Rain water and tap water discussion

[blondie]

Rained steady last two days. I topped up my black trash can and all my 5 gallons are nearly full. A few more tubs fillled as well. It was an effort to empty and carry around containers. I seem to be moderately healthy lately so I was able to do it. Still not fun sadly.

My rain read 5ppm. I added a bit of nutes and raised it to 215. PH measured 6.6, after some time. Took this thing a while to stop and it never really stopped. It just hovered around 6.5 - 6.6xxx . My plant continues to thicken up.

Does anyone have a ballpark guess as to gallons of water per plant? I’m trying to think ahead for next grow. I’m going to scale back up a bit and grow 4 plants.

 

[Creeperpark]

Knowing the water volume of a container if very important. A good way to find water volume is to water your plants until just a tiny amount comes out of the bottom of the pot. Water on a dry watering day and measure the amount of water it takes before it comes out the bottom. My 5-gallon pots will hold three 1000ml cups of water. The 3-gallon containers hold two 1000 ml of water. Since I know the exact amount of water I give my plants, I can hold or release feed water to increase the ppm or decrease the ppm with discharge.

 

[Creeperpark]

If you don't know the amount of water your container holds you will not know if you are under or over-watering your plants, or washing away good soil nutrients from over leaching. To get a measurement take a container of new soil you plan to grow in and slowly add 500 ml of pure water at a time. Do it slowly to allow the soil to soak up the water and saturate the container. For five-gallon pots use a 1000 ml cup. Keep track of the ml and when the water just starts to run out the bottom after saturation stop, and then subtract 100 ml from the total. Once you know how much water your container holds you can give exact amounts of water without flushing out good nutrients or under or over-watering your plants. Plus save fertilizer from being wasted with mixing mistakes.

 

[exploziv]

To find out the volume of a regulated form you can use various geometrical shape volume calculators on google.
To find out the volume of irregulated shapes, put a bag or garbage bag that holds water inside. Fill with water up to level you would use with soil, and then use a measuring cup or known volume recipient to count the liters of water it holds. That's your pot volume.

 

[Three Berries]

I mix nutes in gallon containers, with the small 5 qt/5L veg pots it's 1/4 gallon/L at a time. Big pot 3.5 gal/13L I use half a gallon at a time.

Generally every three days but when flowering, heat and going to town maybe every day.

 

[blondie]

Good info. Keep it all coming. Thanks everyone. Just measured to runoff! My PH looks great at about 6.7 . PPM seems high to me at 1667. My leaves look awful. Buds look excellent though. I watered pretty good tonight trying to flush out nutes.1667ppm is in fact high runoff??

 

[Roadblock]

Im guessing but would assume rainwater is different for different people, it depends where you live and your weather patterns as to the purity of the rain you receive, I also assume that whatever is not wanted in rainwater, is still in the tap water as it was also rainwater and I don't think much pollutants is filtered out, its just tested to be in a usable range and then disinfected with chlorine.

Where I live my rainwater reads zero EC and with added nutrients comes out at 5.8 PH I don't use up and down hardy ever, I live off the coast so no sodium and its cattle country for 100s of miles so very little agriculture making the rain a high-quality hydroponic water source, I know a guy that lives on the coast with a lot of factories not that far away and his rainwater is not so good.

I don't think you can say rainwater vs tap water because both vary for different folk.

 

[Creeperpark]

Your right Blondie rainwater will become a chemistry copy of whatever the atmosphere is in that location. The term is Miscibility and is the property of two substances to mix in all proportions (that is, to fully dissolve in each other at any concentration), forming a homogeneous mixture (a solution). The term is most often applied to "liquids" but also applies to solids and gases. The air we breathe follows the same miscibility principle and leaves traces of the same atmosphere behind in our bodies. If one lives in a polluted atmosphere then the water may be dirty as the atmosphere or the air you breathe. First rains can be a little dirty in polluted cities but the second rains are cleaner.

 

[Creeperpark]

Today Rainwater Buds 70 days of flowering.

 

[Creeperpark]

Bleach is highly alkaline, with a pH of about 13.5, water with bleach in it is unnatural.

