Good morning,

I have hard water so I try to keep my watering can full so the calcium
can settle out and the chlorine can evaporate. The problem is that I
never seem to have enough water ready for my trees and it's just going
to get worse as the Summer heats up. I'm thinking of buying a barrel or
a large pot or maybe a filter.

How do you folks treat your bonsai water?

If you use a settling vessel how do you keep the mosquitoes out?

Thanks,
Don

Round Rock, TX
Zone 8b

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Chorine is not a problem since most of it is gone by the time the water
leaves the purification facility and the remainder gases off very quickly as you
pour water

Calcium and other dissolved minerals are more likely to discolor you pots if
they are porous but will not harm you trees. If they did fertilizer would kill
them.

If your water has that many minerals in it you might need to repot more often
to keep the pots cleaner.

I use well water, no chorine but lots of minerals. Except for a white powder
on the exterior of low fired, very porous pots it is not a problem.

Billy on the Florida Space Coast

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I would check with Mike Hansen of MBP Bonsai and the
Austin Bonsai Society about this, since he live in the same area
as you and has researched water treatment extensively.
Neither chlorine nor calcium should be any problem for
your bonsai. The calcium will mess up your pots with deposits
over time, however. If you want to store water, there are
commercially available mosquito dunks available. They look like a
donut.
Alan Walker
http://bonsai-bci.com http://LCBSBonsai.org


-----Original Message-----
From: Don Walker
Good morning,
I have hard water so I try to keep my watering can full so the
calcium
can settle out and the chlorine can evaporate. The problem is
that I
never seem to have enough water ready for my trees and it's just
going
to get worse as the Summer heats up. I'm thinking of buying a
barrel or
a large pot or maybe a filter.

How do you folks treat your bonsai water?

If you use a settling vessel how do you keep the mosquitoes out?

Thanks,
Don

Round Rock, TX
Zone 8b

************************************************** ******************************
++++Sponsored, in part, by Sue Crabtree++++
************************************************** ******************************
-- The IBC HOME PAGE & FAQ: http://www.internetbonsaiclub.org/ --
+++++ Questions? Help? e-mail +++++

Don Walker wrote:
Good morning,

I have hard water so I try to keep my watering can full so the calcium
can settle out and the chlorine can evaporate. The problem is that I
never seem to have enough water ready for my trees and it's just going
to get worse as the Summer heats up. I'm thinking of buying a barrel or
a large pot or maybe a filter.

How do you folks treat your bonsai water?

If you use a settling vessel how do you keep the mosquitoes out?


Since the calcium is in solution, it's unlikely to "settle out."
The only material that will actually settle is something
carried in suspension -- unless your water is super saturated to
the point that the calcium would precipitate when the water cooled.

But as others have said, it's nothing to fret about as far as the
health of your bonsai goes. Neither is chlorine. Basic rule of
watering plants; if its safe for you to drink it's OK for your
trees, and actually water with higher-than-drinking-
water-standards levels of some materials still may be OK -- or
even good -- for your trees.

Any garden center sells "mosquito dunks" -- donut shaped cookies
containing a bacteria (BT) that attacks mosquito larva. It also
comes as granules, which is the way I prefer it since its easier
to dole out small amounts for individual trays of water I may
keep under some trees such as bald cypress and wisteria. I keep
my small fish pond and all the bird baths stocked with BT, which
probably helps curb the skeeter population, but with several
thousand acres of woods on all sides of my little farm and with
all the magnolia leaves on the ground in those woods to serve as
skeeter reservoirs, any mosquitoes I could produce domestically
probably would go unnoticed. ;-)

Anyway, I'd just use your water straight from the tap. Use a
spray head on your hose and it will further aerate away the
residual chlorine.

Jim Lewis - - Tallahassee, FL - Nature
encourages no looseness, pardons no errors. Ralph Waldo Emerson

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I'm from Hawaii and now live in Los Angeles and both places have hard
water. Lot's of minerals. Los Angeles has more chlorine too. For a
while I was letting the water sit in the sprayer at least over night.
As I get more plants I decided to throw up my hands and just use
straight tap water this year. My plants seem none the worse for it.

Layne

On 7 May 2005 09:00:47 -0700, (Don Walker) wrote:

Good morning,

I have hard water so I try to keep my watering can full so the calcium
can settle out and the chlorine can evaporate. The problem is that I
never seem to have enough water ready for my trees and it's just going
to get worse as the Summer heats up. I'm thinking of buying a barrel or
a large pot or maybe a filter.

How do you folks treat your bonsai water?

If you use a settling vessel how do you keep the mosquitoes out?

Thanks,
Don

Round Rock, TX
Zone 8b

************************************************* *******************************
++++Sponsored, in part, by Sue Crabtree++++
************************************************* *******************************
-- The IBC HOME PAGE & FAQ: http://www.internetbonsaiclub.org/ --
+++++ Questions? Help? e-mail +++++

Don,

Mike Hanson (and others) will probably be at tonights (Wed the 11th) Austin
Bonsai Society meeting.

I live near Mike *just* South of Round Rock and have no problems whatsoever
with the water from my tap for the health of my trees.

It's also important to note that chlorine is a necessary mineral/gas for
healthy plant growth. And because we live with slightly alkaline water in
our area, no one (that I know of) is growing extreme calcifuges like
Stewartia monodelphia. Most of the trees that we grow... even azaleas with
an occasional adjustment... can take our water.

So rest easy. I look forward to meeting you soon.

Cheers,
Jim

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++++Sponsored, in part, by Sue Crabtree++++
************************************************** ******************************
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+++++ Questions? Help? e-mail +++++