Using Distilled Water

[Corbin]

The water here in Canton is extremely hard. You get water spots on your dinking glasses the very first washing. If you do not wipe the faucets down after each use you get spots. No I have not checked it with my TDS / Ec meter yet (I'm half afraid to) but am going to this weekend. Thus the question, is it ok to water my orchids with distilled water?

 

[bellas]

It's better than okay it's fantastic, but if you have some calcium loving paphs remember to supplement with whatever source of calcium that's practical for the plant and the medium. I purchased a commercial water distiller....some orchids can tolerate water that's somewhat hard others cannot.

 

[Nutz4Paphs]

I agree. Distilled water is pure but while this is MOSTLY great, if you only use distilled it would be the same as if you only used RO water. Pure to a fault. For anything long term, you need to supplement with whatever the particular plant needs (type of orchid, calcium or not, etc.) Short term you would be fine Im sure.

 

[Hera]

I've switched to distilled for some of my plants like the Masdevallia, and it has worked wonders. I still use tap for the calcium loving plants.

 

[biothanasis]

I still use tap for the calcium loving plants.

Does it work for you!! I was always afraid of purchasing such plants cause I haven't found something that contains calcium to supply the plants with(I would obtain), only pieces of cuttlefish bone, but it brakes down very easily!!! I thought that tap water is too risky...

 

[Hera]

My Maudiae hybrids are doing just fine. Lots of new grow and I hope spikes in the spring. Our water isn't too bad here. I can't speak for all tap water, obviously there will be some better than others. I have been considering if I should de-chlorinate before I water though. Haven't tried it yet.

 

[biothanasis]

...I should de-chlorinate before I water though...

By leaving the water rest for a couple of days???

 

[Hien]

By leaving the water rest for a couple of days???

Only if it is chlorine and not chloramine

 

[suss16]

I have pretty good tap water in Norfolk, VA (less than 100 ppm TDS) but it contains chloroamines. And a lot of them. I tried the sprite HO adapter for the faucet and that did not remove them. I now filter my water with an inline pentek carbon block filter - and now I am chlorine and chloroamine free.

 

[NYEric]

I use a spectrapure RO system, change the filters once a year and add nutrients as nec.

 

[Rick]

I use RO for all general irrigation, and only supplement for the weekly fertilizing.

For those that want Ca they get it from potting mix supplements.

 

[Leo Schordje]

Anyone using pure water, be it RO or Distilled or water from a DI system, you really should put some salts back in to avoid leaching your plants out. Best is simply use a low dose of fertilizer. I use MSU ORchid Special for RO. I always use 1/2 teaspoon per gallon to get roughly a 400 ppm Nitrogen. But even using 1/8 th teaspoon per gallon would be enough to prevent chlorosis from excessively pure water. Others recomend adding just a little tap water back. Regardless, straight ultra pure water is hard on the plants and corrosive to anything metal. Its surprising really.

Add a touch of your fertilizer it distilled water becomes great water.

 

[Yoyo_Jo]

I don't have a TDS meter yet, but our tap water is reported by the city to be between 164 - 304 ppm. For the winter, I'm using half tap water and half purchased RO water for most of my orchids, except for my phrags. They're getting roughly 25% tap and 75% RO. I used rain water all summer for all my orchids. I figure it'll cost me about $300 this winter for RO water, so I need to think about looking at installing an RO system.

 

[Corbin]

Anyone using pure water, be it RO or Distilled or water from a DI system, you really should put some salts back in to avoid leaching your plants out. Best is simply use a low dose of fertilizer. I use MSU ORchid Special for RO. I always use 1/2 teaspoon per gallon to get roughly a 400 ppm Nitrogen. But even using 1/8 th teaspoon per gallon would be enough to prevent chlorosis from excessively pure water. Others recomend adding just a little tap water back. Regardless, straight ultra pure water is hard on the plants and corrosive to anything metal. Its surprising really.

Add a touch of your fertilizer it distilled water becomes great water.

Leo,

I remembered someone making a comment about using only distilled water and that doing so was bad for plants but I could not remember who. That is why I started the post. I figured that whoever had made the comment would chime in. Thanks. I have MSU-RO formula which I was using in Atlanta with their tap water, as it is essentially pure, which I will use when I fertilize. I have oyster shell that I top dress all the paphs that want a less acidic environment.

