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What's the Best Water for Orchids? Hard, Soft, Distilled, Rain or Well, Reverse Osmosis...
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Oct 3, 2024
When it comes to watering orchids, there’s so much misinformation out there, that it leads to bad habits and the eventual death of many orchids. The worst advice possible is the use of ice cubes, and I’ll mention that later below. But first, let’s start with the types of water and which is best for your orchids. With each city and country having different minerals and additives in the water supply, it’s best to get an overall idea of what types of water there are. In this video, you’ll learn what each type of water is and what is best to use on your orchid. If you want the full explanation of this video in writing, go to https://orchideria.com/best-water-for-orchids/ On Orchideria.com, you can find more in-depth guides and all the access to our information, tutorials, guides, and much more... all for free! Happy Cultivating! ______________________ HASHTAGS: #orchidcare #orchid #Orchideria #AmandaMatthews _______________________ SOCIAL MEDIA: Website: https://orchideria.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/orchideria.orchid.terrariums
View Video Transcript
0:00
You've probably read many, many times that you need to use the right water to water your orchids
0:06
But what does that mean? Sometimes you don't even realize there are different types of water and what goes into the water directly affects the growth and the maturity of your orchid
0:18
So in this video I'm going to talk about several different types of water, rainwater, reverse osmosis water, distilled water, tap water, and the pH and
0:29
all those different things that go into what water you should be using to water your orchids
0:39
Hi, I'm Amanda Matthews and thank you for watching this video at Orchidaria
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The one thing that I am going to say before I go into all the different types of water
0:48
is that it won't make a difference what water you're using if you're overwatering or underwatering
0:56
So first get that part right and then let's go go into what water to use
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The second thing on, if you're using distilled water, reverse osmosis, tap water, the main part of this
1:11
is not exactly, well, I use tap water and it always works. Well, I use tap water and it killed all my orchids
1:16
There are different relationships to, like the rainwater in your area. If you live in a very polluted city
1:24
that rainwater is gonna be awful. So you can't really go by
1:29
those types of categories. So your main concern should be with the pH
1:34
the chlorine, the fluoride, and the sodium levels that are in that water
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When you can manage those ions and keep those between the levels
1:45
that your orchid prefers, your orchid's gonna see a great difference. And that's what I'm gonna talk about in this video
1:51
Let's first talk about pH. You can buy a pH meter, they're extremely cheap
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You can buy them even from aquarium shops because lots of aquariums will sell these
2:02
to test their water for their fish. Now this one is for plants
2:07
and you test the water for plants. And it's really easy. You just put it in water and it comes up
2:14
with the right pH that that water is after 30 seconds. You do have to clean it after each application
2:22
in water that is neutral. So keep in mind they can be recalibrated
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Now the instructions of this are all online. These are really cheap. I think these are less than $5
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So get a pH meter. It does make a difference so you can at least have an initial understanding of what your water is
2:41
When I didn't have one of these, I was using tap water. And then I found out my tap water was close to eight, almost nine
2:50
And that's why my orchards were not blooming because it was just so alkaline that nothing would grow in that
2:57
Get a pH meter, they're extremely cheap. If you do not have one, you can test a local pet store for pH for aquariums
3:07
They always have them. They run a little higher, probably around $10, and they're little strips of paper that you test in the water
3:14
So there are three types of information you need to know on pH. The first is there's three types of orchids
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The epithites which grow on trees, they will want a pH of around 5
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5.5 to 6.5. Now that is extremely important to know and that's probably the majority of the orchids that you will own as a beginner
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Like Cattlias, phallinopsis, vandas, dendrobiums, all those that are epithites that attach to trees are going to want a pH of 5.5 to 6.5
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Now that is the main concern that you need to know with water The other two categories are lipothite orchids And lipophyte attached to rocks They usually grow on the mountain side usually on the sides of waterfalls
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not where the water is falling, but on the edge where there's high humidity
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And the calcium carbonate that runs off the water is going to make that more alkaline
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It's going to prefer a higher pH of around 7.5, 6.5, 7.5, all the way up to 7.9
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So if you have an orchid that loves attached to rocks, you need to keep that pH a little high
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Now, the third one is terrestrial orchids like pathopetalums, phragmopediums. That's on the other end
4:46
You can go lower on the pH scale. So terrestrial orchids will have a higher concentration of acidity in the soil
4:55
So they will like that lower pH of around 4.5, 5.5. So those are the three types of orchids and what pH they will start in
5:05
So get your orchid. Make sure you either know it's an epithite, a lipophyte, or a terrestrial orchid
5:12
And first check your pH to see if that is in the correct rank
