Distilled Water?????

[DillaWilla]

I have heard that it is not good to use distilled water unless you are using it to germinate your seeds, is this correct? What I read is that distilled water although it is pure does not have enough trace elements and minerals to feed the plant during very early growth, and it is better to use plain bottled drinking water instead. I have been using distilled water with my 1st grow. I have 4 babies that are about 1.5 weeks old and I noticed that at about 1 week old all of the cotlydons (1st 2 round leaves) were yellowing and the plants were hardly growing. I read in another thread that it could be from the distilled water or a lack of nitrogen. Any way I mixed a weak gallon solution of Flora Nova (veg) and liquid karma and the babies have exploded and have all doubled in size in 3 days with the nutes. Does this sound right/good? And can I keep using the distilled water as long as I am mixing in the nutes? Your advice is appreciated

 

[Ad1]

Are you doing hydro?

After germination i use ro filtered water (should be the same as distilled water) and about 1/8 strength nutes and that works fine

 

[DillaWilla]

Ad1, I am using soil not hyrdo...premium potting soil with perlite, vermiculite, peat moss, etc...all the good stuff! My pH is around 6.0 I can't really gauge it exactly because I used one of those chemistry type shaker tests but it looked to by right on about 6.0-6.5 with nutes in soil...My plants are doing great now, I just wanted to clear the distilled water question up for my next batch of seedlings??? So basically my question is "Was it the distilled water that caused them to grow so slowly early on, and is it OK to introduce a low dose of nutes this early in the 2nd week of life"?
Thanks!

 

[Biffdoggie]

I don't think distilled and Ro are quite the same thing, I believe Ro will stilll leave some of the smaller stuff in there. A lot of people start feeding at two weeks, just go real easy on them.

 

[Ad1]

Hey Dilla Willa

I dont know much about soil (my speciality is hydro )

So you're better off listening to biffdog or someone else, i wouldnt want to give you any bad advice...

 

[DillaWilla]

Thanks guys, my four youngins are exploding every day....so I think I have it figured out! Once I added the nutes to the distilled water they took off, I will increase the amount of nutes in a few days... One last question though, when is a young plant no longer a seedling? My nutrient bottles have one dose for seedlings and a different dose for early vegative growth...now that my plants are almost 2 weeks old I am assuming they are no longer seedlings???? Thanks Guys

 

[Mutt]

I always went by the second node start of the third (about 14 days) to tell me its in early veg. but thats just my opinion. Ole ed says 10 days. in his book "Closet Cultivator". but that was too early for nutes for me.

 

[DillaWilla]

Thanks Mutt, that makes great sense to me!

 

[Kindbud]

Yeah I go bye the same thing you do but I usally
stop calling them sprouts when they start to branch
or when they get there 6 pair of 3 prounged leaves..
.. But thats just my opinion.