COCO COIR Reverse Osmosis Water

[golfnrl]

I am switching from tap water to RO. I've looked at GWE, the info is a little sparse. The system I bought is from the brand shown in the article I read. A search on the forum yielded 54 pages of info. After about 10 pages, and not finding anything specific, I gave up.

Using RO water as a base seems strait forward. I am trying to get the starting EC as close to zero as possible. The starting EC of the tap water where I live seems to fluctuate a bit from about .2 - .4 which limits the space within the EC range for nutrients.

Does anyone have any advice or tips that I need to know? I'll be using the RO in a 12 gallon reservoir. Grow medium is 50/50 blend coco/perlite.

[Allenpro]

Maybe there isnt much about it because it doesnt make a difference?

[DabberDog]

I'm just a simple farmer who don't know 'bout EC and junk.
What I know is the couple times I used RO, adjusting pH was crazy difficult. I recall a drop of pH Down in a gallon of RO caused a 2-point pH drop.

[2ShedsJackson]

I read this. This dude seems to know EVERYTHING about Coco grow. Annoyingly I can't subscribe to his site, something about a Wordpress problem but I'm a computer luddite so can't figure out the problem.

[2ShedsJackson]

I read this. This dude seems to know EVERYTHING about Coco grow. Annoyingly I can't subscribe to his site, something about a Wordpress problem but I'm a computer luddite so can't figure out the problem.

https://www.cocoforcannabis.com/

[Gator]

So experiment with soil ,I haven't tried coco, but I am experimenting with bubbleponics

[SWFL]

Using RO water as a base seems strait forward. I am trying to get the starting EC as close to zero as possible. The starting EC of the tap water where I live seems to fluctuate a bit from about .2 - .4 which limits the space within the EC range for nutrients.

RO should be as close to distilled water as possible providing you with a bank canvas to build up from.

Get the PH corrected to where you want it to be.

Add nutrients and go forth.

After that monitor conditions and correct as needed.

[Smallgrow]

Ya clean water is fine, these guys start with 200-400 ppm in their tap water leaving no room for adding nutes. My well water is about 10-20 ppm can’t even test PH in that it’s so pure

[Allenpro]

They must live in the LA basin. I do miss the flavor of the air but not the tap water or what it does to you

[golfnrl]

Tap water EC varies a little bit. In the spring it was .36. Right now its .2. That's not a bad starting point. It just limits the target EC as I understand it. I grow in coco and have a reservoir. The nutrients I'm using have an EC of .6 when the base nutrients are mixed at 5 ml/L. That's half strength.

With the tap water I have begun to use cal/mag to bring the starting EC up to .4 (2.5 ml/L). That was suggested by the nutrient rep, that has seemed to help with leaf issues I have been unsure about.

[Allenpro]

A few years ago I filled a gallon jug and checked the PPM before and after I added the nutrients at the amounts I was using and write down the change then dump the gallon and move on the next nutrient, The results gave me a base line for controlling the PPM and PH before I measured the total mixed results. Pain the ass? yes but it helped me think I was in control .

[Geeza]

Not sure about this, and could be completely wrong here, but my thoughts are, why bother about Ph or EC of the water to start with? I mean, if it were me, I would just mix the required nutes into whatever water I'm using, then adjust the Ph and EC to where it should be (Ph to 5.8-6.2, EC to 11.4-1.6 then feed)

[Smallgrow]

Yes always adjust Ph and EC after nutes but if you water is already heavy in minerals etc you can’t get the range low enough

[Allenpro]

So you have to add more water to lower the EC and that probably changes the PH doesn't it?

[Geeza]

Yes, correct Allenpro, but then you adjust your pH accordingly.

[Bluey]

Not all tap water is bad. Yours could have magic powers that include calmag and other elements such as iron, sulphur, manganese, copper, etc....it might just be shit though.

I use rainwater. Its free, plentiful and has an EC of zero.

[golfnrl]

I've pondered a rainwater system. Pure water is the nectar of the gods.