The white is likely calcium, making your water hard, not an issue if you ignore soaker hoses and your soap choices. Ask locally how veggies respond to water softeners available in your area - and often adding a sodium product at the wrong concentration makes plants unhappy as too much sodium makes plant metabolism difficult (why there are no plants in salt flats).

Dan

Hard water can increase the ph of your soil but it's probably not an issue unless you start getting close to 8.5 depending upon what you grow.

Have you had the soil PH tested?

I have not tested the soil PH. I'm mostly concerned for my vegetable garden which is in raised beds with really good soil in them.

I have six "stations" of intricate soaker hose set up for the 2500 square foot garden and I'm just wondering if it's the hard water that's clogging them (they have a whitish hue to them now).

I'll research water softeners a bit more and let you all know what we decide.

Thanks!
Charlene

and I'm just wondering if it's the hard water that's clogging them (they have a whitish hue to them now).

Most likely yes from info provided. You'll want to run vinegar or similar weak acid solution through system.

Dan

If you want to check out finding a way to soften your water. There is a new product out called EZ water, it is all done with electronics instead of hauling those bags of salt. We bought one of those water softener systems and now they come out with this system which cost 1/10 the price and there is not work and it can be installed by the average home owner. I do hope no one thinks I am trying to sell these product just offering a suggestion IF someone in interested. I never had a problem when I live in the Denver area but down here we have to thing twice about our water.

Definately make sure about the type of water softener. If any form of sodium whatsoever is used, it will be unsuitable for plants, even houseplants. Potassium-based salts are fine, as are the newer systems that Wally-1936 mentions.

Personally, I don't understand the whole water softening business, unless the hard water is causing COSTLY damage. Water softening of course has a regular operating cost and is a constant drain of resources. You might spend that money instead on a nice rainwater harvesting/storage/irrigation system to provide the very best water to your plants (even if Colorado has some insane law against storing it in containers -- they do allow harvesting it as runoff directly in the soil, however).

Try googling "Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands", an excellent series of books and a website on the subject.

Soft water will eventually destroy your garden, it happened to my father in laws garden after 4 to 5 years of watering with it. His tomato plants would die before they even got to set fruit, all kinds of pests and blights plagued everything. He got his soil tested and the said TOO HIGH SALT, too low magnesium and calcium. Which that is what a softener does, takes out good and puts in bad. He had heart attack years later too, another minor side effect of prolonged soft water abuse

I can certainly see that use of watersoftners of the type described would cause the soil to become unusable, but are you sure that drinking "water softened" water or eating food grown with it (considering that there wasn't much grown with it after the soil got too high in salts) caused his heart attack, oliverisaac? I am not a doctor or in the medical profession, but that seems a bit of a - stretch - on the other hand, if it kills plants..... (Sorry he had health issues, though.) And if the softened water was the cause of his heart attack, sounds as if companies selling the systems better start trumpeting some disclaimers to the effect that water softening "makes your water taste better and keeps your soaker hoses from clogging up, but could cause death - both yours and your plants - by salt overdose."

Either way, I am glad that I don't have such a system. Dealing with what nature has given us here - in my case, alkaline clay soil, , drying winds, temperature extremes, not enough or too much water - and all of it alkaline - is enough without me adding something else detrimental to the mix.

And there is a new law in Colorado that is supposed to take effect in August - why they are waiting until almost the end of the growing season is anyone's guess - that will finally allow homeowners to use rain barrels to collect rain that falls on their house roofs - YAY! (I have been illegally using one for years now - please don't send the water police to my house.)

I would do as suggested by Dan - soak your soaker hoses in a weak solution of vinegar and water to remove the calcium buildup and just continue to use the water that comes out of your taps as is.

Holly