70 Most Recent Posts
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| 70 Most Recent Posts |
04-30-2008, 09:08 PM
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| Watering Hi! I've been watering my orchids with tap water that I leave sitting out for a few days before watering. I read that was a good thing to do. I was just wondering if it really is the best option when it comes to watering with tap water, or if there is something even better that I could do, or if I really even need to do this at all. Thanks!      |
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04-30-2008, 09:39 PM
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| Except for one very small orchid (Den. cuthbertsonii), and one mounted one that I mist regularly, I use tap water right out of the tap for everything else. I'm curious to hear what others do, too. |
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04-30-2008, 09:52 PM
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| I water only with distilled water, except in times of desperation(when I forget to buy some). If you water with tap water, make sure you water thouroughly every time so that salts and minerals do not build up and kill the roots. I have no clue why leaving the tap water out would help, what would be the benefit?
__________________ - Aaron  |
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04-30-2008, 10:41 PM
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| The reason to leave tap water out overnight is to release chlorine from the water. It is important in areas where high chlorine levels are added to the city water. Throughout the Northeast United States the chlorine levels are very high. In more rural areas the chlorine level can be very low. You can contact your water company to learn the levels they use. Dissolved mineral slats will be higher in well water than most city tap water. High dissolved salts can damage roots, but before that they inhibit the plants ability to absorb micro nutrients that are important for the plant. This is not an issue of tap water alone. My Ag rep recommended that I use water softener water to water the orchids, with the precaution of running the rinse cycle of the softener twice.
__________________ jerry  |
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04-30-2008, 11:57 PM
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| Water quality varies with location so the best people to ask are your water suppliers. Some water supplies are OK for even the most salt sensitive orchids while others are completely unusable. Water suppliers should analyse their water regularly so check with them to see if you can get hold of a water quality report. Check the concentrations of individual salts as well as the TDS. As the TDS of the water can change over the course of a year it probably worth seeing if you can get reports for each season. Once you know the TDS and take note of any salts that seem high people can give you a better idea of whether and/or how you should use your tapwater. As Jerry said letting water stand will get get rid of chlorine from the water. However, many suppliers treat the water supply with chloramine instead of chlorine which can not be removed by letting the water stand. Check with your supplier regarding what is added. |
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05-01-2008, 12:14 AM
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| I use straight tap water. The water in this area is hard, lots of minerals, so I use lots of water to keep the minerals from building up. The only time I let my water sit for 24 hours is if I want to mix a batch of worm tea. The directions say to do that to get the chlorine out. |
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05-01-2008, 03:28 AM
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| Actually straight distilled water are not enough on the long run, it is recommended to add at least a 1/3 of tap or well water to the distilled water. I have a hundred liter tank for the spraying and the watering of my green house, and i add daily about 10 liter of distilled water; the automatic system uses about 25 liters per day, and the plants are very happy. Itamar |
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05-01-2008, 03:42 AM
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| I only water with tap water, but I give a really good soaking to remove dissolved salts and old fertilizer. If I have time I water again 20 minutes later. I've noticed the tips of the leaves don't burn anymore since I've been doing that  |
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05-01-2008, 05:57 AM
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| Guys, I'm not being smarter-than-thou in this post, however I actually have academic credentials relating to this issue. That does not mean that I know more than anyone else with experience on the subject, but it does mean that I'm trying to talk science and avoid some of the misinformation that is prevalent on the internet and unfortunately gets repeated over and over and becomes faith based belief. Hopefully you will take it as offered...an effort to present some scientific facts. Unfortunately my history with facts on internet forums leaves me a little gun shy which is why this preamble is so lengthy. Chlorine in the water supply will not hurt your plants. Chlorine in the water supply is volatile and will gradually vaporize out of water left standing for couple of days. Because of that shelf life issue, water companies have largely