Water quality?

[addictedcountryman]

Hey guys,

so after some conversations about water quality, i have become concerned about mine but i cannot find any specific information of what is good or bad.
here is my data:
Chlorine, mg/L 0.0 MAY 13 2008
Fluoride, mg/L F 0.14 MAY 14 2008
Hardness, mg/L CaCO3 101 JAN 24 2007
Nitrate as Nitrogen, mg/L N 2.3 MAY 14 2008
Sodium, mg/L Na 25 JAN 24 2007
Temperature, Deg.F 79.7 MAY 13 2008
Total Dissolved Solids, mg/L 192.0 MAY 13 2008
pH, Std. Units 7.73 MAY 13 2008
Sorry if it is a little jumbly-
what do you guys think? Any links that would be able to help me? Thanks in advance.
abby

[kavanaru]

I would say that if you have the money and the space, it is worth to get an RO System. Your plants will love the pure water! However, and depending of the plants you have (Phrags are very sensitive to water quality, Catts and Phals are more tolerant!) just stay with your water, give it a try for a long period and check how your plants react.

The water quality at my place is not better than yours (I would even say, worst!). I used it for several months and did not see any bad effect on plants. They grew fine and even bloomed. I changed to S/H because I wanted to try Phrags and add an misting system for my plants. They all love it!!!

	Mistking Looking for a misting system? Look no further. Automated misting systems from MistKing are used by multitude of plant enthusiasts and are perfect for Orchids. Systems feature run dry pumps, ZipDrip valve, adjustable black nozzles, per second control! Automatically mist one growing shelf or a greenhouse full of Orchids. See MistKing testimonials

[Ray]

Abby,

I am not aware of a single compilation of explanation of orchid-growing water quality, but if you'll go to my "Free Info" page and click on the "Primer on Plant Nutrition" link, specifically the article on water quality, you'll find a table to which you may compare your data, which is, unfortunately incomplete.

Generally though, I'd say the following: your pH is a bit high, but most fertilizers will acidify it somewhat, so it's likely not a major concern. The alkalinity, at 101 is moderate, but you'd be best not to do a lot of water-only irrigation. Your TDS at just under 200 ppm (ppm = mg/L) is also OK for all but the most sensitive of plants.

[addictedcountryman]

Thanks Ray and Ramon- i am currently looking at reverse osmosis setups and i wil be visiting firstrays.com momentarily. Thanks again.
abby