Water question...

[missann]

I have hard, city water. I have been letting the water sit overnight to get rid of the chlorine (like you would for a fish tank), but the water is still at the ph of 8. I think orchids are suppossed to be 7.5-6? I don't know what to use to lower the ph of the water, except to use something like miracid which doesn't seem to make any kind of difference. I did find a product called aluminum sulfate that is used to turn hydrangeas either pink or blue-can't remember which. Anyway, I don't know if this stuff is safe to use on orchids or not. Also, it says not to use it with phosphorous containing fertilizers because it binds with the phos and makes both substances not work.

All of my plants are precious to me, so I don't want to do any experimenting.

What do all of you use to lower the ph of your water? I have too many orchids to use distilled water every time I water, and the reverse osmosis machines are really expensive.

please help.

[kmarch]

For more than 10 years I have used water straight out of the tap for all of my orchids (hundreds) and I have never once measured the pH of my water. I don't think it makes any significant difference. I also know dozens of other orchid growers in both the US and Australia. Not a single one of them commercial or hobby, do anything to change the pH of their water.

[fred]

just to share with you also my friends that own a commercial orchid nursery use nothing else but tap water.

myself I use rain water I don't test the PH at all.

[Ron]

Hi.
I also used tap water for many years on most of my orchids. The PH was from 8 to 8.5+ at times.
Plants seem to put up with it, I had 2 small rainwater tanks and when I used it for a month or so you could see the difference in growth.
Especially the Paphiopedilums.
I now have installed a 9 thousand lt. rainwater tank.
But still use the tap water for all the Cymbidiums, they do not seem to mind
I know this is not much help in how to lower the Ph but just to say most plants do not mind the higher PH.

Cheerio
Ron

[kmarch]

So Ron, if I hear you correctly, your Paphs responded better with the lower pH rainwater?

[articuno75]

I live here in Portland, IN and my tap water ranges in the 10-12. Around 10 on good days. Our water is very alkalinic and putting fish in it means instant death. (I used to have an aquarium and had to deal with this.) I mixed the tap and RO water bought from the store to make the level balance to 7 or near 7.

I water my orchids with this tap water and have been doing this this whole time. I intergrate bought RO water every now and then, but not all that often. Only for the delicates (Masdie and Neos) do I use bottle spring and use fertilizer. I don't see any thing detrimental to my orchids with the tap water.

[jay]

If you are using an organic potting media like bark then it will help buffer the ph to the correct range. If you are using inorganic media like LECA for S/H then it is a little more important to make sure you have the correct ph.

If you are using S/H, you can go to any hydroponics store and buy a bottle of PH down for about $10. This will bring the PH down to where you want it. Keep in mind that you will have to get either a meter or a kit to measure the ph if you are going to adjust it.

[articuno75]

Thanks Jay. I couldn't remember what that stuff was called. Yep, Ph Down. That's what it was. Sometimes I had to use the stuff for the fish.

[Ron]

Hi Kevin.

So Ron, if I hear you correctly, your Paphs responded better with the lower pH rainwater?

.
While our tap water is Ph 8+ it contains about 90 ppm of salts (?).
The rainwater freshly collected has a reading of around 6 or so but tested after standing a while it seems 6.5 to 7 seems normal.
I never test it now, it comes off a cement tile roof and a fibreglass roof also (Orchid House)
I know of reading of 400 to 500 ppm of disolved salts from some of the South Australians nurserys using bore water.
They try to collect some rainwater or town water to break the reading down if possible. Mainly cymbidium growers.

I found that rain water using on my Paphiopedilum's resulted in about 75% better growth, especially with the young seedling.
So much better I decieded to invest in a 9 thousand Litre rainwater tank.
would have went bigger but stopped at that because of council regulations.
With water restrictions over the last 8 years we, at times could only water from a buckett for 30 minutes every second day.
So along came the rainwater tank.
I could not live without the quality from the rainwater with my seedling.

the Photo is when I was having it installed
Cheerio
Ron

[missann]

Nice. There are some streams right close to my house that I think are pretty clean, but they might be all dried up by now. Plus it may have even more disolved salts in it than the tap water because it just runs through dirt, but maybe not. I should do some tests.
Anyway, I am concerned about ph because plants can die if the ph of water is wrong. If you have ever tried to grow a gardenia and it slowly died because it was iron deficient despite the fact that you give it iron when you are suppossed to, you know this.
The ph of my water was inhibiting the absorption of iron to my gardenias and they died year after year. Adjusting the ph of the water with aluminum sulfate has adjusted the ph and is making it possible for my gardenia to not only survive, but almost thrive, despite the fact that is suffers some very hot temperatures during the day. It is setting buds after it dropped all of them when I bought it. So-I am thinking that at least once in a while, I need to use ro, distilled, or rain water to lower the ph so my plants can absorb the nutrients in the fertilizer better. I should do some experiments.

[kmarch]

Originally Posted by missann

I am concerned about ph because plants can die if the ph of water is wrong. If you have ever tried to grow a gardenia and it slowly died because it was iron deficient despite the fact that you give it iron when you are suppossed to, you know this.

Well as you have seen lots of growers here have water pH all over the spectrum and still use it to water their orchids without adverse results. The vast majority of orchids we grow in our homes as hobbiests are quite tough plants. The truth of the matter is simply that unless you're growing tricky orchids, they're probably not going to notice the difference between tap and RO water and they're certainly not going to race down the path to oblivion if the pH is a little high. Orchids do well with ordinary tap water.

[solay]

I agree. I only use tap water and so far so good. My Cyms. have been watered straight from the garden hose since 2004 and is doing great still. I only use distilled for misting or to mix with worm tea.
I am thinking of getting a rain barrel eventually mainly to conserve water.

[arleneg]

missann -- Just make sure you hard water isn't made into softened water. Softened water will definitely kill your orchids. I wish orchidgeeks.com was around then, because I killed the first few orchids I bought and grew indoors.

Cindy -- I've been eyeing a few rain barrels lately, too. I have a few more months to save up and figure out where to put one.