Re: Idea ref cobra lilies

Len Trigg (trigg@jane.cs.waikato.ac.nz)
Fri, 17 May 1996 10:14:49 +0000 (+1200)

> From: Steven_I._Lanham@bridge.com (Steven I. Lanham)
>
> Hi I have a friend who was looking at a CP catalog and was asking why
> I don't grow a cobra Lilly. I told him of the cool roots needed and he
> came up with a idea to cool them for very close to free! He wants to
> set up a small low power pump to collect the very cold condensation
> water from my AC unit! Store it in a 5 gal jug with R 60+ insulation
> in the ground and using the pump to move it through a copper coil in
> the bottom of a flat. the waste water is distilled and can be used to
> water the rest of the plants. As the only time the AC is on is when
> its hot I think it will work! What do you all think of his idea?

I'm not sure from your description whether you actually want to water the
cobra lily with the AC water, or just use the water for cooling by running it
through a pipe placed near/in the plant pot.

The water that is distilled by the AC unit might be less pure than you think
(if that is what you intended). I haven't had any personal experience with AC
units myself, but the idea of using AC distilled water for aquarium water
changes had cropped up a few times in the aquaria newsgroups. Apparently the
water will contain all sorts of crud collected from the air, as well as
possibly being contaminated by the metal of the condensing coils. I'm not
sure how sensitive Darlingtonia are with regards to their water purity, but
it's something to think about.

Cheers,
Len.

-- 
 Len Trigg ===================================================
 Comp Sci Grad   DoD#1334   trigg@cs.waikato.ac.nz             
 Waikato Uni     GPX250     http://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~trigg          
 Finger trigg@jane.cs.waikato.ac.nz for PGP Public key