How to interpret a water test report

Irrigation water quality can make or break a garden farm.  But how to interpret a water test report?  This page will help you to understand the test report and will help you to flag potential problems.

“Salts” in irrigation water
Effects of salts in soils
Problems with salts in irrigation water
Cations and Anions, “salts”, commonly found in irrigation water
pH
Alkalinity
Hardness
Electrical Conductivity (EC) or Conductivity
Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) or Soluble Salts (Logan Labs saturated paste test) or Salt Concentration (Logan Labs water test)
Sodium Adsorption Ratio (SAR)
Adjusted Sodium Adsorption Ratio (SARadj)
Residual Sodium Carbonate (RSC)
Water infiltration
Cation/Anion Ratio
Boron
Chloride
References

“Salts” are soluble cations (negatively charged ions) and anions (positively charged ions).  Here we will concern ourselves with salts that are present in irrigation water, either from natural sources or added. 

• Note that “salts” in the context of irrigation water are not just sodium or sodium chloride, table salt.  They include all of the soluble cations and anions.  
• If irrigation water is high in salts, they will build up in the soil through repeated irrigations.  The only way to remove them is by periodically irrigating enough to move the dissolved salts downward through the soil profile below the root zone.  This is called “leaching”.  Some amount of salts will also be removed with the crop.

• With the exception of sodium, carbonates and bicarbonates, all cations and anions in the table below are necessary for plant growth.
• Yields may increase with increasing EC, up to a point.

• High soluble salts damage plants by osmotic effect.  Water will move from an area of lower salt concentration (the root) to an area of higher salt concentration (the soil).  This causes water stress even though there is plenty of water in the soil.
• Soluble salts can burn leaves when applied to foliage.
• Salt deposits can cause leaf and fruit discoloration, reducing crop quality and market value.
• If irrigation water supplies nitrogen in excess of the crop need, yield and quality may be reduced.
• High SAR (sodium adsorption ratio) may clog the soil pore structure and limit infiltration.
• Salts can accumulate in the soil, changing the nutrient balance of the soil.
• Tolerance of vegetables, fruits and herbaceous plants to salinity may be found at this FAO link.

• Cations (positively charges ions) and anions (negatively charged ions) are referred to as “salts” when dissolved in water.  In a water test, cation and anion concentrations in may be reported with units of ppm, mg/L or meq/L.  1 mg/L = 1 ppm.  The conversion to and from meq/L is given below.

  	Cations			Anions
  name	symbol	mg/meq1	name	symbol	mg/meq1
  Calcium	Ca2+	20	Chloride	Cl-	35.5
  Magnesium	Mg2+	12.2	Sulfate	SO42-	48 4
  Sodium	Na+	23	Bicarbonate	HCO3-	61
  Potassium	K+	39.1	Carbonate	CO32-	30
  			Nitrate	NO3-	62 3
  			Boron	B	10.8 2

  ^1. To convert from meq/L to mg/L or ppm, multiply by the conversion factor, e.g. 5 meq/L Ca = 5 * 20 = 100 ppm Ca.  To convert from ppm or mg/L to meq/L, divide by the conversion factor.^2. Boron can also be in several anionic and neutral forms in water.^3. To convert to the amount of nitrogen nutrient in nitrate, use a conversion factor of 14.^4. To convert to the amount of sulfur nutrient in sulfate, use a conversion factor of 32.1.Boron and chloride in excess in irrigation water can injure plants. See below.

• A measure of the balance of acidic hydrogen ions and alkaline hydroxide ions.
• pH of neutral, balanced water is 7.0.  pH ranges from 14 (very alkaline) to 0 (very acid).
• Water pH has an effect on availability of plant nutrients.
• Units. An increase or decrease in pH by 1 is a factor of 10x difference in hydrogen ion or hydroxide ion concentration. In math terms this is the negative log (base 10) concentration of H+ ions. In practice it is best to think of pH as having no units.
• Typically irrigation water should be in the range of 5.0 to 7.0 pH, depending on the crop.

• A measure of the ability of the soluble compounds in the water to neutralize acids.
• Bicarbonates and carbonates in the water have the greatest influence on alkalinity.
• Carbonates are not a factor for water with pH < 8.0.
• Units are ppm of calcium carbonate (CaCO₃) equivalent.  It may also be reported as meq/L (1 meq/L CaCO₃ = 50 ppm CaCO₃) or bicarbonate (HCO₃) equivalent (1 ppm CaCO₃ = 1.22 ppm HCO₃).
• Alkalinity that is too high is a problem because of bicarbonates reacting with soluble calcium or magnesium to produce insoluble calcium carbonate (ag lime) or magnesium carbonate, both of which may clog emitters, leave white spots on leaves or fruit, and reduce the amount of calcium and magnesium available for the plant.
• Alkalinity that is too low is a problem because it can allow the pH to swing wildly. There needs to be some buffer for pH swings.
• The alkalinity of water used for small pots is more critical than for large pots or in-ground plants.
• Alkalinity levels of 30-60 ppm are mentioned for greenhouse cannabis growers.

