Having a good quality water for your plants will determine their overall health and ability to grow strong exclusive of what nutrients or supplements you feed your plants. Hydroponics depends heavily on the quality of water for successful harvests. The measure of salinity in water is expressed in Parts Per Million, or PPM for short, using a PPM meter like the Hanna meter available at growannex.com can make this task a breeze.
Since PPM meters measure the salt levels in a solution, they are not able to display what constitutes the salts. This means that any salt based element can and will affect the ppm reading. Ideally, it is preferable to start off with water having a PPM as close to zero as possible. This allows the gardener to control the exact levels of nutrients and additives being feed to their plants.
Depending on where you live, tap water's PPM levels are anywhere from 100 up to 800 PPM. Water levels below 250 ppm are considered soft while levels above 300 ppm are normally considered hard. For those people living in areas where hard water exists (high PPM levels in their water), it is recommended to use a reverse osmosis (RO) system. Expect these systems to reduce your PPM levels by around 95%.
Starting with the desired PPM levels, add the additives or nutrients while measuring the effects on overall PPM. Having reduced the PPM down to nearly zero, all the calcium and magnesium have also been removed and need to be added back in.
Great quality water is the first step to successful hydroponic gardening. Hydroponics involves many different aspects, but once they are mastered, the rest is easy. It might be hard at first but keep at it and before you know it, you will be a pro.
Since PPM meters measure the salt levels in a solution, they are not able to display what constitutes the salts. This means that any salt based element can and will affect the ppm reading. Ideally, it is preferable to start off with water having a PPM as close to zero as possible. This allows the gardener to control the exact levels of nutrients and additives being feed to their plants.
Depending on where you live, tap water's PPM levels are anywhere from 100 up to 800 PPM. Water levels below 250 ppm are considered soft while levels above 300 ppm are normally considered hard. For those people living in areas where hard water exists (high PPM levels in their water), it is recommended to use a reverse osmosis (RO) system. Expect these systems to reduce your PPM levels by around 95%.
Starting with the desired PPM levels, add the additives or nutrients while measuring the effects on overall PPM. Having reduced the PPM down to nearly zero, all the calcium and magnesium have also been removed and need to be added back in.
Great quality water is the first step to successful hydroponic gardening. Hydroponics involves many different aspects, but once they are mastered, the rest is easy. It might be hard at first but keep at it and before you know it, you will be a pro.
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