I just read that you shouldn't use tap water that has been softened, with salt. I have a small dwarf dendrobium whos leaf tips are a little brown. So should I use distilled water or can you use water from a well?
Well water or distilled
Sometimes well water may have more salt and noxious chemichal leached out from agricultural and animal husbandry farms. To be sure, if you have a well , send a sample to be tested,
You can try 2 things: boiled your water and when cool you can used that water for watering your orchids, or , and I do this for any watering of container plants, left tap water overnight in a large (wide) container open ,so chorine and otehr salt has evaporated from the water by the time I will be using it.
cristina.
Where do you send water to be tested? What type of business rather.
Usually is your water authority, in some countries local council (municipality) or agricultural section of a local university.
cristina
Hola- I have been using water from the well for eight years, and I have not had any problems with it; maybe you are over watering the dens. Luis
TZ_SoCal
Sep 16, 2001
Water softeners replace calcium salts with sodium, which is worse for your plants. All of your plants will be happier with distilled, rain, or RO purified water. Well water is more often than not worse than municipal water sources, it is never much better. Florida well water is fairly hard and high in total dissolved solids due to the limestone bedrock.
Boiling will not remove salts from water. It will actually concentrate them as the water boils off.
In order to find your water quality report on-line and to find out what it means for orchid growing follow the links on this page.
http://www.nhm.org/guana/tz-webpg/wtrqlty.htm
I just started using the reverse osmoses machine up the street for the orchids. The yard plants love the well water.
I just use rain water ,a heavy barrel to collect it in , with a shot of neem oil to keep the mesquitoes out , till I get the cover on it , in the winter a submersable stock tank heater to unthaw it . My water has chlorine in it,have to many to water to let it set out or boil it . Gin :)