Water for your carnivorous and insectivorous plants

Basically, there are four choices-
rain water
distilled water
RO water
RO/DI water

I'm not familiar with RO water, or RO/DI water. What are those?

RO = Reverse Osmosis

I have kids and found this site a while ago- How Stuff Works
www.howstuffworks.com/
They explain it well so you might want to take a peek over there. I like this site a lot.

From the site below, I excerpted the following-
http://chemistry.about.com/library/weekly/blrevosmosis.htm

Chemistry
What Is Reverse Osmosis?
How Does It Work?

"Diffusion is the movement of molecules from a region of higher concentration to a region of lower concentration. Osmosis is a special case of diffusion in which the molecules are water and the concentration gradient occurs across a semipermeable membrane. The semipermeable membrane allows the passage of water, but not ions (e.g., Na+, Ca2+, Cl-) or larger molecules (e.g., glucose, urea, bacteria). Diffusion and osmosis are thermodynamically favorable and will continue until equilibrium is reached. Osmosis can be slowed, stopped, or even reversed if sufficient pressure is applied to the membrane from the 'concentrated' side of the membrane.

Reverse osmosis occurs when the water is moved across the membrane against the concentration gradient, from lower concentration to higher concentration. To illustrate, imagine a semipermeable membrane with fresh water on one side and a concentrated aqueous solution on the other side. If normal osmosis takes place, the fresh water will cross the membrane to dilute the concentrated solution. In reverse osmosis, pressure is exerted on the side with the concentrated solution to force the water molecules across the membrane to the fresh water side.

Reverse osmosis is often used in commercial and residential water filtration. It is also one of the methods used to desalinate seawater. Sometimes reverse osmosis is used to purify liquids in which water is an undesirable impurity (e.g., ethanol)."

From this site I found another definition-
http://www.apswater.com/page44.html

"Reverse Osmosis (RO)
Nature dislikes imbalance, and reverse osmosis takes advantage of this natural need. Osmosis is the movement of water across a semipermeable membrane from the side that is less concentrated, and more pure to the salty, more concentrated side. This continues until either the concentration is equal, or the pressure on the concentrated side becomes strong enough to stop the flow.

In reverse osmosis the process happens in reverse, due to the pressure of a high pressure pump. The pump applies a strong pressure to the concentrated side, forcing water molecules over to the pure side, and leaving the salt, minerals and other impurities to be removed as waste. While the percentage of feedwater to pure water is large, the process is very efficient in removing contaminants."

CONTAMINENT and % REMOVAL EFFICIENCY
Suspended Solids 100
Bacteria 99.5
Viruses 99.5
Pyogens 99.5
Organics, molecular wgt.> 250 Daltons 97-99
Monovalent inorganics 94-96
Divalent inorganics 96-98
Trivalent inorganics 98-99

"Because this process removes contaminants so efficiently, it is very cost effective for pre-purifying tap water which is then purified again before use in other technologies. It removes a high percentage of bacteria and pyrogens, so it is often combined with the ion exchange to prolong the life of "polishing" cartridges in deionization systems. It also provides high quality pre-purified water which is suitable as is for many routine laboratory purposes."

DI = Deionize
DI can be a stand alone system or it can be another phase to a Reverse Osmosis system. A deionizer gets at a few more impurities by deionizing the water. I really don't believe it is necessary to purchase an RO system that has a DI phase. I just happen to have one because my husband purchased it as a gift for me.

Thanks! Of course, as soon as you said 'reverse osmosis' I thought "why didn't I know that?" LOL
Great information. I love the 'how stuff works' website. We subscribe to their newletter and my son spends an incredible amount of time on their site.
Thanks for such a detailed reponse.

I cut and paste well now don't I?

I go the distilled water route. Acme brand water, less than 70 cents a gallon.

WalMart... sometimes has distilled water on sale for .46 per gallon otherwise I think they are .56 or maybe it was .58 per gallon. I did accidentally buy some distilled water that had flouride or maybe it was calcium added once. Now I try hard to remember to pay attention.

I set out buckets on rainy days & collect rainwater when I can, otherwise I buy distilled water from WalMart.

I got free distilled water from the dehumidifer. :-)

Connie

"E"

You sure do C/P well...lol
I've got 2 - 55 gal. rainbarrels connected to downspouts here

Eric.

Ncffp163... I take it you liked my excellent cut and paste job on what RO is from the Internet? I do CPs well? Not exactly but I sure have good luck in some areas that I refer to as horseshoe up rear effect. What kind of rain barrels do you have?

HURE...a new acronym is born! LOL

I refer it to SWAG.

Oh you and your creativity!

editing to ask what SWAG stands for. Please do tell.

This message was edited Oct 20, 2005 1:01 AM

Come on now! This is the new CP forum. you should all have rain barrels to collect water and to be certain you don't have any mosquitos there should be aldrovanda (water wheel), or Utricularia (bladderwort) to eat them. My Utrics have formed their turions and sunk to the bottom for the winter.

