General S/H question, what do you use to catch the water?

[DirtyCoconuts]

I am curious if you s/h users have a menthol to catch and possibly reuse the water you fill your pots with since the majority of it run out of the holes? What do you use?
Do you reuse that water on other plants?

[rbarata]

Do you reuse that water on other plants?

I advise you to never do that!
If a plant is infected with some pathogen, before you notice it you'll be infecting all your collection.

[DirtyCoconuts]

you know i have heard and thought about this and i do not reuse water....but...

i have many plants oriented above other plants and they drip down...

i have many plants that share a drip tray or even a common low reservoir...

so i am not exactly a bastion of sterility and hygiene in my growing conditions


that suddenly seems like a colossal waste of water ???

[rbarata]

I understand you concerns about water waste but you're setting up your collection to major issues, if they ever happen.

[DirtyCoconuts]

i am really just exploring the culture and i find that for me it is best to do a little experiment to see the nuts and bolts and the little things etc.

i am thinking that there are some of my plants that would get a huge benefit from this and so i want to see how and on what scale i might implement it...


one of the new considerations is suddenly how to deal with many quarts of water falling onto the floor OR what to do to catch that water and then what to do with it

If i am using a 32 oz soup container and roughly 3/4 of that will flow through and out of the container then i am really going to need to recatch roughly 3/4 of the total watering and that will be in the gallons...…

what do those of you using S/H do?

[Ray]

I use no more water on my S/H plants than I do with those in bark. It all pours out onto the ground, or when inside, into trays that direct it to buckets.

[DirtyCoconuts]

I’m not doubting you ray but how is that possible? Are you using a pouring method or a sprayer?

I can’t imagine a sprayer can flow fast enough to fill the cup with two 1/4” holea

[Ray]

Originally Posted by DirtyCoconuts

I’m not doubting you ray but how is that possible? Are you using a pouring method or a sprayer?

I can’t imagine a sprayer can flow fast enough to fill the cup with two 1/4” holea

7-8 months a year, I grow out on my deck, so use a garden hose with water breaker, so everything gets flooded like mad at every watering.

In the cooler months, when they are indoors, I have two techniques I use. I water 1-2x/week using the pump up sprayer either way, but I remove the spray nozzle, then I am able to flood the pots, or I flush thoroughly in the sink with plain water, followed by "fortified" water with the spray nozzle on the sprayer.

[DirtyCoconuts]

That makes a ton of sense now. The distinction between “flush” and fortified is huge and the no-restriction sprayer also makes a lot of sense.

Thank you, Sir

[WaterWitchin]

Originally Posted by DirtyCoconuts

you know i have heard and thought about this and i do not reuse water....but...

i have many plants oriented above other plants and they drip down...

i have many plants that share a drip tray or even a common low reservoir...

so i am not exactly a bastion of sterility and hygiene in my growing conditions


that suddenly seems like a colossal waste of water ???

Well, late to the conversation, but gonna say a few things anyway. In the long run, I would never have plants that drip down from one shelf onto another. Nor would they share a common reservoir. That's a tragedy waiting to happen. Might be five years down the road, or longer. But when a virus hits, you'll be crying into your cheerios. I was the same for around six or so years, and picked up a virus on one bakers rack shelf while they were outside for the summer. Had to pitch a whole rack of orchids. A few will likely never be replaceable. I frankly don’t do that with houseplants, but sure do with orchids.

For traditional S/H, I have my reservoir holes drilled well above the boot trays they all sit on, on a stacked wire rack. Then I put a piece of half-inch PVC drain into each tray. When I water, the tray drains down and into a reservoir. (if I’m draining to basement from sunroom, into a 55 gallon trash can. If I’m draining outside, usually just have it drain into a nearby flower bed, etc. Or I have a couple of large totes that sit at bottom and I fill them. In the trash can or the tote, I have a small pump and I can water other plants individually if I choose. I also don’t like the idea of water waste.

Here's an old setup I had in my sun room about five years ago:







This one drained into my basement. I just drilled a hole in the floor and had the pipe go straight down and hang over the trash can. So there's a couple of ways you can conserve water.

---------- Post added at 09:20 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:18 AM ----------

Originally Posted by Ray

7-8 months a year, I grow out on my deck, so use a garden hose with water breaker, so everything gets flooded like mad at every watering.

In the cooler months, when they are indoors, I have two techniques I use. I water 1-2x/week using the pump up sprayer either way, but I remove the spray nozzle, then I am able to flood the pots, or I flush thoroughly in the sink with plain water, followed by "fortified" water with the spray nozzle on the sprayer.

Very curious, Ray. So now you're not using RO water for most of your orchids? Is that because you've moved to a place with a more tolerable water supply? I'm still really not comfortable with the amount of RO water I need to produce each week, thus the question. Still attempting to figure out something better for myself.