New Grower Newbie questions - Water/Soil

[Hansbricks]

Hello AFN, I'll be starting my first indoor grow shortly so I've been doing a ton of research and this site has been very helpful. I still have a couple things I need to clear up though.

First question is about which kind of water would be best for me to use. I already have a RODI filter for my saltwater aquarium so I thought this would be good but it seems like most people just use tap water. I measured my tap water tds at around 370ppm which seems pretty shitty. Should I be using this or the RO? Also if I use the RO water do I need to add a cal/mag additive each time?

Second question is about the soil. I seem to be a bit limited with what I can get locally (no fox farms, etc.) The best I've seen is probably pro-mix organic, will this work ok? Also should I be adding additional soil amendments to this (earthworm castings, blood/bone meal, perlite, etc.)

Any insight you guys can give me would be appreciated.

 

[mjdregba]

welcome to AFN hansbricks. I have been growing about a year and am still asking the same questions as you - the best advice I can give you is, just get what you can and try it, nothing beats experience and finding out what works for you. I started with the full biobizz range (including all mix) and couldnt get it to work for me, I then tried cheap seedling mix for a garden centre and cheap garden centre nutes - again didnt work fully but not much difference than biobizz. For my current grow I have mixed by own soil with just; seedling soil, perlite, vermiculite, guana, blood/bone and powdered egg shells supplemented with bioboizz grow and bloom. I have always used tap water, some people wont touch it and go rain, well or some kind of filtration - just be mindful that if you remove micro nutrients from water then you need to add that to your soil; calcium and magnesium are two common ones to watch. anyway, good luck and hope to see a grow journal.

 

[Nam80232]

I use tap water. Let the water breath for 24 hours to let the chlorine release and you "should" be fine. As far as the soil goes just watch out for high NPK levels. Best wishes, good luck!