TEA versus TDS

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GDub51

GDub51

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I planned on using no artificial additives to this years grow. Adding Mycorrhizae, worm castings, and bat guano to the soil with mosquito bits at planting and then feeding with brewed "tea". Trouble is my tap water is over 400ppm solids content and after brewing my tea is coming out over 1200ppm! While I'm told to keep the PPM under 200 for seedlings and not get to over 1000ppm until in flower! So I'm diluting my tea to one quarter it's strength with purchased distilled water to get to PPM down to levels suggested. What levels do you use at which stages of development? Buying water is getting expensive. By the way, I use a pre-filter to treat the water and still get these solids amounts. The local water district is of no help in identifying what those solids are. What am I to do?
 
Aqua Man

Aqua Man

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Look at your local water supply report it should tell you what that 400 ppm is made up of What are you using as a prefilter?

You can get a RO unit pretty cheap off Amazon rather than wasting money on bottled RO
 
Deadstill

Deadstill

I'm from the government, and I'm here to help.
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If you can't get any information on what's in your water you'll just have to do a lot of trial and error experimentation with your fertilizer mix. I have the same problem, in a sense. I have well water and I get an average reading of 630 ppm straight out the tap. I have done a lot of research on my local water supply, in particular the aquifer that it comes from. Lots of iron, calcium and magnesium out here.

Now for the most part I do hydroponics and when I am done mixing nutes my ppm's will read anywhere between 750-1200 ppm depending on what stage of growth I'm in. I've tried using RO water and didn't notice any difference, other than my fert bottles going empty faster. If you can get some idea of what's already in your water you can adjust from there. Obviously I don't need much cal-mag in my grows. It's very important to keep a journal of each feeding and note how much of what nute you used so you can monitor the plants and adjust accordingly. It took me a couple years to totally master growing with my water supply, so don't expect great results overnight.
 
GDub51

GDub51

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Look at your local water supply report it should tell you what that 400 ppm is made up of What are you using as a prefilter?

You can get a RO unit pretty cheap off Amazon rather than wasting money on bottled RO
I'm using a Camco "Garden Pure" filter that makes only 10% change in the PPM.
 
GDub51

GDub51

133
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If you can't get any information on what's in your water you'll just have to do a lot of trial and error experimentation with your fertilizer mix. I have the same problem, in a sense. I have well water and I get an average reading of 630 ppm straight out the tap. I have done a lot of research on my local water supply, in particular the aquifer that it comes from. Lots of iron, calcium and magnesium out here.

Now for the most part I do hydroponics and when I am done mixing nutes my ppm's will read anywhere between 750-1200 ppm depending on what stage of growth I'm in. I've tried using RO water and didn't notice any difference, other than my fert bottles going empty faster. If you can get some idea of what's already in your water you can adjust from there. Obviously I don't need much cal-mag in my grows. It's very important to keep a journal of each feeding and note how much of what nute you used so you can monitor the plants and adjust accordingly. It took me a couple years to totally master growing with my water supply, so don't expect great results overnight.
I'm not giving up on getting the breakdown on what's in my water. I'm still digging. Having been a kitchen designer (see kitchenbath-design.com) now retired, I know some execs from a water filter company who should know. I know it has caused problems with lockout in previous vintages and can't afford to buy RO water. I'll keep digging and let you know. Just got the PPM meter for this season and it exposed the problem I suspected. Anybody out there know what's in Moulton Niguel water district water?
 
MIMedGrower

MIMedGrower

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I'm not giving up on getting the breakdown on what's in my water. I'm still digging. Having been a kitchen designer (see kitchenbath-design.com) now retired, I know some execs from a water filter company who should know. I know it has caused problems with lockout in previous vintages and can't afford to buy RO water. I'll keep digging and let you know. Just got the PPM meter for this season and it exposed the problem I suspected. Anybody out there know what's in Moulton Niguel water district water?


There are $20 water test kits at any garden center like home depot has. Tests for bacteria, hardness, iron, ppm etc.

Or maybe you can get a cheap water test from the local university ag extention.
 
Aqua Man

Aqua Man

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There are $20 water test kits at any garden center like home depot has. Tests for bacteria, hardness, iron, ppm etc.

Or maybe you can get a cheap water test from the local university ag extention.
Adding to your list:
Some of the aquarium test kits will work well, others do not test high enough.
 
Aqua Man

Aqua Man

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OK i'm stupid having kept lots of aquarium and having had a pool i should have thought of this earlier. Take a water sample to your local fish store (call first) they usually do free testing for amonnia/ammonium, nitrite, nutrate, calcium, magnesium, phosphates, iron and copper. Some will only do minimal tests so phone around. Or you could try a pool place that will give you a water report and is also usually free.

Master kit i use for my aquariums. was like $100CAD probably also work.
 
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MIMedGrower

MIMedGrower

17,190
438
OK i'm stupid having kept lots of aquarium and having had a pool i should have thought of this earlier. Take a water sample to your local fish store (call first) they usually do free testing for amonnia/ammonium, nitrite, nutrate, calcium, magnesium, phosphates, iron and copper. Some will only do minimal tests so phone around. Or you could try a pool place that will give you a water report and is also usually free.

Master kit i use for my aquariums. was like $100CAD probably also work.


Thanks for showing that. I can use that to see how my well water is changing with the seasons and rain.

I know the iron content rises with heavy rain and snow runoff. Cause i can see the stains. But what else is happening?
 
Aqua Man

Aqua Man

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Thanks for showing that. I can use that to see how my well water is changing with the seasons and rain.

I know the iron content rises with heavy rain and snow runoff. Cause i can see the stains. But what else is happening?
Very handy kit I have used that master test kit for years... Not the same one as they do expire. That's important so if you are picking one up always check the date. It's pretty much unlimited testing and has so many uses. I mixed my own ferts for many years and would mix them by weight ratios then use the nitrate to reach the ppm I wanted and could calculate the rest of my macros based on that. And same for micros mix by weight ratio and test iron. Test for free ammonia nitrites and nitrates to know where my denitrifying bacteria were at. KH to tell the buffering capacity of my water and how much of a CO2 concentration I had based on the KH and amount of ph drop. It's very handy
 
GDub51

GDub51

133
43
OK i'm stupid having kept lots of aquarium and having had a pool i should have thought of this earlier. Take a water sample to your local fish store (call first) they usually do free testing for amonnia/ammonium, nitrite, nutrate, calcium, magnesium, phosphates, iron and copper. Some will only do minimal tests so phone around. Or you could try a pool place that will give you a water report and is also usually free.

Master kit i use for my aquariums. was like $100CAD probably also work.
Thank you very much for the fish store lead. I just found one where I went to buy the air pump. They were selling water for aquariums so they likely have a testing service. I also found that a friends brother is a soil scientist! I'll be contacting him with lots of questions on how to best care for my soil. I'll keep you in the loop..
 
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