Date: Tue, 7 Jul 1998 14:24:16 EDT From: CALIFCARN@aol.com To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com Message-Id: <aabcdefg2270$foo@default> Subject: Re: Water hardness
Howdy folks, Peter here at California Carnivores. I've been interested in
water quality for CPs for many years. Our well water here is an astounding 550
ppm but it is neutral to slightly acidic at 6.5 on the pH scale. We have
recently switched to a fabulous deionization system, because our well water
destroys our R.O.s too quickly and we needed a much higher volume of water,
with pressure so we can gradually automate our water system. (It use to take
us hours a day to water all of our plants in this California summer heat, now
its much faster using the deionization hose.)
My question is this: Has anyone experimented with hard water that has a
lot of minerals in it, yet was on the acidic side? Could it be that alkaline
water (above 7.0 on the pH scale) is the culprit, but acidic water high in
minerals is not so bad? I've been meaning to experiment with our horrible
well water on a few varieties of plants to see if they can survive our well
water here, but haven't gotten around to it yet. I'll try to seperate a
flytrap, some sundews, Sarracenia and so on, and water them only with our well
water, and see what happens over time.
My experiment with using coco peat as a medium as been interesting. Since
winter I've grown a flytrap, cape sundew, D. schizandra, a Sarracenia and a
couple of other things using coco peat. I'll be reporting on these results in
an upcoming column of The Savage Garden that I do for the Carnivorous Plant
Newsletter. Peter
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