quit using chlorine to prevent biological growth in treated water. They now use a chemical commonly referred to as chloramine. Think of it as a combination of chlorine and ammonia. It is not volatile and will not not vaporize from the water left standing. It also will not hurt your plants, but as many of you know will kill fish and must be treated before use in aquariums or ponds (previously chlorinated water for fish could be treated by standing around in an open container). Second issue...hard water and orchids. So called hard water is water containing dissolved salts from the earth that have low overall solubility...mainly the carbonate salts of magnesium and calcium. Both these elements are used by plants, but the problem is that they deposit onto your planting medium as the water evaporates. Since they are only slightly soluble, they are difficult to remove once they deposit. Thus the very good advice to minimize this accumulation of harmful salts by flushing frequently. Third water softeners...here is the real danger. Many companies provide water softeners to homeowners in hard water areas to improve the ability of the water to make soap suds and prevent "bathtub rings" which are the same magnesium and calcium salts we are talking about here. Water softeners work by taking magnesium and calcium ions out of solution and substituting sodium ions which are very harmful to your plants. So you remove Ca and Mg which are OK for the plants (as long as you minimize insoluble deposits) and substitute Na (sodium) which which is deadly to plants. NEVER use softened water for plants, not even once. RO (reverse osmosis) and distillation remove all ions from solution and provide excellent water for orchids. Be sure to use a fertilizer that replaces some of the Ca and Mg which now is not in your water. RO is pretty wasteful, but it works. Be careful because units are rated on input water capacity, not output of pure water. So a 100 gal/day RO unit uses 100 gal of water daily and wastes 66 gallons and makes 33 gallons of pure water. Distilled water from WalMart is 64 cents a gallon and I have tested it to be sure it is distilled and it is.....not spring water...not some other kind of hyped water..distilled water. I use rainwater collected off my GH roof. In a pinch, distilled water is great. Tap water is OK as long as you flush thoroughly every watering. Leaving water sit out does nothing. DO NOT use softened water. RO is great, but expensive to obtain if you need much. Thank you who actually got this far. Last edited by JLu; 05-01-2008 at 06:46 AM. |
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05-01-2008, 06:59 AM
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| Excellent information JLu. Thanks for the post. I have been using tap water with thorough flushings and have had no problems. I do use distilled water when I make up my worm tea for misting.
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05-01-2008, 07:53 AM
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| Sandra, be sure you use a fertilizer with Ca and Mg included such as MSU for pure water. There are others and they usually say Cal-Mag or something similar. In spite of the problems of hard water, your plants still need Ca and Mg, just less than hard water provides and the complications it causes. |
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05-01-2008, 08:50 AM
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05-01-2008, 12:22 PM
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| I add 60 ml of tap water mixed with fert to every gallon of my distilled water. But sometimes I skip this for a good residue flush. Edit: Yes, I vote sticky for JLu's info!
__________________ - Aaron Last edited by made4engineering; 05-01-2008 at 12:25 PM. |
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05-02-2008, 01:54 PM
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| EXCELLENT post JLu!! Very informative and in terms everyone can understand and make useful. I have been leaving a gallon out to dissipate the clhorine for use when making worm tea. I'll be switching to distilled for this purpose from now on. Thanks!! Stick-y! Stick-y! Stick-y!
__________________ "Women who obey seldom make history." |
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05-02-2008, 02:13 PM
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| After I checked with my water company and learned what the TDS of my water is, my watering method changed. I realized that if I added fertilizer to my water, the TDS became much too high for the plants. So I now use half tap and half distilled or purified water. The only time I use all tap water is when I give the plants the monthly plain water flush because without fertilizer the water is okay to use. |
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05-02-2008, 02:46 PM
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| 11orchid, I've been told that the NYC water is very soft (low in TDS). Your water is probably sourced differently. What is your TDS? The other thing you need to know is the pH. Usually water with high TDS is also too high in pH. The fertilizer, if formulated properly (like MSU for whatever they call it...not pure water formula) will lower the pH. In order for all the nutrients to be available to the plant (in other words all in solution at the same time) you need a pH in the 5.5 to 6.5 range (ideally 5.8 to 6.2) for your mixed fertilizer solution. Based on what you are doing, you are probably alright. Sounds like you have a good plan. |
