On May 29, 7:53*pm, "Spider" wrote:
"Kate Brown" wrote in message

...



Here we are in London and the ground is getting drier, actually the pots
are getting really dry. *We have a mains water irrigation system, some
drippers, some sprayers, and use it if there has been no rain for a few
days. *But I do notice that the leaves afterwards show how hard the water
is - the lime is left as a whitish bloom where the droplets evaporated.
Is this generally OK or should we try and counterbalance the lime with an
acid drench now and then? *We don't irrigate the camellias which are in a
relatively shady area, but a potted azalea would suffer without the drips
when we were away. *Otherwise we have all sorts of stuff - roses, lilies,
delphiniums blue and geraniums red - I'll put up some photos soon on
Flickr.

As a rule, though, is a lot of hard water bad or indifferent for most
plants?

--
Kate B

PS 'elvira' is spamtrapped - please reply to 'elviraspam' at cockaigne dot
org dot uk if you
want to reply personally

Hi Kate,

I would be inclined to give the potted azalea an acid feed; without it,
other nutrients in the compost will not be available to it. *I give my roses
one acid feed a year to help with blackspot, but you don't have to if your
roses are happy without. *Some lilies like an acid soil, but by no means all
of them. *You may need to look up the requirements of your variety(ies)..
Delphiniums and geraniums are happy with alkaline soil, as are pelargoniums,
in case that's what you meant :~).

Personally, I would find the hard water staining on the leaves undesirable.
However, whilst you might be able to adjust the drippers so that they only
wet the soil, I don't see how you can avoid wetting the leaves with the
sprayers. *Still, it is just a niggle compared with watching your plants
wilt during a drought.

Spider

I would agree with that, I had that probem in the UK.

Judith