I’m getting ready for my 2nd grow and at my new house I am on a well with a softening system for the iron-oxide. I read that I can’t use the softened water due to the salt in it being bad for the plants so I would need to use an RO system and add nutrients back. Recently I was able to get my hose spigots hooked directly to the well and it is obviously full of iron. I don’t know if the well water would be fine to use as is or if I would need to RO the water to remove the iron. I’ve been thinking about this for weeks so any input would be greatly appreciated.
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I’m on a well as well. I don’t have a lot of iron here but I do have high calcium. It caused lock outs during my first grow and I had to flush many times. That’s when I went to an RO system. Life became much easier
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Can you get a well report or get your water tested to see what exactly is in it and how much. I don’t know how much iron is too much or not. Do you have any outside irrigation not coming off the house hose bibs. if so how are your outside shrubbery and trees doing, if you have any. I deal with softeners and whole house filter systems all the time. I also am on a well as well as well. I have customers that have high iron content in their well water that have huge gardens and tons of plants and trees. If i was growing indoors or outdoors in a pot, I would be more concerned I think.
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Our wel water had very high ppm 600+ so we added a spin down filter(5micron) then a 1 micron particulate and then 1 micron charcoal filter still 500+ ppm. The filters didn’t work either because the particles are dissolved. We added a softener and a uv light which made the water drinkable bacteria wise. But ppm was still too high especially after mixing nutes and ph was hard to maintain. Finally installed ro( just for the plant water) did not get the one that adds minerals back seems like take it out and now put it back was silly. The ro water works great with the nutes and ph is easy to maintain. Yes the softener is still in the loop before the ro setup. The plants love it. Haven’t had any issues other than I need a bigger ro storage I have a 30 but empty it now every time I mix nutes.going to switch to 55 gallon res
It sounds like a RO system is needed just for you and your family 500 is high for filtered water
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My first grow was with well water and it was a nightmare. The sludge that was formed by the iron plugged the smaller feed lines from my res to the grow sites. Not to mention the pH buffering at elevated levels. And the calcium locking out nutes.
I started using using water from an ice/RO kiosk in town but the owners didn’t maintain the unit properly so eventually I couldn’t trust it.
So, I bought an RO system and I don’t have any issues with my water.
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Yes, you should get it professionally checked. But on the subject of filtration, this is my story which might be of help to some readers.
I’m sure I’m not the only one who can’t afford a r/o filtration system. Plus, we use a Brita filter for household drinking water. This a low tech solution to reduce my pH without getting a system or buying suitable water.
So, this is my first grow and when I started, the seedlings weren’t very cooperative and just looked poky. I started looking into this universe of knowledge and learned that I needed to check my water pH (growing in soil). I got a test kit and it was 8!
My 6 plants were thirsty and going out to buy gallons of distilled water isn’t gonna happen. I decided to check the pH in my Brita water dispenser: 7+. It takes from 3 to 5 times running water through the filter, but the pH will go down to almost 6.
Labor intensive? Very. But I’m a stay at home Hausfrau and filtering 8 gallons of water every 5 days gives me pleasant busy work and even a bit of exercise. I also use two of the Brita simultaneously which speeds up the process (generally I keep a dispenser in the fridge).
One more benefit? Our town uses chloramine, which doesn’t gas off like Chlorine. The Brita doesn’t reduce it a lot with just one filtering, but with 5?
Is your Brita filter a faucet attachment or is it a pitcher type?
Hey, I’ve been through a similar situation with well water. You’re right that softened water isn’t ideal for plants because of the salt content. For well water with high iron levels, using a reverse osmosis (RO) system is often recommended, as it will filter out the iron and other minerals that could harm your plants. However, you’ll likely need to add nutrients back into the water after it’s filtered since RO systems remove most of the beneficial minerals as well.
If you’re concerned about using RO for the entire grow, another option could be to install an iron filter before the RO system. That way, you reduce the iron content before the water reaches the RO, which might extend the life of your filters and give you cleaner water for your plants.
It’s great that you’ve been thinking about this so much—water quality is crucial for a successful grow.
I guess the first question I would ask would be.. what are you growing in? Pure hydro? Soiless medium? Living soil? Because, you may be able to use creek or lake water and the minerals would be likely ok. That would at least do away with the need for an RO system.
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Thanks for the response I forgot I had this still up. Ended up using my straight up well water. Happy Frog in 5gal planters. Kept it organic forget which brand veg/bloom I used. Needed to add some down to the water cause my ph runs around 7.7 and I think id drop it to 6. Also added some supplemental Cal-Mag into my water aswell had minor issues with a couple strains. Only did a couple runs but got a few lbs.
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Curious? When using a living soil blend… well sorta living soil blend. It should buffer quite a bit better than when you use .. promix and nutes, or even coco and nutes right? You may have water that isnt quite in the ph zone, but the buffering capacity should make up for it. Did you try to use the water without ph adjustment? Remember the soil is built with lime and other stuff in it, I believe. The plant should also send out exudates to deal with slight ph imbalances. You should run a test pot and see. I belive you can’t test runoff with any type of accuracy, you would require a slurry test to get a ph reading. The water ph will likely not have much effect on the buffered soil, at least not initially.
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