Is anyone using RO water?

[orchidea]

I was just wondering if there is someone who is using Reverse Osmosis water to water their orchids, and if there are real benefits in doing that...
There are recommendations to use "pure" water for my new Phrag besseae. I have read that Paphs like pure water as well. So I was just wondering if it's worth getting the RO system instead of running to the store to get distilled or pure water all the time.
Any thoughts or suggestions there, please????????????

P.S. I do have a special fert for RO water that I am using with distilled water I bought in the store for right now..........
My TDS meter is showing about 200-300ppm in my regular tap water. It shows 300-400ppm if I take distilled water and add RO fert........

[-k-]

I use R/O for my orchids, and have had much success, I alternate with rain water when possible and tap water when I run out of R/O water. Can't really say all too much about the benefits only that my plants seem to like it. We have a R/O machine at work, I fill up a few gallons each week.

[englandfx]

not using RO

[Ray]

I switched to 100% RO usage about ten years ago. Within weeks my plants looked shinier and healthier, and I've never looked back.

I started carrying replacement membranes and filters because the normal retail channels were way too expensive, and now do systems, as well.

[kmarch]

Over the years I've grown all sorts of phrags including besseae and besseae hybrids using tap water. They grew and flowered well. Neither distilled nor RO water is necessary although it might be a good idea to have your tap water tested or ask other growers in your area if the tap water is good.

[orchidea]

Thank you everyone.

I do have TDS meter, and my tap water shows 150-180 ppm, which is not too bad. But my problem is that the guy who sold me my besseae told me that this particular orchid prefers no more than 20 ppm....
Now I feel so bad that I was lazy and didn't collect more snow........ My snow water shows wooping 4 ppm!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Brooke]

You can do what I did before we collected rain water. I used regular tap water to do a heavy flush of my phrags but then did a secondary lighter flush with the distilled. I then used the distilled for the saucer water.

Remember phrags are very light feeders and will show their displeasure with brown leaf tips even with pure water if you fertilize too heavily.

Brooke

[yokurt]

hmm, there's been quite a lot of controversy surrounding RO water as it is completerly devoid of biological (thank god) and ionic components.

lack of biological components may be okay, but you may want to worry about the lack in ionic components. This type of water tends to strip plants and humans alike of metal salts like Calcium and Magnesium, which can be detrimental to health in the long run.

However, i guess it would be probably safe to use if you enriched the water by adding back the lost minerals.

[Ray]

I NEVER water with straight RO, but always add a complete, but dilute fertilizer.

[BuckeyeFieldSupply]

Originally Posted by yokurt

hmm, there's been quite a lot of controversy surrounding RO water as it is completerly devoid of biological (thank god) and ionic components.

lack of biological components may be okay, but you may want to worry about the lack in ionic components. This type of water tends to strip plants and humans alike of metal salts like Calcium and Magnesium, which can be detrimental to health in the long run.

However, i guess it would be probably safe to use if you enriched the water by adding back the lost minerals.

We'll differ with you on this.

RO water has fewer dissolved solids that tap water, but sure isn't "devoid" of dissolved solids.

What you're describing is deionized water - this is a process that often begins with RO water as the feedwater.

Russ

[Ray]

Quite correct, Russ. A typical RO membrane is pretty good at removing roughly 96% of dissolved solids, so even if your incoming water is fairly low, it's still going to have something in it.

However, while you are not likely to strip nutrients from plants, they do need nutrition, so you always need to add it (but not necessarily at every watering as I do). For drinking purposes, RO water tastes terrible, primarily due to the slight acidity brought about by absorption of carbon dioxide, so adding a mineralizer cartridge (mostly calcium carbonate or dolomite) to neutralize that and re-add some minerals, helps a great deal.

[fred]

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[Rivka]

i have been looking into getting RO or another very good filtering system, my warted clearly has too much resolved solids in it, i see it building up on everything in my house.
my question is, is there any decent system to remove these things besides a RO system? I am not a fan of the wasteful nature of RO systems and as a renter i dont have a great place to intel one, though I'm sure i could find away around that issue if need be.

[skipper]

I am blessed with very soft water. My tap water measures anywhere from 35-40ppm. I have started lowering the PH of my water down into the mid 6 range. I know that RO water has a slight acid PH level, and wounder if the better results are inpart do to that factor. I don't know the answer to that, but it may be a factor.

Dale

[BuckeyeFieldSupply]

Removing TDS is most cost effectively done by reverse osmosis. You could use mixed bed DI resin, but the costs would be much higher.

Russ

[orchids4me]

Can you designate the R/O system to say a specific location meaning not evey faucet in your home will dispense it. Just one faucet perhaps?

[BuckeyeFieldSupply]

That IS a typical set up.

Otherwise you are talking about a whole-house system which is probably something you don't want to get into.

Russ