First grow. Simple questions.

[BurtMaclin]

Hey guys, second post before starting my first grow. Getting really excited and I'm starting to get my soil organized. I decided to go organic for various reasons and I just have a couple questions before I start the mixing process that I thought would be better asked directly here.

First off my soil will consist of:

Premiere Peat Moss
Coast of Maine P1 Plant mix
Espoma Kelp Meal 1-0-2
Espoma Tomato-Tone
Espoma GL6 Garden Lime
Rice Hulls
Rock Dust

My questions are:

What's the most cost efficient or easiest way to provide the soil with declorinated water?

(I'm aware of options such as Water Conditioners but would like opinions on which is best/cleanest)

AND

Am I missing anything in my mix or are there any substitutes I should be using in place of the current ingredients? And what is the best way to speed up the "cooking" process?

(The current organic mix formula I'm using is around 3 years old or so and I want to make sure all the products I'm using are still cost efficient/viable options in 2017)

Thanks guys! Any help is greatly appretiated

 

[Eyes on Fire]

Hey bro!! Welcome! well the first query since I dont use any thing for my water to filter it. right from the tap myself. I have an aquifer with really clean water still thankfully but a simple RO unit with some extra filter and youll be able to run for a year or two with filtered RO water. for around 100 some odd USD. but again,I dont use them so ask around. @pop22 has used a few types as well as for some time now. and others have used them so they'll chime in Im certain.

but the second is I would personally replace the Peat with coco coir honestly. better and a far superios way to stay truly organicly sustainable. never use peat based products if it can be helped. and if your going simple bro,instead of using tomato tone n so on.why not invest in two or three type of granules with the pellet garden lime and thats really all you need for simple recipes and growing really.rice hulls are fine but break down quickly. so personally I would want to avoid issues so go with 50/50 hulls n perlite.

and the third LOL cooking is different imho, the tote can be placed on a warming mat on the sensor to maintain a simple heated floor. it'll be fine after the first initial two weeks or so. really kicked off life tea would also be great to kick it off early and help establish early life colonies.

 

[pop22]

Depends wether your water uses chlorine or chloromine. If chlorine, let the water stand in an open bucket for 24 hours. sunlight destroys chlorine quickly, so leaving it outside in sunlight is faster, 3-4 hours. chlormine can take 5 to 7 days to get rid of. You can however, get rid of chloromine by adding chlorine ( bleach ) to the water to break the amonia bonds. add a 1/2 cup per gallon and then let it sit in an open bucket for the same 24 hours.

Actually its a good idea to have you water tested or to find out the ppm of the water. A ppm of more than about 150 may not ne good for your plants, depending on what minerals are in the water. My tap water literally kills cannabis so I use RO water. wish I didn't need to, RO is very wasteful of water, stick with a good whole house, 3 stage type filter. If need be, you can use adapters to connect one to a faucet

 

[BurtMaclin]

Thanks for the replys guys. Looks like I will be looking into a simple filter to add on to my faucet system. Also, I found coco to be a little out of my budget for right now but definetly wanted to go with it. Never heard of the pellets but I will look into them.

Also, ironicly, I got a little excited and mixed all my components (minus the rice hulls) together and then added regular tap water to it today in a big bin. Was wondering if I wasted all that mix? I used about 0.5 gallons of regular tap water mixed into around 20 gallons of the mix. I'm assuming I killed some good bacteria and such but hoping the damage isn't too bad. I'm leaving a large watering can of faucet water out for 24-48 hours and will water it again if I can save the batch. If not, I'll take the hit and learn from the mistake. Maybe wait and grab some coco this time lol.

 

[Eyes on Fire]

assumin g the water had chlorine and not mass amounts of chloramine it'll be fine. even with the chloramine it'll be ok if thats all your gonna use. only have to moisten it once usually. just make sure it aint overly wet by learning the squeeze test for moisture and texture content man. half gallon and 20 gallons of mix is about right.mix it really really well breaking up all the wetter clumps into the rest of the soil. and coco coir is ALWAYS the better bet. worth the buy(s) to incorporate it into the batch of soil.

 

[BurtMaclin]

Ok I figured it didn't hurt it too badly. I was going light with the water on purpose to test the moisture carefully. Added some water, mixed, squeezed and repeated until the soil was close to a moist sponge texture. Stopped there thankfully lol. Thanks for the help. I will be adding the rice hulls tonight along with a tiny bit of water tomorrow maybe. Then we will see how it works out.

 

[Chester]

I buy RO water at various Kiosks around town for .25 per gallon in my jugs .... each of my plants uses approx. 20-24 gal of water total or about $4-$5 worth of quarters ...

 

[Green Goblin]

I was going to go with an RO unit myself but decided I'm going to first try out a Boogie Blue filter.

 

[Chester]

@Green Goblin ... I'd love to switch to a filter like that ... I wonder how the water compares to RO water ...

 

[Eyes on Fire]

if memory serves me right,regular filters do not get the chloramines. most other stuff it'll get usually. but that on e if you have it,its ausually a problem unless you get the tablets from tea labs and bubble it for a day or two then its ready to be used. have not used these mayself but use many of Lukes products and they work really really well and hes known for his teas. so I would bet these things are alright too