yes, we are lucky. i think it's typical to have around 400 ppm. one issue
here is that you basically need to use an RO fertilizer as our water is
practically devoid of the micro and not so micro (ca and mg) nutrients as
well.
"Bolero" wrote in message
u...
Well then in seattle you wouldn't need RO water either?
I have just never heard of anyone needing to use that stuff to grow plants
before.
Maybe we are just lucky..........;-)
"Jerry Hoffmeister" wrote in message
news
gSIa.92366$YZ2.263864@rwcrnsc53...
here in seattle it's in the 30s 
"Bolero" wrote in message
u...
Wow I just use water out of the tap here. Our total dissolved salts
and
minerals is around 60 to 80ppm.
"James Aldridge" wrote in message
...
Just as a general water note, I spent five years trying to maintain
a
medium-sized orchid greenhouse in north Texas using well water with
an
EC of about 1800 uS/cm (roughly 1300 ppm TDS). It didn't work very
well for most plants. Small RO systems, even those billed at 75 GPD,
didn't provide enough water. I finally spent nearly 2K for a 350 GPD
pumped RO system from SpectraPure (www.spectrapure.com) and my
plants
couldn't be happier.
I soften the well water with a KCl ion exchange softener (though I
think NaCl would be ok too), and then send it to the RO system. I
end
up with water having an EC of 35 uS/cm (about 25 ppm TDS).
I recently started using the Michigan State RO Water Special
fertilizer (www.blackmoreco.com) featured in the June issue of
Orchids
magazine. I'm now using a dose that delivers about 125 ppm N, but I
am
thinking about halving this dose. Any thoughts?
Jim
James Aldridge, Fort Worth, Texas, USA
- www.JamesAldridge.us
- www.FWCDS.org