Rainwater runoff from roof, tap water, or RO for living soil?

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Jahredi

Jahredi

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I'm doing my first go at living soil, and I'm curious about water sources.

Option #1
Rainwater runoff from the roof

4 ppm
pH 7.1
My biggest concern about the runoff is E Coli, which is a pretty big concern.
  • Do worm castings contain e coli?
  • What effects do earthworms in the soil have on e coli introduced through rain water runoff from the roof?
  • Does e coli actually get taken up and form colonies within the plant, or is it more a concern of cross-contamination?
  • I do wash all my harvests with the three bucket system that has a baking soda/lemon solution in the first bucket. Can this help with potential cross-contamination?

Option #2
Tap water treated with chlorine, fluoride, Ozone & Caustic Soda
24 ppm
~7.6 - 7.8
My biggest concern about the tap water is the above treatments killing the living soil.
  • If I bubble with an air stone for 24 hours, will the water still have a negative impact on my living soil?
  • What else would I need to do to prep the tap water source to support my living soil?

Option #3
Cheap (under $200 USD) reverse osmosis system for under my sink.
This seems like the most reasonable/safest option.
  • Why would I not do this?
  • What else would I need to do to prep the RO water to support my living soil?

I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts!
 
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Galvatron

Galvatron

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I'm going through a similar study. It has been discussed recently. Rain, distilled, and R.O. water has no alkalinity buffer. This appears to be an important property affecting soil in containers over time. I suggest you look at the following discussion.
 
Jahredi

Jahredi

64
18
I'm going through a similar study. It has been discussed recently. Rain, distilled, and R.O. water has no alkalinity buffer. This appears to be an important property affecting soil in containers over time. I suggest you look at the following discussion.

Thanks for that! I only read Aqua Man’s writing and the ProMix article. It was useful to understand how pH is more about the soil than the water, but since my city uses Caustic Soda instead of CaCO3, it’s hard to apply the lesson about CaCO3 ppm to my situation.

I‘m guessing that the fact that my tap water ppm is so low must have something to do with how little caustic soda is needed to raise the pH. But then again, I have no idea. I did use my tap water all year last year and had no problems growing with salt-based nutes. But will this caustic soda kill my living soil? That’s the question...

I add lime to my living soil mix and plan to amend each season. So, I’m not sure that having a lack of CaCO3 in my water source is a problem.

Thanks again for the info. I feel a little smarter 🤷‍♂️

If anything, I take all that as evidence to get an RO system going.

Also, still curious about E. Coli and rainwater runoff from a roof; whether earthworm castings contain E. Coli; if E. Coli is something that can be transferred via water uptake and colonize within the actual leaf and flower structures, or if it’s cross-contamination that poses the main concern; and, what effect earthworms themselves have on E. Coli colonies in a living soil population.

**edit**
After doing some quick reading on RO systems I have decided to scrap that option. For the systems in my budget, the water waste is nauseating.
 
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Jahredi

Jahredi

64
18
Well, I’ve been watering with straight tap water Bubbled for 24 hours. Water from tap seems to fluctuate between pH 7.4 and 7.8, mostly 7.4/7.5

At first, after switching from runoff to the tap, I felt like I noticed less predator mite activity. But it might have just been perception and a spell of hot windy days drying the top layer of soil out - but they’re definitely still there, charging around like voracious little feeders.

Plants look healthy and happy with my makeshift super soil and tap water 🙌🙏
 
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