watering my phal with softened water..

[licinius9]

I have decided to start over with phals.. I have killed god knows have many from overwatering and potting media and underwatering and mounting.. I got a phal and put her in bark media in a Terra cotta orchid pot and put in one of those water sensors right up next to the base of the plant.. I have just had a water softener (salt-based) installed, as my water was hard and full of chlorine (also another killing factor).. I have been told there is 1-2% salt in a gallon of softened water.. will this hurt the phal, as I know they are very salt intolerant..?? i am trying not to kill one this time..

[Royal]

Do NOT use that water!!! Water softeners will kill plants. You were better off with chlorinated water.

[Ray]

A softener does not remove chlorine anyway.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Well since you're starting from scratch.

What kind of fertilizer are you using?

What's the fertilizer's N-P-K ratio?

What's the breakdown for the type of nitrogen it's using? Is there urea? What's the percentage of ammonia? What's the percentage of nitrate?

What kinds of micro-nutrients are present in the fertilizer. It should be listed on the bottle of the fertilizer.

How's the humidity of your growing area?

What kind of light is it receiving?

How big is the pot relative to the root mass?

How is the plant oriented? Is it propped upright? If so, please place it as horizontally as you can. This will save you the problem of crown rot. The plant will also tend to naturally want to lean anyways.

What's the temperature range of your growing area?

Here's a link to someone else's Flickr page. It has a series of photos of Phalaenopsis in the wild. I highly recommend looking at them:

Phalaenopsis in situ - Flickr: Search

Why a terra-cotta pot? Why not a clear plastic pot?

What was the problem with mounting them? What was the advantage/disadvantage of growing it this way for you?

And yes, softened water is not good for orchids in general.

If the salt content builds up, expect the roots to shrivel up and die.

Water softener does not remove chlorine as was stated.

[camille1585]

As already stated, softened water is bad bad bad! That will kill the orchid for sure. Chlorine is really easy to remove. All you have to do is draw some water and let it sit a few hours and the chlorine will have evaporated.

[licinius9]

thanks for all of the replys.. what about water softened with potassium chloride (a salt substitute)..?? until then, i guess i'll just water with distilled water..

[Royal]

I would be wary of any salts. I guess I'm lucky to have relatively good water here. I would imagine that there is a faucet upstream from the softening system. If the water is really hard, you could try a 50/50 mix of tap water and distilled. Might save a little money.

[Orchidflowerchild]

Originally Posted by licinius9

thanks for all of the replys.. what about water softened with potassium chloride (a salt substitute)..?? until then, i guess i'll just water with distilled water..

Potassium chloride is not a salt substitute, it is just another salt. If you really want clean water, get an RO system. Softeners just exchange one salt for another (which, just BTW, KCL isn't real great for people on certain blood pressure medicines, either...).

-Cj

[Ray]

KCl is far better than NaCl for plants, but I agree that it's still a salt.

[WhiteRabbit]

I water with tap water (non-softened, and make no effort to let purifying agents evaporate - my city uses a chlorine-ammonia hybrid). I have not had any issues with my plants. I know there are some types of orchids that are very sensitive and do require RO or distilled water, but I think MOST are fine with tap water. That being said, I do not know how my water compares with other areas.
There are minerals in hard water that the plants need as well, and in most cases it is recommended, if you use RO or distilled water, to add a small amount of tap water for these minerals.
Since you have softened tap water, perhaps you can get unsoftened water from a faucet outside ?
If the purifying agents are your concern - just allow the water to stand for a few to several hours. (also, allow water to come to room temperature if it's cold) If it's the hardness of the water, I guess, RO or distilled is the way to go.