What Is The Best Source Of Water To Cultivate Orchids?

by ong hui
(singapore)

Which water source (koi pond ,Eco Pond,Tap water or Distilled water) is best suited for cultivating the orchids?

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Jul 17, 2011
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The Best Water To Use For Orchids Depends On the Source and The Quality And Kind Of Orchids
by: Melissa

Hello Ong Hui,

Thanks for your question, it is a really good one.

The "best" water source for orchids depends on:

The kind of orchids that you are growing and the water quality of the sources that you have available.

If the water that you have available to you from the tap does not have particularly high chlorine or high dissolved solids then you can use that water.

If just chlorine is the issue you can boil the water to drive off the chlorine gas and then cool the water to room temperature and use that on your orchids.

Here in the USA when we say high dissolved solids we mean high mineral content in the water (greater than 120 ppm). Water with high mineral content we call "hard" water. Often you can tell water with high mineral content because it will leave deposits over time on the faucets and other places in contact with the water. It can leave the same deposits on your orchid plants and pots.

Many orchids do not like water with high dissolved solids. Some don't mind so much but some like species orchids often can not tolerate the "hard" water.

Water that has been "softened" particularly with sodium chloride (salt) is particularly bad for orchids because of the sodium chloride and can kill many orchids.

The best water to use would be rainwater if enough is available. The only problem would be if where you are growing orchids is very polluted (which might cause the rainwater to be acid rain).

Many orchid growers who do not live where there is abundant good rainwater will use a reverse osmosis system. This is a system that removes alot (but not all) of the dissolved solids in the water.

I use both the water from my well for some orchids (yes it is somewhat hard with higher dissolved solids, but some of my orchids do not mind). There is no chlorine in my well water. I also use a reverse osomsis system for my species orchids and those that can not tolerate many dissolved solids.

I do not generally use distilled water as it has no minerals at all in it and most orchids benefit from tiny amounts of minerals in the water, just as they would receive from rainwater in the wild. I would use distilled water if I had nothing else, but I would not use it for a long term solution.

Hope this is informative and helpful.

Melissa
www.orchids-plus-more.com

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