Watering with very cold water. Am I playing with fire?

[BrassavolaStars]

Hello all,

Lately my area has been very cold. This has caused my water to be colder than I would like for my orchids.

I was trying to wait to water my plants until the weather got warmer but this became unrealistic so I just had to use the cold water.

Is it likely that the plants will suffer damage from my cold tap water? The water I used was approximately 43F.

I had wanted to bring my sprayer full of water into a hot room to warm it up but the plants really needed the water as they were quite dry.

[rbarata]

Which orchids are you refering to?
Anyway, 43 F (approx. 6ºC) is too cold.
I'm sure you have a water heater. The rule is to water with water at room tempeture.

[BrassavolaStars]

Originally Posted by rbarata

Which orchids are you referring to?
Anyway, 43 F (approx. 6ºC) is too cold.
I'm sure you have a water heater. The rule is to water with water at room temperature.

My greenhouse has its own water system that does not have hot water. While the greenhouse itself is fairly warm 64F/18C, the greenhouse water is strongly influenced by the weather outside. I will bring buckets from the hot water in my house next time then if 6-7C is too cold.

Hopefully, this one time did not do any damage.

[fooferdoggie]

our house gets down to about 57 at night. I have a fish heater on the main water pot and a heat pad under another. I have them on timers so they warm the water before needed then turn off.

[BrassavolaStars]

I really hope that my Angraecums do not bud blast because of this.

---------- Post added at 07:15 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:14 PM ----------

Hopefully, they are not going to suffer any shock. Next time I will use heated water.

[SouthPark]

Originally Posted by BrassavolaStars

so I just had to use the cold water.

.... the plants really needed the water as they were quite dry.

The plants would easily handle a few more hours or half a day while the water in the temporary storage tanks warms up a bit when in the house.

If the water is 'very' cold ----- then it could really be a case of 'playing with fire'.

But we should consider this as simply meaning - significantly increasing chance of negatively impacting the health of the orchids.

It's like - knowing in advance the possible consequences (from research into orchid growing fundamentals). And if anything undesirable occurs when going ahead with it, then it will be a case of accepting the consequences.

In most cases, if we already know of the possible risks in advance, then it just makes sense to completely eliminate those risks - such as to simply not water an orchid with very cold water - such as 6 degree Celsius water temperature.

This is only about focusing on - know what should be done in general ----- and avoid subjecting the orchids to conditions outside (or well outside) the ones they can generally handle. Otherwise, it's back to the case of accepting consequences.

[Ray]

I kept a 1000W aquarium heater in my greenhouse RO tank. 75°F

[BrassavolaStars]

Originally Posted by Ray

I kept a 1000W aquarium heater in my greenhouse RO tank. 75°F

That sounds like a very good idea and I will try to get some sort of portable water heater in the future. Unfortunately, I only have one outlet in the greenhouse right now and that is being used by the heater. It is also a 240v/30a outlet.

In the spring, I hope to get the electrician to add some additional 115v outlets so I can have more fans, lights, heaters, etc.

So far, the dozen or so plants that got the colder water do not seem to have been impacted. Most the ones that got the colder water were den nobiles and cattleyas.

The issue of watering arises from the fact that I have a 3 gallon tank sprayer and about 7 gallons of water is needed to water all of my plants.

The first 3 gallons worth of water was warm as it was in the GH for several hours. The first refill was about 65F as it had been sitting in the pipes that originate from my basement.

The 2nd refill was much colder (45F) because it came from much deeper in the ground and the sun was also beginning to set (It takes me almost a day to water everything).

Maybe what I should do is buy a few more tank sprayers until I can get an electrician to add more outlets.

I am hesitant to use my hot tap water from inside the house as it is very hard and leaves a blue residue ( I assume this is copper) everywhere.

I could also heat up water on the stove inside my house, but that would take a very long time.

[Roberta]

Sounds to me like the easiest short term solution is to just get more tank sprayers, so that they can all warm up a bit. 65 deg F. isn't bad, 45 deg F makes me shiver... I have an aquarium heater in my RO tank (68 deg F) so that I'm not hitting the plants in the GH with ambient -temperature water in the early morning (tank is outside) Because the morning watering can significantly drain the tank, I found a plug-in timer into which I plug the heater. The timer provides the heater with electricity from 6 PM to 6 AM (the heater cycles on its own thermostat) so that I don't run the risk of running the heater when there's not enough water to cover it.

[BrassavolaStars]

I will try to make my next greenhouse related purchase two more tank sprayers. The plants thankfully seem alright for now and hopefully they stay healthy.

The greenhouse is pretty warm so I think the roots and media warmed up fast. My tank is on the inside of my greenhouse and my water comes from pipes in the basement of my house which is also fairly warm.

The problem is when I start to really use a lot of water and pull the water from the city tap supply which is quite cold.