I agree with Ray on this. High bicarbonate and pH are indicative of hard
water. In itself this is not a bad thing if pH is brought down with the
addition of a bit of an acid, but careful monitoring will be required to
make sure that just enough acidity is added. I would recommend myself using
citric acid instead of strong acids like sulfuric. Citric acid is used in
jam making and can be purchased in bulk at a fairly low price. It is solid
and non toxic, too, a definitive safety bonus. I wonder if this practical in
the long term.
Without pH correction, however, using any of these two sources of water will
cause salt accumulation.This is unsightly on leaves and can be detrimental
for roots. Limestone loving orchids might like the water as is, though.
Note that I'm not familliar with °D and °F (certainly not a temperature).
I wonder what this is.
Marc
"Ray @ First Rays Orchids" a écrit dans le message
de ...
I would vote for B, adjusting the pH downward to the 6.0-6.5 range via
fertilizer alone, or other pH-adjuster additions. The fact is, there's
not
THAT much difference.
The HCO3 content may be due to carbonates in the water source's geology,
but
can be somewhat affected by gases absorbed from the atmosphere, so may
change. The µS/cm (microSiemens/cm) is a measure of electrical
conductivity, which is related to the dissolved ionic species, hence the
TDS, and both seem fairly high.
--
Ray Barkalow First Rays Orchids
http://www.firstrays.com
Secure Online Ordering & Lots of Free Info!
"Wendy" wrote in message
news:kOJza.52826$MJ5.47347@fed1read03...
----- Original Message -----
From: Reka
Newsgroups: rec.gardens.orchids
Sent: Wednesday, May 21, 2003 10:54 PM
Subject: Water quality
Hi, folks! I am looking for some help from the "scientists" out there.
I
have two sets of water data and would like to ask which one is better
for
orchids and why, plus what simple things I could do (obviously not RO or
anything spendy) to make it better.
Here are the data:
A B
pH 7.8 8.14
µS/cm 420 353
°D 15.26 12
°F 27.3 21.5
mg/l HCO3 296 250
Nitrate mg/l 7 5.5
Chloride mg/l 2 1
Fluoride mg/l 0.1 0.1
Sulfate 12 6
Am I correct in assuming B is generally better? Any help will be
appreciated.
--
Reka
http://www.rolbox.it/hukari/index.html
"A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the
subject."
--Winston Churchill
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