Cultivating cannabis requires attention to detail if you want to maximize your yield. Oxidation reduction potential, known as ORP, is a way to measure water and its ability to release or accept electrons during chemical reactions. That sounds agriculturally technical and it is. However, understanding ORP value can be a crucial factor for cannabis growers, helping them to understand their water's quality and whether or not they should make changes or offer treatments in order to improve their crop. Here, we'll explore ORP and how you can leverage it when growing cannabis.
High or Low ORP: What Does It Mean and Why Does It Matter?
To understand ORP is to keep in mind the oxidation process. Oxidation refers to the loss of electrons. Reduction, as in oxidation reduction potential, refers to the gain of electrons. Oxidation and reduction occur together. For our purposes, helping growers to cultivate a more successful cannabis crop, were focused on water's ability to gain electrons. A high ORP means that the water has greater potential to gain electrons than a water with a low ORP.
But what else does this mean? Usually, when water has more oxidation reduction potential, it has more oxidizing agents such as microorganisms or organic fertilizers. In other words, it has more bacteria. In swimming pools, spas, and drinking water, we expect to find as little bacteria as possible. But in plant irrigation, it gets trickier. Dead or sterile water–with no bacteria–isn’t necessarily ideal for plants. On the other hand, water that is alive with a substantial concentration of bacteria, potentially harmful bacteria, can detract greatly from a crop’s health.
Let's explain further. Water with a high ORP has a more significant ability to kill microorganisms, rendering the liquid less conducive to bacteria. So, the higher the ORP, the more sterile the water. If you are concerned about bacteria that can affect your crop, high ORP is naturally important to you, and you should take steps to monitor the ORP to achieve your growing goals.
ORP and Your Cannabis Crop
When you measure your water’s ORP and it has a low ORP reading (read in mV), it typically indicates that there is a significant amount of organic matter in the water. If you are growing your cannabis in a sterile environment, as some growers prefer to, you naturally want to maintain water with a higher ORP. If you're growing cannabis in a hydroponic setting where there is lots of recirculating water, organic compounds “bacteria“ are going to generate naturally, so you'll have to add in oxidizing agents to raise your water's ORP, helping it to maintain its sterility. A popular oxidizing additive in this regard is hypochlorous acid, which is known to increase ORP without any safety risks for humans or the cannabis plants.
On the other hand, if you are growing your cannabis crop in an organic setting, you may want your water to have a low ORP. In these cases, growers actually add beneficial bacteria. Water with a high ORP will kill that beneficial bacteria. So, if your ORP is too high, you'll be forced to add more of that beneficial bacteria to stimulate your crop's growth. If you find yourself adding more good bacteria like mycorrhizae to your nutrient solutions, there's a good chance that your waters ORP has too much killing power.
Making Growing Decisions Based on ORP
Measuring ORP is another way to gauge the environment that your crop is growing in–on a molecular level. For some growers, this may be too technical and not important enough to gauge in reference to their growing purposes. However, when growing larger crops and trying to maximize crop yield with an eye toward profit, ORP takes on a more important role in crop production.
In order to make strategic growing decisions based on ORP, you'll need an ORP meter and a reliable method for removing unwanted bacteria. Too much organic material, remember, can lead to large colonies of potentially dangerous bacteria such as pathogens that cause conditions like root rot. Measuring ORP helps you maintain a level of sterility that's conducive to your disease-free growing setting.
Under normal growing conditions, many cannabis growers prefer to sustain an ORP reading that's about 420 mV. It's a safe level and effective. It's usually the ideal reading for a hydroponic system and is known to keep those potentially harmful pathogens at bay. On the other hand, if you have evidence that your environment contains significant colonies of root rot pathogens, you could raise that ORP to 680 mV in order to kill the dangerous bacteria. In most cases, water with a high ORP like this will kill those pathogens, even E. coli, in about three seconds.
Of course, it's much more challenging to harness the power of ORP when you're growing in an organic environment when you want to support colonies of good bacteria. But knowing that you can use water with a high ORP when a threat is perceived is a helpful tool in your growing kit. When making ORP adjustments, you have to remember that the more sterile the water, the more killing power it has. It will take out your beneficial microorganisms as well as the harmful ones.
Products That Help Control ORP
Many cannabis growers invest in root drip products that deliver irrigation and electrochemical treatments all in one. Root Drip is crucial to have on hand if you are growing cannabis at scale. You can safely use a product like this to flush your plant roots to create a clean root zone. If you're facing a root rot threat or some other pathogen that affects your crops roots, you need a reliable means to help you, quite literally, save your plants. You can purchase Root Drip in quantities that you need. With their non-toxic composition and neutral pH, these products give you a growing edge that helps you maximize your cannabis yield.
If you’re a cannabis grower, you can rely on FloraFlex for its wide range of growing products, including Root Drip. Just getting started growing cannabis? FloraFlex sells helpful growing kits that include what you need to get your crop going. As you develop your green thumb, you can expand your cannabis garden if you choose and even explore the business opportunities associated with cannabis cultivation.
For many growers, learning about the more technical elements of cannabis cultivation comes in time as they expand their crop. FloraFlex offers helpful advice and products designed to support your growing goals whether they’re small-scale or large scale. Contact us if you have questions about specific products or place your order today.
Oxidation Reduction Potential FAQs
Why should I worry about my water’s ORP?
If you're concerned about the quality of your crop irrigation water, you're concerned about ORP. Whether you know it or not, your water can support bacterial life or kill it. Water with a high ORP will kill both good and bad bacteria alike, and that may be conducive to your growing environment. However, if you are growing cannabis in an organic environment, sterile water–water with a high ORP is not going to be conducive to your environment because it will take out the beneficial bacteria that you add to the growing environment.
On the other hand, if your cannabis crop is facing a dangerous pathogen, water with a low ORP could be causing or exacerbating the problem. If you want to maximize your cannabis crop yield, tuning into your water's ORP is an important factor to include in your plant care routine.
I’m concerned my crop is facing a root rot threat. What should I do?
If you have evidence of root rot in your marijuana crop, you should definitely take action. Raising the ORP of your water can help but there are also products like Root Drip that can help you safely flush away dangerous pathogens from your plants root systems. Root rot is a potentially deadly disease that can decimate your crop if you don't get a handle on it. Root Drip can help. You may also want to adjust your water's ORP going forward to prevent another dangerous pathogen colony from emerging.
Why do I need to add more microorganisms or organic material to my cannabis crop?
If you are growing cannabis in an organic setting and find that you need to add more helpful microorganisms than before, your water might have a high ORP. Water with a high ORP has more killing power than water with a low ORP. When your high ORP water comes into contact with your healthful bacteria, it is likely killing them along with potentially dangerous bacteria. You can lower the ORP of your water; just remember that lowering the ORP can also open the door for those potential lethal bacteria to emerge. You'll want to keep an eye out for any problems.
