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12-03-2007, 06:12 AM
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Senior Member
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Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Stockholm
Posts: 129
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RO water
I use RO-water with a weak fertilizer. I also spray my plants with this water every day. Is it possible to spray the plants with RO-water without fertilizer
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12-03-2007, 06:42 AM
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Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Helsinki, Finland
Age: 46
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i mist my plants with R/O several times a week. i don't see a problem with that.
i remember some source saying you shouldn't use R/O water for tillandsias but that's a different story..
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12-03-2007, 06:56 AM
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Join Date: Nov 2007
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So you mist yours without fertilizer?
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12-03-2007, 08:10 AM
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Join Date: Jan 2007
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12-03-2007, 08:57 AM
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Join Date: Apr 2006
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12-03-2007, 11:14 AM
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Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Stockholm
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Thanks. The leaves get spotted when I use ferilizer in the water that I use for spraying
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12-03-2007, 11:19 AM
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Join Date: Feb 2007
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Location: fishers, indiana
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The only thing I spray my plants with is RO water, which rarely has fertilizer added to it. I haven't had any problems with it; in fact, I can't imagine why there would be any problems spraying it on orchids. It's about as clean a water source as you could want.
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12-03-2007, 01:46 PM
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Join Date: May 2005
Location: Oak Island NC
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Misting with RO should not be an issue. Watering with it is something else.
Keep in mind that when we eat, we suck up food, whether our bodies need it or not. A plant, on the other hand, is to a great extent, at the whim of the concentration of the chemicals ionized in the solution, and much of the driving force for absorption is due to the fact that the ions are in stronger concentration outside- than in.
If you water a lot with RO, which has no dissolved minerals, that gradient is reversed, and you can actually pull nutrition from the plant.
I don't believe it's an issue for the occasional flushing, but don't make a habit of it.
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12-03-2007, 03:08 PM
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Join Date: Feb 2007
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Location: fishers, indiana
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Very interesting, Ray. Thank you for providing that information. So, if I have an RO unit that is the sole source of water for my orchids (well, barring summer rainstorms when all of the plants go out into the back yard for five months of the year), I should be fertilizing them every time I apply water? That concerns me because, many years ago, I had the weakly/weekly adage drilled into my head regarding the proper (or maybe just safe) amount and frequency of fertilization. Even though I switched to RO water two years ago, I've still been sticking to that old rule of thumb. Now I'm feeling that I need to go out to the sun room and offer my poor starving plants an apology. In truth, they don't look like they're suffering for nutrition. And, in fact, the vast majority of them look very healthy and have flowered regularly. Still, the idea of fertilizing them so often is something that would (for me) take a lot of getting used to. In the summer that would mean that some of them--the Aerides and Vandas mostly, which I grow in containers that don't have much media and therefore require frequent waterings--would get fertilized every day. Ugh, now I've got a lot to think about... Okay, I'm going to go out to the sun room to say that I'm sorry.
Steve
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12-03-2007, 04:09 PM
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Join Date: Sep 2006
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Steve, just as one example, last year I did as many folks here do now, watered with rain water, or whatever and once a week fertilized. My Dendrobium anosmum typically grew 18" pendulous growths. This year it grew 26" growths simply from using the recommended regime on Ray's site (nothing else changed.) Appears my old regimen was starving it.
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