watering methods

[Dub3]

OK guys or gals:-) Can anyone tell me if I'm watering wrong? The general wisdom on this forum is to take the orchid to the sink and drench with water for 1-2 minutes thereby flushing out all old salts and wetting the bark potting medium.

My problem is that our municipal water system has about 700-800 PPM salts and water from the lake, that I could use, is about 400 PPM. Therefore, I collect rain water with 0 PPM to water with. This is available in limited amounts due to our low rain fall. To conserve water I am using a hand held sprayer that applies a spray to the pot surface and I water until water just starts to run out of the pot before going to the next pot. After watering 30 or so pots I return and do it again. This appears to thoroughly wet the potting medium.

Now my question does this method allow excess salts to build up? Are there any other conservation methods that I may use other then a common drench bath that might spread problems from one plant to another?

Thanks for your reply

[Leafmite]

Rain water doesn't have salts, so...perfect. I have a water softner so cannot use tap water. In the summer, the plants are outside so the pots get flushed with rain. That is when I fertilize them
heavily so it works out perfectly. In the winter, I conserve the rain and distilled water and don't fertilize. No need to flush pots. I envy everyone with perfect water!!!!!
Good luck!

[Orchid Whisperer]

I use rain water whenever I can, especially indoors. This is because I want to water on plant shelves & have some minimal amount flush through, but not have to drag 40+ plants to the sink.

[Bud]

Save tap water in a drum barrel and let the chlorine evaporate and the other minerals settle down to the bottom....use the top half layer of the water in the drum barrel and throw away the bottom layer with all the silt. The trick is not to disturb the lower part of the barrel while you are saving the clean water.

[Leafmite]

Nice idea, Bud, but, unfortunately, enough salt stays dissolved that it builds up over time and injures those tender roots. I water the tougher plants with tap water and they are always start to suffer at the close of wintertime. Some of my plants began to deteriorate immediately if accidently watered with my softened tap water. I bought a Manilkara zapota, Sapodilla, just because it is salt tolerant!

[Bud]

You can use that same tap water in the sink to flush those solid salts....all you need is the force that dislodge the salts out of the pot....there might be a thin film of salt left but that is not that dangerous to the roots.

[Ray]

Dissolved minerals do not settle out of water, and the mineral buildup in media does not need to be "dislodged", it needs to be redissolved to be adequately flushed out the the pot. The higher the mineral content of the water used, the less dissolution will occur.

I think that most folks should rethink their overall culture, especially media and watering regimen, with the "ideal" (trying to replicate and improve on the conditions in nature) being to use as pure water they can get, and just a trace of fertilizer, applied heavily and frequently, so that the medium never really dries out. That equates to good flushing at every watering, and no drying = no buildup, but that means you'll need a medium that is open enough that staying wet does not mean it suffocates the roots.


Ray Barkalow
Sent using Tapatalk

[Leafmite]

Great advice, Ray, as usual.