Roof runoff bad for orchids?

[Claire25]

Hi everyone,

I caught a lot of rainfall from Hurricane Irene in my gutters from roof runoff and wondered if it'd be safe for watering orchids. (I moved all of 'em inside Friday and have a big job moving them back outside today. Ugh.) I thought this would be a good idea, but the water looks a bit discolored and I'm concerned about some chemical having leached out of the shingles. Or, could just be gunk from leaves, dirt... What would you do?

Claire

[glengary54]

If I could, I would only water with rain water!!!!

[Shiffdaddy]

Originally Posted by glengary54

If I could, I would only water with rain water!!!!

Same. I'd say use it. A lot of people who are big into gardening or growing plants have rain catches where they collect all the rain water they can.

[Eyebabe]

You could always run it through an old a window screen if you think it has lots of debri in it.
But I would use it if you could collect it

[keithrs]

If you have asphalt shingle on your roof, I wouldn't use it. The asphalt releases oil and chemicals into the water as the water flows over it. Different story if you have wood, metal, rubber, rock or clay tiles. I have heard of people coating the shingles with a rubber product to use the water off there roof.

[nenella]

I agree with the above! I too use rain water and my tank gets a bit 'gunky' sometimes especially at the bottom ... all I do is use a little tea strainer under the tap which catches a lot of 'stuff' but some times I'm lazy and don't...quite honestly it is fine for the orchids.

[Claire25]

Thanks, everyone! I'm glad to see that many of you think that this water would be okay to use; I have so many gallons of this stuff available to me, since we got around 10 inches of rain here from this storm. That being said, I believe that I do have the asphalt-type shingles that keithrs mentioned and I can see how this could leach out some funky chemicals. Thanks for that info as well. In sum, I think I will use my rainwater, hoping that any truly noxious chemicals got washed away in the early hours of the storm (I didn't start collecting water until it had been raining for several hours). Hope anyone else in the path of Irene made out ok...obviously I did, or rain collection for orchids would be the least of my concerns.

[Connie Star]

I have a rainwater collecting system for the second year. It uses the run-off from a roof with asphalt shingles and the only problem I have had is with the debris that comes with it. I just filter it out at the top of the barrel.

[Zoi2]

Originally Posted by Connie Star

I have a rainwater collecting system for the second year. It uses the run-off from a roof with asphalt shingles and the only problem I have had is with the debris that comes with it. I just filter it out at the top of the barrel.

Me too, I've been doing it for about 20 years and haven't noticed any ill effects.
Joann

[Oscarman]

In our parts there are many growers who collect and use rain water from asphalt shingle rooftops exclusively and grow exceptional plants. Chemical leaching might occur with new shingles, but I think the biggest concern would the the dirt and granule debris. This is a system I will be moving to in the next year.