It'll kill em so you'll need to leave a pipe for the plants softened if that's possible!

My personal experience with water softeners consists only of filling my Mother's softener with 50 pound bags of salt every now and then. From everything I have read on the topic though it is a bad idea to water plants with softened water if you are using NaCl (sodium chloride) for recharging the resin. Sodium is poorly tolerated in most plants, and even in very small concentrations (ie the amount left in your tap water after treatment with the typical sodium chloride based water softener) can be quite toxic. The obvious exceptions being the halophytic plants that thrive in the intertidel zone. Since this is an Orchid forum I am betting that halophytes are not the plants you are hoping to grow.

KCl (potassium chloride) can also be used to recharge the exchange resin which is not toxic to most plants in small doses. Potassium is in fact vital to plant health as you may know from reading plant fertilizer labels. You have to be certain what salt is being used, or you risk inducing an ugly death in your plants.

Most commonly water softeners in the US are sodium chloride based systems, though I understand Potassium Chloride systems are available.

We have a whole-house water softener using Potassium. I still won't use it on my plants. I had a RO installed on my kitchen sink and use that and rainwater I collect in rain barrels. Our outside hose bypasses the softener, so I use tap water in summer from the hose.

Jane

oops reread my post and it makes no sense - you need to leave a pipe/line UNsoftened for your plants is what I meant to say.

I have an RO installed in my kitchen like Jane and I use that too

I, too, live in a home that has a water softener system... I take empty jugs out to a separate building that has well water with no softener and fill them for use on my indoor plants.

I'd really like to set up a system that collects rainwater as I know this would be much better for my plants.

I can't tell you how happy I am that this post was started! I live in an area where water lines were never put in down my road, and so I've been using well water (which has gone through a water softener) to water the all my orchids.....I didn't know it was bad for them :-X My watering habits are changing as a result of reading this. I'm curious, people have mentioned that they just use regular well water that hasn't gone through the softener...do the minerals (calcium, lime, etc.) harm the plants? In nature, I'd think they would be exposed to these elements.

Thanks,
~altair

Altair - interesting point about what they're exposed to in nature....I was thinking about this, and theoretically, epiphytic orchids wouldn't really see too much calcium/lime considering the majority of their nutrients and water comes from the sky/run-off that has washed over the poo of birds and other creatures in the trees. Probably the plants that can tolerate/even enjoy some calcium or lime are terrestrials.

Hmmm...you make an excellent point about that Calvin. Most of the plants I have are epiphytic in nature. Do you think that those minerals would damage their roots? I'm trying to determine whether it'd be possible to just use regular well water (without the softener), or if I'd need to buy distilled from the store. This coming summer, I'm hoping to get some barrels going for collecting rain water...but until then...

I have well water that I have had assayed that proved to be not too bad for this region as far as Ca, pH, Fe, and other mineral content, but terrible for watering orchids. The TDS was around 4 or 5 times higher than what I had hoped for at 340-ish. I now use water straight out of the tap to water everyone except my Paphs and Phrags that get only R/O. After a good drenching with straight tap I feed with R/O (Schlepped from Walmart) and MSU pure water.
I think anyone using straight tap water irrespective of the source, well or city should have a handle on the water quality before adding any fertilizer to it. Many municipalities have water analysis posted for the city water, but us well owners have to pay to have the water analyzed. I paid about 70.00 total to have a full check done at UW Stevens Point, and it proved to be money "well" spent.
The moral of the story is that in the end if it matters to you what your final TDS and pH is going to be after adding a supplement, you have to know where you are starting. I changed my watering and feeding strategy significantly after getting the analysis done. Once I was aware of what was coming out of the tap I was shocked to see what I was pouring on my plants, even with dilute feedings using a well water formula. After banning well water for the slipper orchids I have seen a big improvement in them, and using the well water just for drenching and flushing but feeding with R/O all the other orchids are very happy too.
Antec labs has a great water quality article that is worth reading IMHO Â find it here at http://ladyslipper.com/waterq.htm or follow the link at the bottom.