5:19
I can tell you right now tap water usually is way high and you'll need to bring that water pH down
5:29
And you can do that with the several different things like vinegar and lemon and tea
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You can bring that pH down naturally without having to use all kinds of other chemical products, which I'll go into here
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So that's the biggest problem with tap water is the high pH
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The other problem with the tap water is the chlorine. No orchid likes chlorine
5:54
It kills it. The roots just crunch up, they get dry, they don't absorb anything
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They really react badly to chlorine. One way to get rid of the chlorine in your tap water
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it's easy, it evaporates. So fill your bucket up with water that you're going to use to water your orchids
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the night before or the day before. Leave it out 24 hours
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That gives it plenty of time for the chlorine to just evaporate from there and leave
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Then you can use your tap water. It will have a higher number of parts per million, and that is another meter that if you really want to use, you can
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It's this one right here, which is almost the same. Actually, I bought mine together
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They usually come in pairs of two, and you can check your parts per million
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Tap water will have a higher parts per million, and that is not really good
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You can bring it down by using other types of water. So if you're really, really interested, for beginners, I don't really suggest this
7:00
but if you really want to take your orchid care to the next level
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invest in a meter that will provide the parts per million. Now, the water that comes out of our tap is defined as hard water
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We can use water softeners that will take all. the magnesium fluoride chlorine, all those extra ingrate ions that are in there out of the water
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Now, how this works is that they add a chemical solution, which is sodium chloride
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And the sodium chloride reacts to these different types of ions, and it eliminates them
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It neutralizes them. So, here's the trade-off. You install soft water in your home, which is actually great for hair, for dishes
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the soap that you use will become bubbly all of a sudden You don have to clean all that crumb out of your bathroom and you know the dishes come out with less spots it just it really good for your house but because of the sodium levels in the
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sodium chloride you're providing your orchid with extremely high levels of sodium so soft water is the
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worst water you could ever provide for your orchids if you have a soft water filter in your house
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Do not use it to water your organs. It's preferred if you get another type like reverse osmosis water or distilled water or rainwater, well water, any other type of water, but soft water is the worst
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Another tip about sodium chloride soft water filters is that if you have heart problems, it's just going to raise your level of sodium in your body and you can have serious health effects because of the sodium levels in your soft water
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So we have tap water, which is hard water. We have soft water, which is a softener cleaner, a sodium chloride cleaner
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And the third one is a reverse osmosis water. Now reverse osmosis is actually a filter that is going to filter through all these extra ions
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They're not exactly expensive. You can get one. You just leave the water in the filter
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They're not that hard to find either if you're in the USA. But of course, you cannot do this
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without the right mechanisms. So you have to go after an appliance to buy that
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The fourth method is distilled water. I have one. Distilled water, they, you can buy this
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It's, that's what I use. It's actually the easiest I think. You can use distilled water if you do not have this available
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in your area where you will boil a pan of water and then put another pan inside of it
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put a lid on it. So you have a big pan, a small pan, and a lid. So the water is going to boil up
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it's going to evaporate, hit the lid, condense, and fall back into the smaller pan. You use
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that smaller, the water in the smaller pan then to water your orchids. The process of evaporating
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and condensing and then falling back on into the pan will eliminate all the extra ingredients
10:16
the extra ions that your orchid doesn't want. What are we five now? The fifth way is rainwater
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And rainwater depending on your area can be excellent or it can be awful. So you will need a pH meter
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You will need eight parts per million. I remember I bought those both together. They're less than
10:35
$10. Get one so you at least have an idea of what you can do better to help out your orchid care
