Thread: what water?
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Old 02-03-2007, 05:10 PM
orchid126
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There shouldn't be a problem using bottled water. It depends on what kind you use. First, there's spring water which can be from any spring anywhere in the country. The mineral content (TDS or total disolved solids) will vary from brand to brand. Second, there's purified water or reverse osmosis water (R/O) whch has most of the impurities filtered out of it, and last there is distilled water, which is absolutely pure.

Spring water will have minerals in it, and a regular fertilizer would be okay to use with it. But the purified water may have barely a trace of minerals, and the distilled water has none at all. With the last two, minerals would have to be added back to them to make them useful for plants. Fertilizer that has all the trace minerals in it should be used with them.

My tap water is very high in minerals (TDS), even higher once I add fertilizer to it, making it too high for orchids, so I use half rain or r/o water and half tap water, and that seems to work okay for me. Your water might be okay to use as it is, if you could learn the TDS of it. Then fertilizer will have to be factored in.

Last edited by orchid126; 02-03-2007 at 05:18 PM.
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