WHAT IS CHLORINE?
Chlorine (Cl) is an essential chemical element for many forms of life and it can’t be found in nature in its pure state, usually appears combined with other elements and metals.
It’s a toxic gas with an unpleasant odor that, depending on the degree of concentration, can cause different effects on the human body: from irritations in the eyes and throat, cough, pain and/or burning in the chest to pneumonia and death.
USES OF CHLORINE
Chlorine has a large number of uses in industrial applications and processes, from disinfection and the creation of plastics to the manufacture of drugs, insecticides and dyes. It is used as a disinfectant for equipment, furniture, surgical equipment and hospital enclosures although its most widespread use is to eliminate bacteria, fungi, parasites and viruses in drinking water supplies and swimming pools.
Swimming pool water
HOW DOES THE USE OF CHLORINE AFFECT?
Water not only constitutes most of the weight of a plant and its fruits. In addition, it’s the main stream by which we can introduce without realizing it, substances to our plants that don’t suit them. By making them sick, reducing quantity and yield, decreasing the quality of crops and factors that directly affect such fundamental issues as the taste, aroma and nutritional properties of the fruits. That’s why almost all growers are aware of the importance of the quality of the water they will use in their crops.
Chlorine in water may also cause the appearance of different symptoms of deficiencies and/or excesses of some basic nutrients in the leaves, such as discoloration of older leaves by turning them more yellow or causing small spots to appear grey-brown.
Since chlorine kills all kinds of microbial life, it doesn’t make much sense to use beneficial microorganisms and/or organic fertilizers if we continue to use tap water without giving it any prior treatment. Chlorine does not discriminate against beneficial or malignant microbial life: it destroys them all.
BENEFITS OF USING WATER WITHOUT CHLORINE
Removing chlorine from tap water helps us better control the correct values within the appropriate pH ranges. Not all elements are assimilated with the same efficacy, so it is recommended to use a range of 6.0 to 7.0 since the intermediate value 6.5 (which is the neutral pH), is with which the nutritional elements can be absorbed broadly. Remember that pH values tend to increase as the plant grows. In growth and vegetative phase, we will start with values around 6.0 and increase them to values of 6.4-6.5 until their final phase.
It allows to increase the bioavailability of plants to obtain a greater and optimal absorption of nutrients at different stages of their life cycles.
We protect soil and organic fertilizers that contain beneficial microorganisms, as the latter help to enrich the substrate by better and more quickly transforming the assimilation of organic matter into soluble food for plants.
