Water Quality: It does make a difference.

[Drosera]

mh, I think not all orchids like tap water
I´m watering my Masdevallias , Dracs , Pleuros and Lepanthes only with rainwater .
The roots from Lepanthes and others (for example Dendrobium cuthbertsonii ) is very sensitive .
And I give hydrogen peroxide in the rainwater ,24 h before I ´m watering .This water has 50 micro siemens.
Than I can mix it with fertilizer to 100 micro siemens.
For other orchids , big Dendros ,Phals and Maxillarias I push it to 200 - 500 micro siemens for my Phaius .
For this big plants sometimes I take a mix from tap and rainwater when I don´t have enough for all my orchids ,but than without fertilizer .
To salty for the roots

Two of times in one year I give them lime from algae.

[Maggie]

I use tap water for watering my chids, but when fertilizing I fill my containers and stand overnight to release the chlorine as I never know if the chlorine will react with the fertilizer.

[BearWithMe]

I usually use rain water. I hooked up a plastic rain barrel to my waterspout. When there is an occasional winter freeze it's time for tap water but otherwise they just get rain water. Well, once in a while I'll use tap water thinking they might benefit from the calcium, but that's once or twice a season. I use weakly weekly fertilizer and try to remember to flush with pure rain water once a month. When I water, I let it wash thoroughly through the container.

Even so, when I use clay pots they crust up with salts and get gooey slime growing on them. When leaves lay against the rim they get a burn hole where they touch. This is not a problem with plastic or glazed ceramic pots.

Most of my orchids generally grow quite happily but Im still learning what it takes to get some to bloom. There is some natural selection there - I don't have a lot of room so I gave away a couple that did not grow well.

I have no idea of the pH - I assume we all have some acid rain. Need to check some time.

[FrankP999]

My tap water has 11 ppm Calcium and 2.4 ppm Magnesium and bicarb of 43 ppm with hardness of 36. Is this enough Calcium and Magnesium? Thanks

[Dazed]

So far I've been using a combo of aquarium and rain water since we here in the Caribbean are getting our wet season. I had started out with aquarium and tap about 5 mths with my very first orchids; dens and phals, but I'm just using what's in abundence as the seasons go. I'm still learning, so we'll see.

[jai_star]

I use water collected from the dehumidfier in our laundry room so far the Phals have put out excess growth and looks healthy in combo with an orchid fert
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[coeruleo]

i use good old los angeles tap water only since my local rain water is probably more polluted from smog anyway. i filter it in a typical water-pitcher type filter for home use sometimes, but not always. i fertilize very weakly, weekly while growing, and make sure they get a good flush of plain water just to remove excess whatever that may be collecting in the pot and medium once a month or so. i grow phals and a little bit of everything typical. i don't think my water quality is all that bad. i get some white crusty deposits, but the flushing helps to keep that under control. i probably pay more attention to water temperature. i've noticed bud drops when i water with cold water. i think the sudden shock stresses out the plant. i try to do lukewarm or room temp, and sometimes i set out the water jugs overnight to help dissipate some of the gasses when it is warmer out. but that's it. i think anything too fussy would not survive my regimen, so if there are types that are really sensitive, i'd love to know, so i know what to avoid. i read this a lot when reading about orchids, but in reality, i find it not such a problem if you flush out those residues. so far anyway.

[nagurski]

The county water here is yuck . I try and catch rainwater and store in trash cans . If it does not rain then it is Ro. water . Fert. is for rain water , I don't prewater , they can't eat with their roots full of plain water .
The mist fan is connected to a tap it leaves a white coating on the leaves without getting them wet it is set low to the floor but still cruds the leaves .
Gin

This is most likely calcium carbonate. CaCO3 is common in virtually every tap water in every municipal supply. It is not a great idea to keep depositing layers of calcium carbonate on your plant's leaves, as it will eventually interfere with respiration. Back when I was more of a novice, I actually killed a nice dendrobium by spraying it with too much tap water...before I knew what was going on.

Now I only use distilled water for everything...watering and misting. It works amazing, and my orchids are very happy right now.

Well, except for my newest specimen, a cirrhopetalum. I'm not sure what the deal is with that one, but I think it got too wet a while back...hopefully it can recover.

[ECC_lectic]

I just bought a jug filter for my orchids - does anyone use this type of filtered water? Not Brita, but a competitor, ion exchange resin, metallic silver and activated charcoal in a small plastic container; water pours through. Does anyone know if it makes a difference? A positive difference?

[raybark]

A Brita is just a carbon filter; it will take out chlorine and organic chemicals, but does nothing to removed dissolved minerals. If your filter also has DI resin, it will, resulting in superior water.

However, be aware that the amount of resin in those cartridges is so small, that it'll likely need to be replaced very frequently ($$$).