Watering

[Jinx]

I water my orchids with bottled water ( no floride) is that ok for them or should i use RO or something else?

[Ray]

That depends upon the source of the bottled water.

If it is spring water, it might be particularly high in minerals, which is not good.

[Jinx]

It is indeed spring water ( kirkland brand). What is better options? im not a fan of tap water for my plants.

[ALToronto]

I use jug-filtered water (a Brita competitor), which takes out chlorine, fluoride and heavier metals. It leaves some calcium and magnesium, which is a good thing. My plants seem to like it, they're all growing and a few are in spike. Filtering also drops the pH from around 7.2 to 6.5, and this is probably the most important thing.

[Ray]

Originally Posted by Jinx

It is indeed spring water ( kirkland brand). What is better options? im not a fan of tap water for my plants.

Where do you live? What is your water source? What does your municipality say about the analysis?

It can vary all over the map, literally and figuratively. Folks in NYC have it great, for example. - their tap water is almost RO quality.

[Jinx]

Im not sure about the water here i dont drink it, it smells really strong of chlorine.We have a greenway water filter so ill do some research later to see if its suitable water for them.

I fell head over heels in love with orchids but i feel a tad bit in over my head with getting so many so quickly. Ive been doing a ton of reading! Thanks for the help

[WhiteRabbit]

I wouldn't think most bottled spring waters have more minerals than harder tap water - but I certainly can't say for a fact ... and does of course depend on where you live. We have moderate tap water here, and I use it for orchids. I don't have any that really need pure water (I do have a few hardy pitcher plants that get bottled RO or distilled water)

The purifiers in tap water shouldn't harm most plants - except for some that are sensitive. Chlorine evaporates quickly, so simply letting an open container sit for a day will "remove" that ...

[james mickelso]

If you can smell the Cl2 in the water, it isn't good for the plants in the long run. If I'm not mistaken the municipal water in most Canadian cities has to stay below 2 mlg/L by law. Not high but not good. Most bottled water like Kirkland which I can buy here in SoCal is RO quality. I use RO that I purchase from a machine in front of the Riteaid store here. 35 cents a gallon. Down the street it is 25 cents/gal. Go figure. Since I started using RO water, my orchids have fared much better than when I used the tap water here. The tap water here is around 700 ppm salts/minerals and is ok if you water plants in the ground but not for those in pots. It can also be used for mixing concrete. Using the Britta type filters will give you a decent quality water that should be fine for orchids. Sonya lives in heaven up in the Bay area where the water comes from the high sierra and the Sac water shed. Mine is at the end of a 700 mile cement aqueduct and tastes like shi.....cement. Oh, and I work in the water industry.

[Jinx]

Thanks for the answers! I think im gonna start filling my 5 gallon blue bottle with RO water or filter tap water threw my greenway filter. They put alot of clorine in water at certain times of year, you can smell it and if i wont drink it and i wont give it to my animals then i wouldnt give it to my my plants either