Steve wrote:
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.

Tapwater at 17? Where do you gbet that?? Eden? That's
just not normal! Ours is between 400 and 600. My
rainwater tests at 11. BIG difference, especially for
the disas.