Need help with S/H

[Jerry Delaney]

After seeing all of the posts here and other forums, I have decided to give S/H a go. Kind of hard after growing the "conventional" way for 30 some years. I have some questions that I am sure that the S/H growers can help me with.

1. TDS - I am some what concerned about my tap water for S/H. The TDS of my tap water will vary from a low of ~150 ppm to 230 ppm. I do not use RO and have no problem with salt build up but have observed in the past where the TDS were much higher that salt build up is usually worse with completely inorganic mediums. With this level of TDS should I be concerned about salt build up?

2. Fertilizer - I will most likely be using Technigro 17-5-24 Plus. This fertilizer does not contain a Calcium source. With the TDS levels mentioned above, do I need to add a Calcium supplement?

3. pH - The pH of my tap water is in the high 8's. At 100-125 ppm of N, the pH after running through the porportioner is 6.7-6.8. I think I would prefer it to be around 6.0 (any comments about this pH?). Does anyone out there adjust the pH down and if so what do you use?

4. My collection is quite mixed (I suffer from "one of" disease) but heavy into Catts, intergeneric Oncidiums, and Phrags.

Any guidance will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.