Hi all, new to the site & gardening in general. I was wanting to know how this watering spike I have works. I have links to pictures of it and I thought it was kinda self explanatory, but there isn't any where for the water to drip from. The opening is about half an inch and the whole thing is about 4" long. I took it from an old plant my wife got from work and it was full of water and stuck down in the soil, but it doesn't seem to do anything. Sorry for the silly question, but I just want to know how it works is all. Thanks! Front view: http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-8/341287/IMG_3272.JPG Back view: http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-8/341287/IMG_3275.JPG

Texas waterlilies were plugging Marian Strawn for under $10 this Summer. Thats a typical price for tropical waterlilies, on Ebay

We have a well 400 ft deep that gives 10 gal/min. We are moving into the house next week and I am trying to figure out if we need to treat the water. The results form the county test are as follows... All results in mg/L unless otherwise specified. Ph 6.79 Calcium 6.2 Iron 1.62 Hardness 27 mg caco3/L Magnesium 2.7 Manganese 0.02 Sodium 6.7 Is there a way to filter the iron out without using a water softening system? I am not sure if it is ferric or ferrous yet. I am going to leave a sink full overnight and see if it changes color. Also, what is the consequence of iron at this level? I don't want to shorten the life of my new appliances, but I also don't want to soften or filter unless we need to. Thanks in advance! Cross posted in building a home

With hardness around 10gpg and manganese at .03 with iron at .1 you are smart to be considering a softener. Aside from the niceties of soft water a softener will lengthen the service life of the plumbing, fixtures, and appliances. Your clothes will last longer and you'll save money by using far less soap and detergent. Ok, water softener 101 ... Hit the Yellow Pages and call at least three local water treatment pros. Make sure you call at least one of the big dogs like Kinetico or Culligan for comparison and at least a couple independent pros. DON'T TELL THEM YOU HAD YOUR WATER TESTED. Give each an opportunity to offer suggestions and provide you with a quote to meet your water treatment needs. IGNORE ANY THAT DON'T TEST YOUR WATER THEMSELVES as they can't speak intelligently to water treatment without knowing what needs to be treated. Ask lots of questions. Warranty, parts & labor or just parts, how long and on exactly what? Install, permits required, licensed plumber? Routine maintenance and costs? Do they stock parts? Response time for emergency (water leak) calls? If they don't explain things to your satisfaction that is a good indicator of how you'll be treated after the sale. After they've gone use your water test to compare with theirs. Are all your treatment needs being addressed? Ask your neighbors if they have any water treatment experience. They might tell you who's good or who to avoid. Come back here and post the specific recommendations and hardware components with the costs and we'll give you our opinions. If you're a DIYer then you have other options but they must be discussed privately by email. But remember, when you do it yourself there's no one else to blame.