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You won't need to be testing every single day just so you know in which direction you need to go
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Oh my pH is too high, my pH is too low, which is probably not the case
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But at least you know where you're headed and what north to take
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The only problem with rainwater is if you're collecting rainwater through a well
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remember that rain is going to saturate through the soil. So on the way down, it can collect lime, chalk, magnesium, calcium, calcium
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and all these other ions that are just going to saturate that water
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Now, the good one is calcium. So keep that calcium, but everything else
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Magnesium is good also, but in lower levels. I'm going to want to check that
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That's why it's important to have that parts per million meter, so you will know exactly how much is going into your orchid
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And that can also influence your fertilization. If you are collecting rainwater that has a high level of magnesium high level of calcium and other ingredients that really age your orchid care you won need to fertilize that much And actually if you do fertilize it might harm your orchid because you offering way too
11:59
many minerals that the orchid doesn't need. So it's going to hurt your orchid instead of make your orchid thrive
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That's why you need to know, is my water okay? How much of these ingredients am I providing to my orchid
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And I keep saying ingredients like it's a recipe, but you guys get what I'm talking about
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It's the ion, the chemical elements. It's all that. The sixth way to water orchids, and this is a big question, can I use ice cubes to water my orchids
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Yes, you can, but why would you? Because think about you have orchids that are three types of orchids
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They grow on trees, they grow on rocks, and they grow terrestrily, which is
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not in the soil but on top a layer of moss and leaf litter so they're not directly in the soil
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All these three, all of them, grow in climates that do not involve cold weather. None of them
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None, not one orchid you will ever find. In fact, orchids grow on every continent except continents that have glaciers
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So this temperature change in the water that you're giving your orchid through ice cube is actually going to stun the roots
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They won't absorb that much. Also, where you put your ice cube on your orchid, that water is going to melt and it's going to hydrate that specific portion of your pot
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You'll have to put ice cubes all the way around and sometimes these pots are extremely tiny
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They don't fit all the way around and you'll have to touch the leaves
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contact with the ice cold water will burn the leaves. So you're not only harming the leaves, the stems, the roots
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you're not hydrating the potting media the way you should. So because of these three reasons
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ice cubes are not recommended. Will your orchid live if you use ice cubes
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Yes, I mean, water is water. It's actually when you freeze the water
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if you're going to use ice cubes, which I hope you don't, Boil the water first because that gets rid of the majority of the chemicals through evaporation
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and you can use a cleaner water after you boil it. But please don't because this temperature change
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on the orchid is going to halt your growth a little bit. It won't kill it, but it will halt it
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And it won't hydrate all the potting media because when you water your orchid, you really need to
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soak that potting media and get water all the way around. around it. Take your orchid pot to the sink and dunk it or either take your and get the
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holes and take it all the way around. Don't put it on the stem. Take it all the way around your
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orchid and really hydrate that medium until it's running out of the pot. That's a good way to
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measure if your potting media needs to be changed or if it doesn't. So in my opinion, don't
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use ice cubes. It's not the best. It's not going to do anything for your orchid
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like Catlias, Vandas, um, what's the name, what's your name? Phelanopsis
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If you've liked this video and you want to continue your orchid care, you can watch this video up here about edema
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and that is just watering too much and the orchid will absorb it and you'll get little blisters on the leaf
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And if you have a specific orchid, like a catacetum orchid, you can watch this video down here that talks
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about the different cycles of how to water that. So I hope to see you in the comments below and happy cultivating
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