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The Basics of Hydroponics

Your Water Hardness is a Critical Factor for Success.

What Is Water Hardness And Why Does It Matter?

Water Hardness refers to the alkaline mineral ion count, usually from
Calcium Carbonate and bicarbonate. Water with a high count is called
Hard Water. You can usually tell if you are in one of the many hard
water areas of Europe because your kettle will get a build up of ‘Lime
scale’ on the inside.

Hardness of water can be measured in parts per million by using a total
alkalinity test kit. These cheap simple test kits are available from
your local hydroponics retailer and are quite accurate enough for the
purpose. If your water tests at anything over 150ppm it should be
considered to be hard. Do not be alarmed if your water is hard, it does
not mean you cannot grow things using hydroponic methods.

Why Does It Matter If My Water Is Hard?

For many years growers in some areas have had unacceptable results, with
low yields and poor plant performance. The reasons for this have been
unclear until it was realised that the plants were suffering from a
chemical imbalance. Hydroponics growers were particularly badly
affected in these areas.

Growing hydroponically using normal nutrients means adding a balanced
solution of chemicals to the hard water. The hard water already contains
an excess of some of the essential minerals that the plant needs and so
the solution quickly becomes imbalanced in the nutrient tank.

In order to reduce the pH of the standard nutrient solution the
bicarbonate ions have to be neutralised. Because these alkaline ions
buffer the solution it is necessary to add large amounts of Phosphoric
acid to the nutrient in order to reduce the pH. This in turn increases
the Phosphate ion content of the solution causing an imbalance. This
imbalance can have serious consequences for your plants in a very short
period of time.

What can I do abut it?

The simplest way around the problem is to use a nutrient formulated
specifically for hard water areas. A Hard Water nutrient has been
produced with the correct balance of nutrients to compensate for the
excess alkaline mineral ions in the water. These nutrients are also much
more acidic to combat the buffering action of the bicarbonates.

The benefit of using this formulation is that you will not have to add
large amounts of adjusting chemicals to your nutrient in order to achieve
the correct pH. Also your plants will have a balanced nutrient solution
containing all the ingredients they require to thrive. This means that
your crop will grow up healthy with better growth and a superior yield.

Copyright (C) 2004, 2005, 2006.

J R Haughton.

— All Rights Reserved —

A partner in a thriving retail hydroponics supply business,
Rickie Haughton is the owner of hydroponics-gardening-information.com which aims to cater for all levels of expertise in the field of
hydroponics gardening. The website is packed with good content about
all aspects off hydroponics gardening and offers a free hydroponics
Club membership to all subscribers.

[tags]Water hardness, nutrients, hydroponics, pH, grower, hard water.[/tags]