truth or myth???

[ryanjoe888]

i live in the philippines and rice is the staple food here. you wash rice before you cook it (steamed rice) rite? and the water that you get in washing the rice is said to be good in watering the orchids... anyone know if this is really good???

[Ron]

i live in the philippines and rice is the staple food here. you wash rice before you cook it (steamed rice) rite? and the water that you get in washing the rice is said to be good in watering the orchids... anyone know if this is really good???

Hi Ryanjoe888.

I have never heard of it being as a fertiliser.
Personally I suspect it would just glue up the potting mix over a short time.
The contents of the water would be mainly carbohydrates as a glue/starch form.
My $1 worth.
Lots of other more reliable and cheep forms of natural manures you could use
diluted aged cow, sheep, horse manures are a cheep alternative.

Cheerio
Ron

[bkim]

Funny. When I was growing up we would water our garden with the water from rice washing. But I think it was to conserve water more than anything because it was during a drought.

[jerrymeola]

Certainly any organic matter washing from the rice especially vitamins would be beneficial to an orchid. There is just no way to know how much nutrition is being received by the plant

[Ron]

Hi Ryanjoe888.

I would take it you are washing prehulled rice ready to cook.
As I am no expert cook, but my wife said she always pre-washes her rice to clean it and wash of any excess starch on from being processed.
Maybe just another urban myth too.

As for using it in the garden, in my parents days the had only rainwater (from there own tanks) to use in the house & garden
With 8 kids we reused all the so called "grey" water on the vegie garden includeing wahing up water.
Otherwise no vegetables in the hot summer months.

My pennys woth
Cheerio
Ron

[digitalgate]

ok let put thing in prospective.
In asia normally, rice harvested is not sold immediately. It is being placed in the warehouse for a year to age the rice. New harvested rice is too soft for consumption and having a stockpile of rice keep price stable. That is what happen during the current food crisis. when price of rice goes up, the government release its stockpile of rice to keep price low (it never work, only works in theory) .
so being in the warehouse for a year(1 or 2 year) what do you have? rats and
weevil(right! the black insect you find in your rice) With weevil , they lay eggs. lots of
lots of eggs. when you water your plant with recycled water what do you get? weevil
and rat dung in your plant.
So why are you spending money buying pesticides?

[Lacerr]

Sodium occurs naturally in rice so it may not be good for orchids. In the U.S. our rice is pretty much stripped of most of the vitamins before we get it, especially true of white rice, it has niacin added to it, but thats about it.

[articuno75]

This was mentioned in another thread a while back, but I think it was Oatmeal that was mentioned. Maybe rice. The only thing that I can think of is that the orchids would benefit from the added vitamins that would be "washed" along with the extra starch that is added. BUT you would think this would also attract unwanted critters to your plant. I guess it would be no different than adding eggshells.

[pikevi]

I think it may not be a good idea to use the water on orchids. It may be alright ,as Ron said, to use it in the garden on normal soil.

I am sure Jerrymeola is right. I agree that the vitamins (B-com,E,etc.) found in the 'bran' may be of some benefit. But I am not sure if the starch/polysaccharides found in it will be of much use. In fact it may cause unpleasant smell on the long run because of slow bacterial action in the orchid media.

digitalgate: Thank you for the info on rice storage. I can never look at those beautiful grains in the same light I have done so far!!!, hehehehehehe

[okianer]

I think I could use one orchid for experiment with rice wather,why not?!

[ryanjoe888]

thanks for the replies....i tried watering some of my vandas with that so called rice water (heheheh) and leaves become white!!!! i mean there's a powdery white thing there... now i stop it ....

[articuno75]

LoL, that would have been the starch.