Here is a link that might be useful: Water Quality issues at Slipper Orchids

rfraser529 - Thanks for all the great info & link! :)

I used my well water for many years before we installed the softening system. The biggest problem I had was Ph with well water and fertilizer. I had a RO system installed (3 gallons) which doesn't provide enough water, so I collect rain water using barrels. This is a problem in the winter as they freeze. During this time, I collect my RO water and store in gallon bottle, soda bottles, etc. and manage to make it until the barrels thaw in Spring.

The orchids which showed the biggest improvement were the Oncids/intergens, Masdes. Those plants seem the most sensitive to hard water.

Jane

Jane,

I've been considering installing an R/O system. I'm pretty ignorant about R/O systems so please don't laugh at my questions ;-)

How long does it take your system to fill the 3 gallon tank? Does it happen on it's own or do you have to fill the tank manually?

Also, did you do anything to try and recoup the 9 gallons of waste/grey water? (I've heard it is 1 gal of R/O generated per 4 gallons of tap?) This is one of the reasons I still go to the car wash to get R/O water, at least there the waste is used for the other wash cycles. It makes me think I'm helping the enviro in a little way...

Thanks,

Bob

Hi Bob. To be honest I never thought about the waste. I am on a well and septic system so I'm not using a municipal water supply. Any waste water is obviously going out to water the lawn.

I paid more than I needed to because I hired Culligan Water to install the RO. I paid extra for the best filters, they are rated to block bacteria and virus. I don't remember the micron size. They put a faucet on the sink so its easy to use.

Long story short, I live in an area which is all well/septic and never trusted the well water to drink. I had it tested each year and it was deemed safe, but I am a City girl and prefer the smell of chlorine in my water. Thus the RO system. Plus our well water was high in hardness and acidic and I felt that affected some of my plants.

If I empty the reserve tank, it takes a few hours to fill again. I use rain barrels to collect rain water and use that when they aren't frozen. I fill containers with RO water in gallon amounts. I estimate I use approx. 3 gallons with each full watering. So I continually fill one gallon containers throughout the week so I don't deplete the RO in one watering. Now I am using rain water exclusively. When the plants go outside, I use the well water from the hose.

I really like the RO system. I feel it was worth the money. I even use it for ice cubes instead of the ice machine. I use it for cooking and drinking. I know there are cheaper ways to install them if you are handy. There are no 'handy-men' in this house.

Jane

Thank you all for your input!!! Looks like the idea of a whole house water softner is just plain bad for the orchids!!!!
I live in Arizona and the water here is terrible! Any other ideas?

Bandraman, you can get a "whole house" system installed with one faucet/tap (or more) left out of the system. It may cost a bit more, but it is certainly doable. If you get one of the smaller, counter or under-sink-mounted RO or filter installations, then there is only one source for the RO/filtered water (maybe more depending on how you have it set up), and all the other water is as it was. I would agree that the usual water-softening-system water would not be especially good for your orchids, nor for other plants. And if you have a medical condition calling for limiting your sodium intake, it's not good for that either - the potassium salt-softeners are safer, but still not great.

I live in z9 and had to get a water softener system when my new well had so much iron that everything in the house was washed to a light brown. I move the system on to bypass to water the orchids. Let the hose run for a little blt to clear the line and then start your watering. So far, after 2 years, I haven't seen any daamage done.

FYI - My local orchid grower says to NOT used distilled water. I have both public water and a well (don't ask, the story is way too long). I have by-passed the public water for my greenhouse and outside gardens. During the summer I use rainwater collected in a large barrel. Of course most things are outside then and get the natural rain water. Things are okay so far, but I can see where different wells have different PH levels, etc.

Why did your local orchid grower recommend not using distilled water?

Brooke

I've used distilled with a complete fertilizer without problems.

Jane