True Living Organics - The Ultimate Guide to Growing All-Natural Marijuana Indoors (2012)

Water Sources and Filtering Options
Both water sources and filtering of your water are very important considerations when TLO growing,
and a whole bunch of people already growing organically could likely get a huge boost in quality and
yields if they were aware of just how important this whole subject is. City tap or municipal water is
the biggest potential problem when growing with a living soil mix. Filtering this type of water is
actually fairly simple, and I will share my favorite sources for water filtration. My favorite brand for
this in the USA is called Pure Water Products. More about them and their filters later, but for now
suffice it to say that your water source is a huge deal when growing TLO or any organic style. If you
use well, spring, or tap/city water, then you really want to filter it for a number of reasons.
REV’S TIP
River and stream water is always awesome to use outdoors when
growing plants in the Earth, but you should check it with a TDS meter to
make sure it is not too high in dissolved mineral salts. A reading below 100 PPM is almost
always fine even when container growing—you just need to flush now and then. River and stream
water (in fact any groundwater source) should be checked for unknown possibilities like
pollution, including the existence of bad microbial life, and organic chemical elements out of
balance. Rivers and streams especially can have some nasty stuff in them, thanks to people or
companies nearby.
City, well, and spring water all have some potentially bad things in common. Often they are
“hard,” which means they contain a lot of dissolved magnesium and calcium. This type of water will
accumulate salts (magnesium, calcium, et al) around the root zones (rhizosphere) altering the pH
drastically, and making the area inhospitable to some of the key microbeasties. It seems to me to
really mess with the mycorrhizal fungus, so things like phosphorus tend to lock out in the soil mix.
Another big downside is the seasonally changing ratios of various dissolved mineral salts, along with
who knows what else from local plumbing. Every once in a while, spring or well water will be
perfect for your style, growing all organically, because of low ratios of dissolved salts, and a nice
balance of them as well. City tap water has huge problems, including all those that spring and well
water have.
City/municipal water these days is almost always disinfected with a compound called
“chloramine”—which is, simply stated, a very stable form of chlorine that you cannot simply bubble
or even boil out of the water. This is hazardous to your soil mix in a huge way! Activated carbon
filtering is the way to deal with this issue, and carbon filtering will also remove many other potential
nasties from your city water, like fluoride. Fluoride interferes with over 30 natural plant processes,
and can definitely mess up germination rates. Reverse osmosis filters always have a carbon stage or
two to them as well, just so you know.