You know clean water in your Gardyn is important, and you also know tap water is the best type of water you can add to your Gardyn. If you want to learn more about water quality - keep reading!
What is water quality and why is it important?
Water quality refers to the suitability of water for a particular purpose - in Gardyn's case, the suitability of water to grow plants in a hybriponic system. We measure suitability based on water's chemical, physical, and biological characteristics.
What is pH?
pH, which stands for "potential of hydrogen", is a measure of how acidic or basic water is. pH levels are measured from 0 to 14, with 7 being neutral. A pH level less than 7 indicates acidic water, whereas a pH level greater than 7 indicates basic water.
Your water's pH level is the single most determinant factor for the health of your Gardyn system because pH determines which essential nutrients a plant can absorb.
What is EC?
EC stands for electrical conductivity. When nutrients dissolve in water, they break into ions, enabling water to conduct electricity. EC is measuring that electrical charge, providing an insight into the total available nutrients in the water.
While EC is a general estimate of the strength of the nutrients in water, it does not provide details like nutrient types present, or individual nutrient levels.
How do pH and EC work together?
The pH dictates whether or not the nutrients in your water, or your EC reading, are available for the plant to absorb. By controlling pH, you help ensure your plants can absorb the nutrients they need.
How do pH and EC affect my Gardyn?
We understand Gardyners have different kinds of water available to them depending on where they live. We also know that each plant has a specific pH range for optimal growth, and that most Gardyners grow a variety of plants at once.
This is where our plant food and HydroBoost come in. Both formulas are specially designed to create a well-balanced pH and EC for a range of tap waters and plant varieties that allows all of your Gardyn plants to get the nutrients they need.
What else affects water quality in my Gardyn?
We recommend adding HydroBoost weekly and refreshing your tank monthly as essential steps to managing your pH and EC.
If you have four or more fruiting plants on your Gardyn, like Tomatoes, Peppers, or Cucumbers, it's best to refresh your tank more often (up to every 14 days) and add HydroBoost more often (up to every 3 days) to help keep nutrient ratios in check.
By making these tank refreshes a routine, you're helping your Gardyn reset with a perfectly balanced nutrient blend, a pH that allows for optimal nutrient absorption, and the removal of any unwanted salt build-up.
Topping off your tank weekly with 1/2 tsp plant food dissolved per 1 gallon of water also helps your Gardyn readjust its pH level and maintain the proper EC level throughout the month. For healthiest growth, we recommend keeping your tank at or above 50% at all times.
Questions? Reach us at support@mygardyn.com, or chat with us. We're here to help!