Perfect Water for your Recirculating Living Wall

Start with Water Testing

To provide the best possible water for your living walls you first need to be able to test your water. Fortunately is very easy to use simple electronic meters to find out what’s going on.

Test for EC

EC stands for Electrical Conductivity and will let you know the amount of dissolved minerals in your water. This might include the calcium carbonate your local municipality added to the water to protect your plumbing or the amount of fertilizer you add to your water.

EC FACTS

• Try to keep your water as low as possible with a EC number near 50ppm
• Water from Municipalities is typically served to you at 50ppm
• Well water or hard water can be much higher
• Use a filter to help reduce minerals
• EC will go up over time as you add Fertilizers
• Plants you buy may have time release fertilizer in their soil which will increase EC in your water

Test for pH

pH is the measure how acid or basic your water. A low number, less than 7 means your water is acidic. A high number, greater than 7 means your water is basic. It is very important to maintain a pH of 6 to 7 for most plants. If the measurement is higher or lower than this, your plants will suffer and not receive nutrients from the water. Always keep your pH within this range.

PH FACTS

• Try to maintain a pH of 6 to 7
• pH above our below 6 to 7 will make it difficult for plants to absorb nutrients
• Change your water every couple of months to provide optimal water for your plants
• Use a filter to remove minerals from you water that affect pH
• Use ph Up or pH down to adjust pH

Easy to use pH and EC testing meters

Start Fresh with filtered water

Why should I filter my water for living walls?

Many water municipalities add calcium carbonate to the water supply to prevent corrosion in the pipes. This will make the water basic or a high pH. Not only will excess minerals build up as salts in the system but also high pH will prevent nutrients from being absorbed by the roots. Therefore it is important to filter water that is used to irrigate living walls.

Pre-filter your water with an inline water filter