Quote Originally Posted by justlovingit420
water with a dish washing liquid which will clean the tips of the roots in case of salt build up .....theres alot of amatuer growers here that dont know what theyre talkin about

Whoa. Back easy there.

From Stinky Attic the Chemist:

Dish soap, or any type of soap for that matter, is useless for 'cleaning' salts off your roots.
It is good for dirty dishes.

Salts can sometimes, depending upon their solubility, be dissolved in a SHITLOAD of water. Otherwise you need a chelating agent. It comes from the Greek for 'claw' and is a chemical that grabs ions and makes them less reactive, thus unable to combine into their insoluble salt form and fall out of solution into your dirt. Sample chelating agents are Oxalic acid or EDTA.

If you have salt buildup, there are chelating products on the market that are safe to add to your plant water. And some fertilizer companies are smart and make ferts with the chelated form of whatever it is.

Chelated Iron is a really common one, because as the oxide, it falls out of solution as iron oxide, or rust.

Dish soap has no place in your watering scheme. It is not good for the soil- you need certain bacteria and fungi that live on and around the roots, which, if not present, organic material in the soil is far less available to the plants and you might as well just stick them in a pot of hydroton.

OMG you just got me going on a rant. I hate it when newbs with a post count of like 4 come on here and start spewing that there's so much misinformation and THEIR way is PROFESSIONAL.....

Fuckin A.