Water quality issue

[WolfinKW]

hi Everyone.

Here in Las Vegas we apparently have EXTRA hard water... 19 drops when good water would be 1 or 2 at most using the little hardness tester. Anyway... We are getting a water softner that uses a resin and charcole to purify the water... Salt is only used to cleanse the used cartridge and that water is bypassed out of the house and into a drain... Anyway if we don't use the Sodium Chloride but the Potassium Chloride option would this water then be safe for the orchids? They are going to bypass the system for the sprinkler system once we get that fixed so just need advice. If you have a water softener by a brand starting with a K and have experience with this I would appreciate an email or reply.

Thanks

Wolf

[Curious George]

I've been using water processed as you describe for about a year now on a few hundred plants. Generally, it seems to be OK. I've had a couple 'babies' fail, but not sure that it was the water since I'm still a neophyte at orchid keeping. Many others have done just fine. I have to admit though that my deflasked sprouts have only seen Reverse Osmosis water after the softener. I also have used a 'K' brand softener for over five years with no problem. The percentage of salt (potassium) that remains in the softened water is very slight, but increases with the hardness of the water you are treating.

The formula for calculating the amount of additional potassium follows: mg of K / quart of softened water = grains of hardness X 7.5 mg K / grain of hardness.

The same would be true for sodium, if you used sodium chloride instead of potassium for ion-exchange resin regeneration.

[WolfinKW]

Thanks George for the information. That's a bit reassuring.

Wolf