Alkalinity Levels (ppm CaCO3 equivalent)

• The sum of the molar concentration of Ca²⁺ and Mg²⁺.  When expressed in ppm or mg/L, it is the equivalent mass of calcium carbonate (CaCO₃) that, when dissolved in a unit volume of pure water, would result in the same total molar concentration of Ca²⁺ and Mg²⁺.
• Hardness is what produces scale in pipes, white spots on glassware and soap scum.
• Units are ppm (CaCO₃ equivalent), mg/L (1 ppm = 1 mg/L), grains per gallon or gpg (1 ppm = 0.05842 gpg).

Classification of hardness by University of Florida Extension:

• A measure of the bulk salinity of water.
• EC measures the ability of water to conduct electricity.  This is affected by the amount of dissolved salts or impurities.
• Units are micro-Siemens per cm (µS/cm) or milli-Siemens/cm (mS/cm). 1 mS/cm = 1000 µS/cm.  Units may also be written as mmho/cm (1 mmho/cm = 1 mS/cm) and deciSiemens/meter or dS/m (1 dS/m = 1 mS/cm).
• Seawater will have an EC of approximately 50 mS/cm while rain water will be near zero.
• EC is related to TDS.

• Salinity tolerance of vegetables, fruits and herbaceous plants may be found at this FAO link.
• A measure of the amount of substances that have been dissolved in the water.
• A true measurement involves evaporating the water and measuring the weight of the remaining solids.  However, a measurement of EC and a conversion factor will give a good approximation.  There are some dissolved solids that don’t contribute to EC but these are usually a small percentage.
• Units are parts per million (ppm) or milligrams per liter (mg/L).  1 ppm = 1 mg/L.
• TDS (ppm) = EC (dS/m) * 640, for EC between 0.1 and 5.0 dS/m.  TDS = EC (dS/m) * 800, for EC > 5.0 dS/m.
• Good quality water will be in the range of 0 to 600 ppm.  Readings over 1000 – 1200 ppm are unsatisfactory.

from: https://prod.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/nrcs144p2_067096.pdf

• Ratio of the concentration of sodium to the sum of calcium and magnesium in water.
• Sodium affects the ability of the soil to form clay aggregates and therefore affects the structure and permeability of the soil by clogging the soil’s pore structure.  High sodium in the water can create crusts on soil which reduce crop yield.
• The equation for SAR is below.  It is calculated using the concentration of Na, Ca and Mg in meq/L.  A conversion from ppm to meq/L is given under the discussion of cations and anions above.

• Units – SAR does not have units.

• Same as SAR except the calcium concentration is adjusted for the level of bicarbonate and EC of the water.
• An adjusted SAR should be calculated when levels of bicarbonate are greater than 1 meq/L.
• The adjusted Sodium Adsorption Ratio (adj SAR) can be calculated from the procedure given in Ayers and Westcot (1976): adj SAR = SAR [1 + (8.4 – pHc)]
• pHc is the theoretical pH that water could have if in equilibrium with CaCO₃.

• A relatively high SAR compared to a relatively low EC will give an irrigated soil a tendency to reduce the rate of water infiltration due to dispersion of clay particles in the soil.  The table below shows the levels of SAR and EC(irrigation water) where restrictions on use may occur.

  	EC (dS/cm)
  SAR	None	Slight to Moderate	Severe
  0 - 3	>0.7	0.7 - 0.2	less than 0.2
  3 - 6	>1.2	1.2 - 0.3	less than 0.3
  6 - 12	>1.9	1.9 - 0.5	less than 0.5
  12 - 20	>2.9	2.9 - 1.3	less than 1.3
  20 - 40	>5.0	5.0 - 2.9	less than 2.9

• Residual sodium carbonate (RSC) is a measure of the ratio of carbonate and bicarbonate to calcium and magnesium in the water. Too high a RSC will tend to precipitate calcium and magnesium from the soil, increasing the percentage of sodium and clogging air pores in clay soils. High RSC irrigation water should be treated with gypsum to supply additional calcium. Ref 1

• This number should be between 0.8 and 1.2 as an indication of an accurate water analysis.
• For water with very low levels of cations and anions this ratio is meaningless.

Relative tolerance of plants to Boron concentration in irrigation water

From https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-96190-3_5/tables/3

Chloride levels in irrigation waters and their effects on crops

From: Ref 1