When is Your Water Too Dirty?
Let’s look at a possible scenario. Say you test your water and learn that the ppm is 300 and the hardness (calcium and magnesium) is 11 grains or 188 ppm (1 grain of hardness is equal to 17.1 ppm hardness).
Because you’re on well water you surmise the other 112 ppm are other minerals, such as iron, and possibly sulphur. The water tastes great to you and your friends and everyone believes it would be great water to garden with. It’s time to transplant some freshly rooted cuttings into larger containers. You know you are working with a variety of flowers that are sensitive to high ppm in their early stages. You want to keep your feed formula at around 400 ppm for the first week. At this point do you add 400 ppm of food to your water that is already 300 ppm or do you only add 100 ppm food? That’s the dilemma — you can never accurately control the amounts of critical inputs your plants need to feed properly.
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Indoor hydroponic gardening involves careful management of complex biological systems. When you garden indoors, you are essentially taking over the roll of mother nature. You provide the sun, the food, and the air that your plants need to flourish. The idea is to optimize each of these systems so that you are doing a better job than nature can. This involves a delicate balancing act that can be difficult to maintain at times. When things start to go wrong, it can be difficult for a beginner to diagnose the exact cause and decide on a course of action.
To understand the mechanics of nutrient lockout and how to prevent it from occurring, you must first have a basic understanding of how plants take in nutrients. (WARNING! Science content!) Most of a plants sustenance is taken in through the roots through a process called osmosis. Osmosis is the physical process by which a solution of low concentration translocates through a semi-permeable membrane to a solution of higher concentration on the other side of the membrane. This process is what allows roots to absorb water from the surrounding soil. As osmosis occurs, energy is released and used to fuel plant growth. Now enter nutrient lockout.