 

[blondie]

Something to this rainwater. My buds are getting plump and nice crystals showing already. Day 43 here. Hopefully mine will look like creepers at day 70 if the over nuted soil doesn’t mess things up. Come on Malawi!

 

[Creeperpark]

These outdoor rainwater plants are just finished.

 

[Creeperpark]

I only use rainwater for any plant grown in containers, and house plants too. IF I run out of rainwater during a drought I will always use filtered water RO. Rain tops RO in all the runs I have ever done, however, RO water has kicked ass too. IF RO was best I would use RO and only RO however Rain is best and that's why I only use rainwater I fortify with cal-mag.

 

[revegeta666]

I only use rainwater for any plant grown in containers, and house plants too. IF I run out of rainwater during a drought I will always use filtered water RO. Rain tops RO in all the runs I have ever done, however, RO water has kicked ass too. IF RO was best I would use RO and only RO however Rain is best and that's why I only use rainwater I fortify with cal-mag.

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Looking good! I assume you use calmag for indoor plants only?

I recently moved my plants outside and started giving them rainwater. So far so good. Waiting for them to get used to the sun, to force flower them.

 

[Creeperpark]

Looking good! I assume you use calmag for indoor plants only?

I recently moved my plants outside and started giving them rainwater. So far so good. Waiting for them to get used to the sun, to force flower them.

I use cal-mag to stabilize the pH for soil-less peat mixes like Pro Mix hp or Sunshine mix. When I grow in rich Organic soils FoxFarms, Roots Organic, I use only pure rainwater without cal-mag.

 

[revegeta666]

I use cal-mag to stabilize the pH for soil-less peat mixes like Pro Mix hp or Sunshine mix. When I grow in rich Organic soils I use only pure rainwater without cal-mag.

Ok thanks. I made the soil mix with slow release amendments, and added some dolomite lime to take care of buffering the possible pH fluctuations. This is my first time using rainwater. I will report back my results here if that's ok.

 

[Creeperpark]

In Organic mixes, the rainwater will break down the slow-release amendments from the Hydrogen Exchange. If you had cal-mag in the water it would minimize the exchange. Since you have dolomite lime in the mix you need the carbonic acid in the rainwater to dissolve the calcium and magnesium. That way the plant can move the calcium from the roots to the top of the plant where it's needed.

If you waited for the microbes to break down the calcium and mag. in the added lime, it would take way too long with a buffered pH, However, using pure rainwater the slow organic amendments are broken down quicker in unison with the populations of the microbes.

 

[revegeta666]

In Organic mixes, the rainwater will break down the slow-release amendments from the Hydrogen Exchange. If you had cal-mag in the water it would minimize the exchange. Since you have dolomite lime in the mix you need the carbonic acid in the rainwater to dissolve the calcium and magnesium. That way the plant can move the calcium from the roots to the top of the plant where it's needed.

If you waited for the microbes to break down the calcium and mag. in the added lime, it would take way too long with a buffered pH, However, using pure rainwater the slow organic amendments are broken down quicker in unison with the populations of the microbes.

I added dolomite and epsom salts to try to avoid using calmag because I am also going to add bacteria through teas, so I was thinking chelated calcium and magnesium as found in calmag products would probably not be the best for the microlife. What do you think about this? Are you a chemist by the way? I am so uneducated in plant chemistry it's embarassing really.

 

[Creeperpark]

Not a chemist, a horticulturist. High EC organic mixes can have an EC above 4000 ppm. Catching some of the runoff and testing it will spook some people. Don't worry about it because it's a different type of EC and not the same as synthetic EC. A high organic EC are salts that are unavailable and not usable by the plants, but someday will. You don't want to wash those away, you keep it high as you can till the end of the grow. Don't allow discharge to maintain a high organic EC in organic potting mixes using rainwater.

 

[Budgoodspin76]

I also use rain water out tap water kllls plants due to sulfer and bleach i collect from my metal roof on my shed i put a couple of goldfish in my barrels to keep mosquitos down the water ph is 5.8 average but always clean, been using it for 15 years now with no issue