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water Possible soft water issue?

Below are three of my plants that are showing the biggest affect out of the other 40. I know the city I live in has soft tap water, my question is.... if the issue is in fact due to the lack of trace elements what do I need to do to get these guys back to 100%? Also I am using Fox Farm Ocean potting soil. Thanks!

-J

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i just let my tap water steep overnight or longer to keep the chlorine level as low as possible. my water source is soft tap water also.
 
I am using the fox farms soil as well and am seeing the same thing, only worse on mine. Check out my topic titled, diagnosis please, and pepper ridge farm gives very detailed instructions of what to do/try. Hope that helps shed a little light on it for you.
 
Another thing you can do is get a fish tank aerator. Using the air pump and letting your water sit for 24 or more hours should help out a lot with your problems. It is much cheaper than buying bottled spring water every time you need to water your plants.

You can also start to set up large containers for rain catches. It seems like if I would have done that over the last few weeks I would have enough water for the rest of my season right now.
 
Another thing you can do is get a fish tank aerator. Using the air pump and letting your water sit for 24 or more hours should help out a lot with your problems. It is much cheaper than buying bottled spring water every time you need to water your plants.

You can also start to set up large containers for rain catches. It seems like if I would have done that over the last few weeks I would have enough water for the rest of my season right now.
I'm gonna try that with mine, for today though i'm going to just go buy water. Would just one of those cheap small air pumps with the air stone on the end work i'm guessing...
 
Torno- I just did a chlorine test on our tap water here in denton and it was ridiculous, it's on the low end of the ideal range for pools. Definately could be what's wrong with yours, I'm seeing some of the same(only worse) with my plants.
 
, for today though i'm going to just go buy water.


Good idea for now, just to see if they recover somewhat, soft water is a posses where salt is involved and like I said salt is really bad for plants in general!

rain water is OK as long as you do not have some factory close by spewing out toxic chemicals that settle on your roof top, and then end up in your barrel, but still better than chlorine soft water, Keep us up to date on the progress and the step you took.

Good luck, SC
 
I only have tap water available too. I fill up my watering cans and let them sit for 24+hrs before watering to let the chlorine dissipate. May help!
 
I'm gonna try that with mine, for today though i'm going to just go buy water. Would just one of those cheap small air pumps with the air stone on the end work i'm guessing...
Yes, one of those small pumps with the air stone will work fine. They are around $15 I think. I use one in a three gallon container. I have really noticed a difference since I started to do that.
 
Thanks for the heads up on the chlorine levels... I'll fill a few 5 gal buckets up tonight and let them sit over the next 48 hours to see what happens.... Hopefully that will do the trick and all will be well again.

-J
 
Thanks for the heads up on the chlorine levels... I'll fill a few 5 gal buckets up tonight and let them sit over the next 48 hours to see what happens.... Hopefully that will do the trick and all will be well again.

-J

You should see a difference with the water letting the chlorine evaporate. I was lazy this year and i paid. I also bi passed the softer and the plants are finaly taking off.
good luck!
 
After checking the water report from 2009 the avg ppm of chlorine was 1.9. Any ideas on how much affect that would have on my plants?

-J
 
All great info and I believe most growers would benefit from following some of these routines in their own watering practices. It is much more important when the plants are small to get your water correctly balanced. I keep a 5 gallon jug filled for plants inside and outside on the days I water just fill a 35 gallon plastic trash can in the morning and let sit till that afternoon. I am more worried about bringing my pH in range and allowing the water to evaporate some of the clorine and warm up a bit before watering my plants. I haven't used an air stone but I use my reservoir up every afternoon.
 
Tried the let the water sit technique and it worked like a charm! Even after only about 10 hours the chlorine test is reading 0. Now I just have to rehab my plants.....
 
Haha no doubt... Today was my first watering with the 10 gallons I sat out two days ago. I went ahead and put CalMag in as well since the water report had no mention of any of those elements. Hopefully these lil guys will get out of the deformed stage and start growing some nice new sets of leaves... They are all growing still and rather rapidly, but the new leaves coming in are funky and the wee lil ones pushing out are dried up on the edges and end and curled in, but otherwise healthy.

-J
 
I may need to do the same as you with the calmag, I have a few that are just getting their first and second sets of true leaves(late starters) and they are a little puffy and curled. Couldn't hurt to try anyway I guess right.
 
Might as well... I know my issue is water related as I have my plants in two completely different types of potting soil. Doing a comparison to see which one they grow better in. I do hope leaving this water out the past two days and getting all the chlorine evaporated will turn them around.

-J
 
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