Dustin wrote:
Do any of you collect rainwater to use on your orchids? I want to
collect the rainwater off of the roof of my house. I had to get a new
roof after last summers hurricanes so I have new asphalt shingles and I
am wondering if there is anything toxic in them. Not that a TDS meter
can tell me anything, but the TDS of the rain from my roof is the same
as the rain falling right into a clean bucket.

Dustin

I collected water from my roof in the fall last year and the year
before. I started doing it when I got several seedling Phrags. Last year
I collected about 50 gallons and stored it in plastic milk jugs for use
over the winter. My roof was a few years old when I started collecting
rain. I was warned by people that there could be a danger of toxic
substances in the water. I never saw any problems. I always tried to
collect water AFTER it had been raining for a while and while it was
raining fairly hard. One time I collected some from the beginning of a
gentle rain and the water had a brown tint to it. I threw that batch out.
By the way, I don't plan to collect water this year. I always suspected
that our water has a very low TDS but since I didn't have a meter, I
collected rain to be safe. A friend of mine got a TDS meter. My
collected rain gave a reading of 4. Water right out of the tap gave a
reading of 17. I guess I was wasting my time with the rain collections.

Steve ... in the Adirondacks ... where the forecast for tonight is 35
degrees and tomorrow night, 33 degrees. I spent most of the day bringing
orchids into the basement grow areas!