Collected spring water for orchids?
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  #1  
Old 02-02-2012, 03:37 PM
The Orchid Boy The Orchid Boy is offline
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Collected spring water for orchids? Male
Default Collected spring water for orchids?

There is a spring about a 1/2 mile away from my house and I take a few jugs out to the spring and fill them with water. I've been using this water for quite a while and the orchid seem to like it.
I tested the water with an aquarium test kit. These are the levels of things:
Nitrates: 40 ppm
Nitrites: 0 ppm
Hardness/GH: 200 ppm
Alkalinity/KH: 300 ppm
pH: 7.3
Does this sound good for orchids? If not the other two options I have is softened well water or hard well water.
Will this be pure enough for carnivorous plants or does anyone know if you can calculate TDS using hardness levels?
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  #2  
Old 02-02-2012, 07:11 PM
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Leafmite Leafmite is offline
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I think I'd use water collected from the dehumidifyer, rain, melted snow or the distilled water section of the grocery store for the carnivorous plants and any aerangis orchids.
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  #3  
Old 02-02-2012, 08:51 PM
PaphMadMan PaphMadMan is offline
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None of your water choices have the quality you want for carnivores. There's no harm in using the spring water for most orchids though, but it is likely that your well water and the spring water are pretty similar, so you might save yourself the trouble of collecting and hauling it, unless testing shows the well water to be significantly harder and more alkaline (higher pH).

200 ppm GH is moderately hard, but if you repot annually it probably isn't high enough to be a problem in most cases. pH 7.3 is a bit higher than optimal for most orchids, but if you are using a water soluble fertilizer and organic medium (bark, moss, etc.) they probably keep the pH somewhat below 7 where it should be.

40 ppm nitrates is just providing a little nitrogen in exactly the form many fertlizers do. Probably not enough to suggest any changes in your fertlizer use though.

To find any kind of relationship between hardness and TDS you have to make the assumption that almost all of the dissolved solids are calcium and magnesium carbonates. That's a very large and inaccurate assumption in some places, and proibably not worth the effort for a very rough approximation that might be seriously misleading.

Softened water is usually the worst choice for watering plants - you generally just replace the calcium and magnesium ions (which plants need) with twice as many sodium ions (which plants do not need.
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Old 02-02-2012, 08:56 PM
The Orchid Boy The Orchid Boy is offline
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I'll have to get some distilled water for my carnivorous plants.
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  #5  
Old 02-03-2012, 03:01 AM
Discus Discus is offline
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wow, those nitrate readings are high - you must live in an agricultural area with the fertiliser polluting the groundwater. Many sensitive fish species (and most marines) would be harmed by that.
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  #6  
Old 02-03-2012, 04:15 AM
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No, you can't assume anything on the total TDS based on the info you have. But I would say that the spring water would be fine for all but the salt sensitive orchids and plants. Is your non softened well water giving very different readings?
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  #7  
Old 02-03-2012, 01:25 PM
The Orchid Boy The Orchid Boy is offline
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The pH was a little different and the water was harder. I'll have to take a reading of it...
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