Most cost effective way to get water? (GB)

[estación seca]

It depends on how you want to fertilize. You can water orchids with the pure water, nothing added. You will need to fertilize. Some people use a very low concentration of fertilizer at every watering. Others fertilize once a week or once a month, with somewhat higher concentrations.

I suggest you read and learn about fertilizing in the Free Information section of the First Rays Web site. Ray is an OB member and posts frequently.

[Henry]

Originally Posted by Ray

Spring water tastes so good because of the level of dissolved minerals, so is probably not the best thing for use on plants that evolved getting nothing but “nature’s distilled” water.

Well there's plenty of rain water here in France.
But I thought I read bad things about collecting water from the roof.
Our roof is tile, with some moss, etc. on it.
But we get copius amounts of rain.

[Roberta]

In the UK, Akerne Rain Mix fertilizer is used a lot for pure-water applications (referenced in the culture discussion of many awarded plants in Orchid Review from the RHS) https://www.akerne-orchids.com/en/ra...-rain-mix.html
With pure water, you need a fertilizer that includes calcium and magnesium, which this one does.

[Diane56Victor]

Reverse osmosis does work really well but there is a lot of 'waste' water that goes literally down the drain.

One of the YT orchid channels is based in the UK I watch uses osmosis water and has mentioned that on metered water in the UK it can become expensive.

When I lived in the UK water in a home wasn't metered, this changed in 1989.

[Roberta]

I use the "waste" from my RO system to water the landscaping (so use no "single pass" water there). It's still good water, only about 30% higher in solids than what comes out of the tap. So if you are designing a system, consider capturing the effluent to use for another purpose instead of just putting it down the drain.

[Diane56Victor]

That's definitely the best use of the water remaining after osmosis. It will be a necessity to make use of all the water as those in the UK have just been hit with a possible 25% rise in their bills!

[Roberta]

I live in an almost-desert. So water is needed for the garden plants too, even cactus needs a bit of help. It would be so sad to waste all that water. (I suspect water bills are higher here than in the UK too, but its the idea of waste that really hurts. )

[Diane56Victor]

I'm lucky I don't have to worry about osmosis water.
We live in a regional holiday town about 500 metres (1/3 of a mile) from the sea, so no heavy industry to leave pollutants on the roof. We have a 5000 litre (1320 gallons) rain water tank.
I love my water tank, in the eight years we've lived here I've never run out of water, I use it for my orchids and the garden,

[Henry]

"We live in a regional holiday town."

Lovely place, my wife said, Ooh Clydesdales!

Our neighbors are sheep!

Ooops, sorry NaZzAtAzEr, I've wandered off topic in your thread!

[Ray]

reverse osmosis water conservation strategies