Hey E, gardening season is over so I'm back behind the computer screen! I also took some pics this week for a lecture on bog gardening in Feb. Here's the Sarracenia alabamesis.

Oh oh oh! The carnies are assembling. This is wonderful. So glad you've surfaced from the long summer. There are some new people here that you will most assuredly enjoy.

How are the new double lakes in your back yard? Any chance to get in some water skiing on your creation?

Your rubra is simply mahvlous BogMan! You have been missed BogMan.

And, I do have rain barrels. Two of them actually. One problem is that we had the worst drought in this area in 100 years. A total of 7 wells went dry in this subdivision and had to be redrilled this year. We were spared that nightmare because we had to redrill ours last year. Sadly, my rain barrels sat empty for the vast majority of the summer. Pity for good rainbarrels to have gone to waste as they did sitting there all waterless.

I must tell you that 3 of my ponds do in fact have aquatic Utricularia in them. I've got macrorhiza, gibba, and inflata. The temps turned very cold and the inflata is sinking. The others are still floating for the time being. Enough of my little puddles, what do you have in your duo lakes?

"E"

I meant you do "Cut / Paste well...lol 1 rainbarrel is a greek pickle barrel (looks like a large brownish red mason jar) and the other is a plastic barrel I got from a Coca-Cola plant for free.

S.W.A.G. stands for Scientific Wild Ass Guess

Eric

ooo we can say the A word on DG, how cool is that?! LOL

I learned about the acronym SWAG from the chair of my Masters degree committee...funny how you remember these events that occurred a couple decades ago and can't remember things that happened yesterday.

Duh, I missed the forward slash you typed between C and P. I should have caught that you meant cut and paste.

Say Eric, thanks for the definition of SWAG. I had never heard that before.

As far as rain barrels, the spigot I have at the base of mine is nice but I think I'd prefer to have an open rain barrel like what you have so I could just dip a bucket in rather than bending over and straining my back to fill a bucket from the spigot. I think if I add another one I'll go for something like what you picked up from Coke or maybe a Greek Pickle Barrel deal. Probably more affordable and more practical anyway.

I've decided that next season instead of schlepping the dehumidifier water out of the basement and around the house I'm going to put one of the rain barrels in the basement and have the dehumidifier drain directly into it. Then when I need water I can just turn on a spare pump I have and run a hose through the basement window directly into the bog!

I don't yet have much in the ponds, Some native lotus from seed, a couple of hybrid water lillies, and some things I bought back from vacation in N. Hampshire. Included in that group is some Utricularia...I don't know which one. The lakes/ponds up there are just clogged with them.

On one other note E, I found some more interesting plants growing in my garden! Last October I went on a seed collecting trip with my botanist friend who does a lot with ODNR. We found a population of puttyroot orchids Apletrum hymale. There were hundreds of seed capsules. He suggested I bring one or two home and "let them fly". So I did. Well lo and behold I found 6 young plants in my wildflower garden where I let one of the capsules disperse. Now I've got to go check the woods where I let the other one go.

On my knees, hands clasped together and begging BogMan with no shame.... May I please have an Apletrum hymale seedpod please.

I have a few of these plants that were sent to me as a gift from Susan and I got them in the ground as soon as she sent them about two weeks ago. They looked to be holding their own but too soon to tell if they will make it or not. Those Puttyroot Orchids have such an understated elegance to them. If you ever dig one up to divide it, you will see why its other common name is Adam and Eve Orchid.

Please tell the good botanist that one of his Pachysandra allegheniensis from 3 years ago made it over here. Your double Sanguinaria canadensis is well protected from browse and is hanging in there under wire mesh so that nothing can eat it. Your Iris tripetala is struggling but holding its own. Conditions were too harsh this year for it to establish well but I have high hopes for next year as there is no way we can possibly have a third year of drought conditions in a row. The Spiranthes cernua is now established and I suspect next year it will take off.

I germinated some native Lizard's Tail and it did very well, would you like me to send you some for your double lakes in your back yard? I have several other native aquatics if you are interested that I can go dig up from the natural ponds out back next spring.

Well I'm glad to hear some of the plants I sent have survived. I divided the double bloodroot again and sent off some to other friends.

I'm not sure what I'll want for my ponds. I'm sure you've heard of Trickers? the oldest water gardening "nursery" in the country http://www.tricker.com/

They don't have the friendliest staff (from my experience), and the place is kind of a dump (I think it looks the same as it did when they opened in 1892), but they have some of the best water plants and at excellent prices. Best of all they are just 10 minutes away! Imagine the trouble I can get into! And on that note, My favorite nuseryman told me this week that he'll be getting in giant sequoias (Sequoiadendron giganteum) next season (the bank account is already in jeopardy and it's not even January yet)

Spend spend spend! Misery loves company.

One concern you need to be aware of when using distilled water or water from your de-humidifier is contamination from the coils used in the distilling process. Typically copper may be introduced into the distilled water. Whether this has any negetavie effects I don't know. As a reefkeepiong enthusiast as well, copper is deadly to invertebrae.