Growing using Hard Water

[Kingthrob]

My town water has what is considered Hard Water which has higher calcium and magnesium. I have installed a whole house Soft Water system which use sodium work to reduce the concentrations of these minerals by introducing sodium.
would this be harmful using to water my plants or use in a hydro setup?
I have been buying 5 gallon containers of RO water at Walmart and adding calcium but this gets real expensive. About $20 per week. This with 2 soil and 2 hydroponic currently in flower stage.
any thoughts?

[PRIMO]

Kingthrob Usually your outside faucets are not run thru a softener.Might want to check on that.

[Rwise]

Use the water before the softener, and adjust the PH, yes salt is not good.
Welcome to GWE

[Kingthrob]

I purposely had the plumber install so I could re-route the tap water to outside spigot. I started using that yesterday. I wasn’t sure if Hard Water is bad for the Plants as well.

[PRIMO]

I had plumber route soft water to one of my faucets outside for car washing. I hate water spots on my iron!

[DW2]

Howdy Kingthrob, I have hard water in my town, and it is not harmful, at all, for the plants. In fact, I found that I still need to supplement the water with CaliMagic mineral supplement. Use the hard water and pocket the money (waisted, in my opinion) spent on the R/O water.

[SwitchH2O]

Please don’t use “soft water” in hydro; get yourself a water filter for gardens. “Hydro Life” is the brand I use. I use city water and use this to filter chlorine. But it does work on hard water. It removes iron, which I’m assuming is your hard water problem?.

[GuitboxTom]

Kingthrob, we have super hard water from our well. Iron. Sulphur, lime etc... use a softener and a few filters for kitchen and laundry. BUT for weed I use @ 30-50% hard water out of the well. And the other half or so collected rain water then correct the pH with lemon juice or white vinegar. You don’t want the salt from the softener!
The rain and well water seems real good.

[SwitchH2O]

And guys… there’s no salt in your water LOL. That’s not how a water softener works. The salted water is used to clean the “ion” chamber, (those other tanks you can’t see into); they have balls that the water mixes with that attract the hard particles in the water. Then the salt tank does a wash of those “balls” and cleans them. Then rinses them with fresh water. NO SALTED WATER. Just water that has been “bleached” of its minerals. These minerals can be good and bad depending on your water. Some have lots of iron, while most have issues with too much calcium and magnesium….
it cost a fraction to have your water tested. Then you could just use your regular water (before the softener) and adjust your water with the nutrients you’re missing. Look for a carbon water filter, maybe that will help you. Cheers

[GuitboxTom]

SwitchH2O Hey there, thanks for the reminder re the ion exchange softener. I do believe that when your unit is @30+ years old and the valve head has been rebuilt and replaced, there is a bit of residual salt that gets though. The point is that much of the minerals could be of value to your plants, even though you may not be able to have nice white under shorts cause of those iron strains!

[Puglover1]

You just reminded me that I need to complain to the city. After almost two bottles of Iron Out, and many extra large washer loads of hot water, my expensive, quality white sheets for a reason look worse than before I started. City water isn't bad but my house is at the end of a line, ends at my ravine. The new-er street crew gets paid twice as much to do more wrong than right, they don't flush it long nor often enough. I do a lot of white loads

[SwitchH2O]

LOL

[Kingthrob]

Thanks everyone, I started using water that has bypassed the water softener and I had stopped using cal/mag but I may add a little after reading these posts… and I will get a water test out of curiosity.
thanks!

[UndergroundFarmer]

You should be able to get an analysis online of your city's water from the water department. For what it's worth, it'll be a ballpark figure of what you can expect out of the tap. If you have an EC or TDS meter, test and see. My water runs about 200-250 TDS from the tap and I do fine with no additional Cal-Mag.

[3Berries]

There is always residual salt in softened water. Thought the newer ones that track usage are better than the old clunky timer ones. Iron kills them too.

My well water is 450ppm Ca/Mg, mostly Ca, 7% Mg. I start my plants on well but start to dilute with rain after a couple waterings. In flower it's rain as long as I can get it.