 

[Hera]

About de-chlorination, has anyone used the products for fish tank water? I don't have a huge collection, so hand watering is still my method. Just curious.

Thanks for adding in the comments about not using distilled exclusively. I didn't realize that the water could pull salts from the plants over time. Good to know.

 

[Ray]

Leo, while I totally agree with your position on adding a bit of fertilizer to the pure water any time you use it, I think you had better recalculate.

1/2 tsp/gal of the original (Greencare) stuff will give you about 85 ppm N, not 400. About 400 ppm TDS, though.

 

[cnycharles]

About de-chlorination, has anyone used the products for fish tank water? I don't have a huge collection, so hand watering is still my method. Just curious.

Thanks for adding in the comments about not using distilled exclusively. I didn't realize that the water could pull salts from the plants over time. Good to know.

about the fish dechlorinators, it lists on the label as being safe for both the fish and plants in an aquarium. I also asked that question maybe this spring, and someone here said that it was safe for the plants (they had experience I believe). I had thought about using old aquarium water on my plants but didn't know about the chemicals. maybe safe to test a few plants for a while to see how it goes. if you have water with chlorine added if you just put it in a plastic garbage can and the chlorine will evaporate out quickly. or can use a charcoal filter in your water line. chloramine you need the chemicals as opposed to the sitting in the bucket (or a water filter).

yes, it's hard to believe that pure water can damage plants! remember that things will want to move from high concentrations to low ones so that levels everywhere will become even, so if you have a bucket with plain water and drop a fertilizer pellet in the bottom, eventually the fertilizer will move and spread throughout the bucket, even if there was no moving water (might take awhile). same if you have clean water outside a plant and nutrients on the inside; it will 'pull' the nutrients out (generalization).

at work when we were owned by our previous employer, they hired a few different consultants one who pointed out that the seed plugs and cuttings that we grew then and misted repeatedly with straight utica city water (straight from the adirondacks) was so clean it was leaching nutrients from the leaves and seedlings. he also suggested an injector be set up for a weak fertilizer solution to be misted all the time over the plants. here in oriskany we have the same water for the village and I often use a long mist wand hooked up to my kitchen sink to water my plants when I'm in a hurry instead of more regular fertilizings and the plants will show it. when I mist under the leaves with weak fertilizer they often perk right up.

 

[Rick]

I think the time frame is important to consider.

I've been using RO for 5+ years, and getting pretty good results. The mounted plants would get the highest exposure of it since they have little to no substrate to provide nutrients/salts from. So my phals and bulbos only get supplemented one out of 7 days.

Rainwater can have a bit of nitrogen in it, but typically its pretty close to pure. During tropical monsoons I can't imagine that the quality of the rainwater is anywhere near the equivalent of 1/8 TSP of fertilizer. So how do epiphytic orchids keep from getting leached out in-situ? If the answer is that the run off picks up nutrients traveling over substrate, then it goes back to the nature of the potting mix you use.

When orchids transpire they are evaporating almost pure water (there are some low level VOC's) but they are not giving up nutrients from their leaves. Unless the whole leaf is totally immersed in RO water for long periods of time (measured by days), you will not corrode or leach the leaves. A misting of DI or RO water is not detrimental to plants, but will help offset transpirational losses.

 

[SlipperFan]

Leo, while I totally agree with your position on adding a bit of fertilizer to the pure water any time you use it, I think you had better recalculate.

1/2 tsp/gal of the original (Greencare) stuff will give you about 85 ppm N, not 400. About 400 ppm TDS, though.

Based on what Greencare said to us, 1/2 t. rain water formula = about 125 ppm nitrogen. To get that with the tap water formula, you use 3/4 t.

 

[Ray]

I think you 're remembering that backwards, Dot.

There's actually a pretty simple method to get 125 ppm N, which was their recommended level: Divide 10 by the %N on the label. The result is the teaspoons per gallon to use.

Rounding up or down for measuring convenience is no problem - The RO formula is 13%N, so 10/13=0.77, and the WW formula is 19%N, so 10/19=0.53.