water quality

[bagladycarol]

I live in central PA where the water is very hard. We have a water softener installed and am wondering if this water is okay to use or should I be buying distilled or spring water? I have mainly phals and a couple paphs. Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks, Carol Franklin

[surachais,Thai]

normally we check pH and EC (Electrical Conductivity) for first determination.pH 5.5-6.5, EC < 500 microsiemens/cm. is good for all.
you water is very hard,it possible to check EC,if it higher than standard,sampling and sent to analyse pH, EC, Ca, Mg, K, Na, SO4, Cl, CO3, HCO3, %SSP, adjust pH by HNO3
tempory hardness caused by HCO3, CO3
permanent hardness caused by SO4,Cl

after you got analysis result,the recommendation to solve the problem must follow.

[raybark]

Hi Carol.

Generally speaking, softened water is to be avoided, because the "softening" process involves the substitution of sodium chloride (salt) for the Ca-, Mg-, and Fe carbonates that "harden" the water. A well "tuned" softener can be acceptable, but most dump excess salt into the water supply, which is a problem. As hard as it might be, you'd be better off using your water from before the softener. Don't bother with spring water, as it's likely as hard as your supply, if not more so.

I'm in SE Pennsylvania, and my water is quite hard too, and I used it without issue for years before investing in a reverse osmosis (RO) system.

For a small collection, RO is probably overkill, but I build small, inexpensive (two models under $90, which comes out to about $0.02-$0.03/gallon) deionization (DI) systems that are a great way to get pure water for your plants.

[surachais,Thai]

water quality for cut flower dendrobium (Depart of Agriculture)

index.................standard.........unit

pH....................................5.2 - 6.2
EC.................not more than.....750...........microsiemens/cm.
Na.................not more than........3...........milliequivalent/liter
Cl..................not more than........3...........milliequivalent/liter
SO4...............not more than.......10...........milliequivalent/liter
HCO3.............not more than.........1.5........milliequivalent/liter
SSP...............not more than.......60...........%
RSC...............not more than.........1.25.......milliequivalent/liter
SAR...............not more than.........2

(SSP = soluble sodium percentage
RSC = resisual sodium carbonate
SAR = sodium adsorption ratio)

in my experience

if EC more than 750 microsiemens/cm...................severe level 1

amount of Na more than Ca + mg
and SSP more than 60%......................................severe level 2

amount of Cl more than 3 meq/lt. and more than SO4..severe level 3

[VioletN]

I'm new to this whole topic, and now I'm really impressed how professional it is possible to describe water and how the flowers react on it. Really fascinating to me, but also looks complicated. Does it depend on the kind of orchid you have if they need softer or harder water? Is there a master list out there?

[Alice-NJ]

There is no list. As far as I know, there isn't any flower at all that can take softened water. If you use purified (RO or reverse osmosis) water from the grocery store, you should add some fertilizer to it as it's almost pure. Or you can add 50% hard water and 50% purified water, but no softened water.

[qubesys]

I think most orchids can tolerate drought far better than they can tolerate excess moisture. Nothing kills an orchid faster than letting it sit in a water-logged pot. Without adequate air circulation, the plant will suffocate and die.

so please water it sparingly, mostly once in week

thanks

[aaronsaxton]

The quality of the water used is as important as the light and CO2 a plant gets - it is vital that it be high quality.

A water purifier that at least has carbon to remove elements is important - and RO water is excellent.

I have water purifier now, but I remember one time I simply set up a 50 gallon bucket with a pump and I would place bags of carbon into the water - and replace them every 3 months to purify the water.

Orchids are slow growers. Think of it in this way, if you watered a plant every day for a year and flowed 1 gallon of water over the roots every day, this would result in huge deposits.

Not really an issue when we are talking about a general plant that may increase it's biomass by 10 fold and root system every year.

An orchid though will not grow so fast, so the ratio of accumulated salts vs biomass ratio is huge - and deadly.

Just run a gallon of tap water through a water humidifier that boils it to evaporate and see what builds up after just 10 gallons. It is not pretty.

Now try it with RO water, distilled or partly purified water and you will see the difference.

That is what your roots go through.

The primary factors for excellent growth relate to light, Temperature, CO2 and water.

Water quality is more important than fertilizer or growing medium quality.

[jean2]

Water quality is the physical, chemical and biological characteristics of water. It is a measure of the condition of water relative to the requirements of one or more biotic species and or to any human need or purpose. It is most frequently used by reference to a set of standards against which compliance can be assessed. The most common standards used to assess water quality relate to health of ecosystems, safety of human contact and drinking water.