Watering Poll

[uncasteeb]

Rainwater.
Collected from my roof(roof tiles are slate so basically inert) , i have about 450litres capacity(100 gallons roughly).

[WEA]

Rain water? What's rain water (in northern Florida)? The well water in my new north Florida location is 250+ TDS, pH 7.8 - 8.3 with high [iron]. Not wanting to use Na softened water, I used the well water. After a year of poor plant growth, some of which might be attributable to water quality (hi pH and TDS), I switched to KCL in the softener and began using softened/treated water. I also purchased a pH meter and use "Downer" to adjust the pH into a range (5.8 - 6.5) suitable for the plants to make better use of available nutrients.

I have a small 25x10' enclosed green house with about 150 generally hearty plants in only a few genera (nothing exotic). Even having switched half the collection to S/H, I still use 25 gallons of treated/adjusted water at a clip. In between waterings and cooling is done with straight treated water.

If the collection were smaller or I was indoors, more expensive water alternatives might be an option. I tend to grow what grows for me. As my facility conditions and techniques get better, maybe the collection will diversify accordingly.

[Cjcorner]

Rainwater when possible, otherwise its the water from the tap outside.
Connie

[WEA]

I know your list couldn't include every possibility, but what about softened water now that KCl is available many places? I have well water as house water at the new place. The TDS is too high (250 plus) and the Fe is in the [colorful]. So treated, softened water was the only way to go with out resorting to the expense and ongoing complexities of RO water, which for 100 plus plants was out of my budget & patience.

[HollyHock76]

I use rain water as often as possible, but tap when the weather is dry. I also have a small pond that I "steal" water from every so often. I think that the natural water is just better, I can't offer any scientific proof-but things just seem to be more responsive to rain or pond water over the tap.

[Kauaiguy]

My order of preference: a) Fish Pond or Aquarium water b) Rain Water, but be careful if it comes off the roof of the house and collected into a barrel. Because that would depend on the type of roofing you have.

Stone? Vinyl? Tile? Metal? are OK, but wood roof ??? May be OK if it's an old roof, but I would be weary of what is leaching out of the wood. C) Tap water IF collected in a barrel and let sit for at least 24 hours to leach out any harmful chemicals such as Chlorine.

I use a 32 gallon garbage can with a floating valve to leach out my tap water: See inserted pic.