Bad Water -- How would you define bad?

[Dan W.]

I have pretty hard water at 180ppm, but I don't really know much about it. Would you guys use an RO system for this water? -- I use as much rain water as possible and often when I use city water I let it sit for a day or two before use. This isn't allways possible though and it sure is much more efficient to use the hose...

How hard is your water and what do you do about it? -- Also, does an RO system take all of the good minerals out as well?

 

[fourteener]

Sorry, I am blessed in this regard. Duluth MN comes from Lake Superior and is more clean on the intake to the water treatment facility than 90% of municipalities when they send it out. No lime on my pots!!!

I paid my dues though. I lived in Lamar CO for awhile. New spray nozzles every year. I had to water trees from our RO system inside. Glad my collection was small back then.

 

[NewWorldBonsai]

I'm not sure how bad my water was but it had some horrible iron bacteria. My boxwoods looked like pumpkin wood before I got a two part filtration system. My tanks automatically backwash so there's no replacement filters, just set up and go.

I've only heard of RO being used for drinking water and it totally purifies the water (I believe it removes everything and then flavors it through charcoal filters). You can always add an inline tank and feed trace amounts of liquid fertilizer with superthrive to constantly give your trees some juice. You can acquire one rather inexpensively and they are easy to set up.

Is there staining all over the place from your water source? Hard water and even iron isn't really going to bother the plants but it will make a mess of things. From the little I know 200ppm+ is when it becomes a real problem.

My last nursery had hard water and it just required cleaning leaves occasionally, no big deal.

 

[dick benbow]

when it comes to water, I got my education on 35 years of caring for Koi.

During that time, I did get into Reverse Osmosis systems.

They're not cheap to purchase or maintain. You need to be able to automatically backflush the membraines or they quickly plug. If you can figure out how much water you need per day on the most demanding day, that's how you figure how big a unit to purchase. For example i had
a 4,000 glaaon pond that I gave a 10% water change to so that meant my purchase was a machine that could make 400 gallons a day. If I had a dollar for each time the water department based on my use left me a note to check for a leak in my system I could buy us a nice lunch! What was bad, even tho I bought the best available system at the time, the water wasted and not used was 40%. It's the price you pay for the system. In the beginning of the technology it was more like 40% was usable and 60% went to waste.

While it seems your general Hardness is up there ( with RO I kept mine at 60 GH ) some trees actually do better with a slightly hard water. 7 is neutral on the PH scale and anything below is considered hard. Above soft. ( human blood BTW is 7.2) Things like rhodies, azaleas, Japanese maples liked a ph close to 6.8

Our water here in the pacific NW is basically snow melt from river run off. Not much in the way of minerals but it never seemed to matter as there were suppliments I could use once or twice a year to make sure they got "trace" stuff.

Hope something in my ramble is useful to you.

 

[crust]

I don't believe in the adage that if you can drink it its fine for containerized plants. Not only is precipitated minerals unsightly but often, and in my case, is a sign of alkaline water (mine was PH 8.0). The alkalinity can tie up nutrients and accumulate in your soil causing weird problems.

Most of the nurseries in my area treat there water in some way mostly due to iron contamination(turns everything orange) and also to correct PH problems like mine. My favorite nursery has a extensive system. First they sediment filter then they run everything through a potassium based water softener then acid inject to balance the PH to their specifications.

I have been getting by by collecting rain water and storing it in stock tanks. The key is to be able to store enough for your needs which might be tough where you live. During drought I have filled my 900 gallon system with well water then adjusted the PH with acid. (a product called PH down) once I get my water a lower PH the minerals don't tend to precipitate on anything (they electrically don't stick) even so they are present.

Once you figure out everything the first time it really is easy to adjust a large tank of water.

 

[crust]

I have pretty hard water at 180ppm, but I don't really know much about it. Would you guys use an RO system for this water? -- I use as much rain water as possible and often when I use city water I let it sit for a day or two before use. This isn't allways possible though and it sure is much more efficient to use the hose...

How hard is your water and what do you do about it? -- Also, does an RO system take all of the good minerals out as well?

Get a PH reading of your water. And yes RO water removes many trace minerals. RO water can end up being pretty acid.