I need your water knowledge.

[The Dharma Bum]

I have water with a significant lime content. The pH is neutral to slightly high. I need water with no lime at 4.5 to 5.5 ph. I don't mind retaining traces amounts of copper, boron etc. Maybe 3-5 gals a day for 5 my satsuki azaleas.

I'm thinking reverse osmosis is the way to go because I am tired of buying spring water.

Anyone know about this stuff? I need an adequate solution stat!

[Spider]

Azaleas. Suuure.

Be careful with RO water. You can take the traces out, sure, but then your left with very pure water, bereft of needed minerals, which has zero ability to buffer. So the instant it comes into contact with the soil, its going to have wild pH swings and start sucking up minerals. So if you want pH stable water...RO is not the way to go. Found this out the hard way when I playing with a reef aquarium a few years back. Could be less critical for plants, dunno, considering that anything the water does will be naturally buffered by the soil and its mineral content.

Lime is basically just carbonate. Normal water softener might be the way to go. Sodium salts to counteract the calcium carbonate. If you do thing think with the hydroxide, your going to get precipitates. Don't throw that stuff on the plants. leave it in the bottom of the bucket.

You can get lime water at walmart usually. That's where I used to get it when I was dealing with shitty well water when I was kid, in the middle of nowhere, trying to keep tropical fish alive. (They usually died anyways) Its way the hell cheaper than an RO setup, thats for sure.

[Stratego]

Add some baking powder to neutralize the lime.

[The Dharma Bum]

[The Dharma Bum]

[The Dharma Bum]

Plus I have some carnivorous plants and they can't tolerate any mineral content whatsoever.

[The Dharma Bum]

Also, in regard to buffering issue you mentioned the soil pH is carefully regulated. I use special clay soil from Japan called Kanuma as a base and it is 4.5-5.5 ph so if the water and that soil are in that range that's the kill zone. I have electronic soil and water ph test kits.

You see, where I live everything is limestone so it is the exact opposite environment from what I need for some of my favorite specimens. So I have to carefully monitor and control the ph of my slightly acid loving azaleas, gardenias, and VFTs. The rest I can water from the hose.

[The Dharma Bum]

Open to any ideas.

[Stratego]

[The Dharma Bum]

lol