Watering With Melted Snow?

[xenon730]

i have well water with a whopping 650ppm, tons of bicarbonite.

anyways, i melted a tote full of snow today and it ended up being ph 9 and ppm 15. is there anything i need to worry about that's not obvious? maybe disease or something? or is this a great alternative to my awful tap?

 

[DrMcSkunkins]

RO system with a water softener. Im anxious to hear an experts opinion on snow.

 

[DemonTrich]

Imo, snow is nothing more than frozen rain water. Rain water is perfectly safe to use.

 

[smokedareefer]

one foot of heavy' snow makes an inch of rain water.

a 5 gal bucket of snow that is 5 feet high will return maybe a gal of water.

 

[xenon730]

one foot of heavy' snow makes an inch of rain water.

a 5 gal bucket of snow that is 5 feet high will return maybe a gal of water.

your numbers are dramatic for effect, although the snow does melt down to about a fifth of it's volume. it's not bad work for where i live or for others in similar places. i have to do this shoveling regardless. i only use 10 gallons of water per feed currently and i made that easily yesterday in about 20 minutes of work and a few hours of sleep. definitely not for everyone but there's also no reason i couldn't come up with a better method and make a lot more, significantly faster.

 

[GT21]

i have well water with a whopping 650ppm, tons of bicarbonite.

anyways, i melted a tote full of snow today and it ended up being ph 9 and ppm 15. is there anything i need to worry about that's not obvious? maybe disease or something? or is this a great alternative to my awful tap?

I wouldnt worry about disease much. Maybe some pollen or pollution in the air but no big deal. Definitely let it come to room temp then ph and use it.

 

[jumpincactus]

i have well water with a whopping 650ppm, tons of bicarbonite.

anyways, i melted a tote full of snow today and it ended up being ph 9 and ppm 15. is there anything i need to worry about that's not obvious? maybe disease or something? or is this a great alternative to my awful tap?

The answer is a resounding Yes!!! Mix your nutes adjust Ph to the range your media requires and away you go. Same goes for plain water between feeds adjust the ph from the 9.0 to where you need it and water. You may want to consider the fact that with that low a ppm keep an eye on your micro nutes and C and Mg. But a good nute regimen should address that.

 

[jumpincactus]

RO system with a water softener. Im anxious to hear an experts opinion on snow.

Wouldn't a water softener add salts into the equation? or is there tech out now that doesn't use salts in the softening process? Just thinking out loud.

 

[tinderthumbs]

how much does the rh go up with the tote of snow melting?

 

[GT21]

Wouldn't a water softener add salts into the equation? or is there tech out now that doesn't use salts in the softening process? Just thinking out loud.

I know a bunch of people down south that will run it through a softener then through on of them charcoal/cotton/cotton 3 stage filters... it does alright

 

[DrMcSkunkins]

Wouldn't a water softener add salts into the equation? or is there tech out now that doesn't use salts in the softening process? Just thinking out loud.

I should have said "water conditioner", sometimes if the water is really bad an Ro system still has hard water come out the other side. Putting an ionic water conditioner on the back end of the Ro is supposed to break up the salts so that it doesnt stick to things. Weather this affects how the plant uses the water is another story. A high flow Ro system would make it usable I would think.
https://www.uswatersystems.com/aquapurion-plus-5-stage-reverse-osmosis-system.html

 

[xenon730]

Wouldn't a water softener add salts into the equation? or is there tech out now that doesn't use salts in the softening process? Just thinking out loud.

softeners do, conditioners don't.

how much does the rh go up with the tote of snow melting?

didn't put it in the garden to melt

I should have said "water conditioner", sometimes if the water is really bad an Ro system still has hard water come out the other side. Putting an ionic water conditioner on the back end of the Ro is supposed to break up the salts so that it doesnt stick to things. Weather this affects how the plant uses the water is another story. A high flow Ro system would make it usable I would think.
https://www.uswatersystems.com/aquapurion-plus-5-stage-reverse-osmosis-system.html

it does, any of the $300 models on amazon.ca have worked for me, but i also collect rain water and my grey water and could easily make some sort of snow catcher/farm to make it easier to extract. the water just kills the filters and machines fast and I'm without a working one currently and the shipping alone will take forever and I'm not sure i want to bother replacing it at all because i primarily use it in the winter.