chrolamine and im understanding correctly i can let me tap water sit out for 24 hrs before using it and it should be fine as long as the ph is ok too.

Let me know what you think.

If you have a well built soil then no, but organics can still have pH issues, something i learned early on when i was doing soil and organic mixes was to use dolomite lime at a tablespoon or two per gallon of media as it acts as a pH buffer and provides magnesium and calcium at the same time, since i started doing that I've never had a pH issue, and don't look at my pH.

As for the chloramine kinda no kinda yes but let me explain with my understanding of it.

If your water has chloramine in it then its harder to get rid of than chlorine which is also used is some city's water supply's, leaving chlorinated water out for 24hrs will work, but with chloraminated water it will take longer, but how long that depends on how much is in your water in the first place, and is based of the half lives of those compounds.

Saying that though with either if you leave the water out for a day or two like filling up a 5 gallon pail or small garbage can and watering from that you will be fine. But to me this is an opinion its one of those things that people tend to go a little over board with, as typically the concentration in water isnt gonna nuke your soil and say if you do have a good healthy soil any bacteria that may get damaged from the presence of those compounds, will get replaced with new bacteria from the rest of the soil or from such things as compost teas and the likes.

So if you want to be safe just let your tap water sit out for a day or two, to me there is no need to use distilled water, and usually your tap water is perfectly fine unless your tap water is really high ppm, then i would suggest using RO water (cheaper than distilled) at a couple dollars per 5 gals, or unless you have a system as it will make things a bit easier. But again most good organic soils can buffer a lot of that.

If doing hydro or soiless mix style then its a bit different...

 

[Dudeski]

That answer helped us both! Thanks Mr. Sparkle

 

[Smorf]

Thank you @Mr. Sparkle
I'm thinking I might add dolomite lime and maybe a little earthworm castings(says up to 30% earthworm castings can be added in the gbd super soil directions) to the base layer of roots organics for my next grow.

 

[Mr.Sparkle]

Definitely add the Dolomite lime, trust me on that, it makes things easier.

Earthworm castings are great, but add too much and you might find that it will create a dense waterlog prone soil as castings are great at holding water, that was something i've run into in the past when i was trying to have soils that i could go a week+ without watering and needed no extra supplementation for the entire grow, castings benefit is really in the nutrients they provide but mainly in the microbes and bacteria present in them that will help break down the other organic materials you have in your soil that will feed the plants, so its great to make teas out of or mixed in as a base supplement to inoculate the soil and or top dressed through the grow while top watering to again mix into the soil to spread that bacteria and microbes around.

But the application of castings really all depends on what you want your soil/mix to do and how you want it to do it.

If i had the space and was doing grows where i could do alot bigger pots, id be making my own compost like i use to, and making teas to supplement the plants when needed, it worked quite well and wasnt that much different than the GBD super soil recipe, my soil was composed of compost, peat and or coir, dolomite lime, alfalfa meal, castings and a few other things, got the job done and worked quite well when i was doing organics.

Currently though i'm running a soil-less mix of coir and perlite with dolomite lime and hydro nutrients for feeding while running a dead reservoir where i'm actually adding chlorine with the express purpose to kill any bacteria/microbes that may be present or develop, which is the opposite of what we were discussing above, and the reason why i said hydro is a little different, or should say can be different... Really though its all just different methods for the same results aka growing some bud that we enjoy at the end .

 

[Smorf]

@Waira i got my control wizard ph8 soil ph and moisture meter.
It says to wait 10mins for each ph reading in soil and to test a few places.
Also says not to ph liquids with this.

Wondering how you prefer to use it if you have one?
And if there is a way to carefully ph liquids even though it says not to?

 

[Smorf]

Here are my measurements.
I would say all of these readings are subject to +\- 0.2 ph as they are rough measurements.

I measured liquid just by inserting the first 2-3in of the probe and made sure to quickly clean and dry the probe shortly after removing from liquid.

My soil appears to be 7.0 ph

Distilled water that i have is 7.0
Bottled water i have is 6.7-6.8
Tap water that sat out for 24 hrs is 6.6
Tap water(24hr)/distilled 50/50 is 6.6
Fresh tap is 6.8
Fresh tap/distilled is 6.8
My fish tank 6.8

So i will start watering with distilled/24hr tap from now on maybe that will fix my problems.

Recharge every other watering.

Will probably start using optic foliar overgrow too.
Maybe 0.1ml of mammoth p every watering in flower.
Let me know what you think.

Soil ph reading.

Moisture at bottom of soil.

Moisture at top 2inch of soil.

 

[Dudeski]

Looks good. I say yes to overgrow, distilled and tap mixed is great. Tap has some good natural minerals in it.

 

[Smorf]

Looks good. I say yes to overgrow, distilled and tap mixed is great. Tap has some good natural minerals in it.

Today is day 25.
Just gave her first light shower of opticfoliar overgrow about 30 mins before lights come on.

Tomorrow the soil should be dry enough(will check with meter) to water with 50/50 tap/distilled water and recharge(every other watering).

I will check my soil ph again after i water.

 

[Dudeski]

Easy with recharge. It has kelp in it which can be considered food. Using it weekly may be best for now.