What's new
TerraForums Venus Flytrap, Nepenthes, Drosera and more talk

Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

recycling water

xvart

Doing it wrong until I do it right.
Staff member
Moderator
For each of my neps I have a collection try/bowl to collect the water that flows through the soil and the pot. Usually, I dump each bowl of water into a larger collection container and use this for evaporation and humidity in the rest of my grow chamber.

My question is this: would it hurt to reuse this water and pour again through the nep pots for watering? Just wondering because sometimes it seems that I am just dumping this valuable water down the drain when not used for humidity.

Thanks for reading.

xvart.
 
You could do it for a while but I think you'd want to start fresh periodically. Whatever you pour back in was already in the pots anyway. That's only a bad thing if there are minerals and such that you've been flushing away.

If you've been watering your plants fresh for quite a while you may have flushed away most of the undesirables by now.

You could also try collecting condensation from humidity if you really want to recycle.
 
However, you need to keep in mind that there are living undersireables as well. If one of your plants starts to look bad, then stop using that water ASAP because you may end up spreading a pathogen from one plant to others.
 
Thanks for the responses. I am not trying to conserve all the water that they use so the condensation collection is not necessary; but, I did not think about the spreading of pathogens. That is an excellent point. Although I do not believe that any of my plants have anything, I will probably not do this just in case! Thanks again.

xvart.
 
Well, I'm not trying to discuorage you from conserving water, just reminding you of some risks. You should be fine using the water a few times, but accumulation of salts, ogranics, and possibly pathogens should be a deterrant for doing it too many times with the same batch of water.

You should be just fine doing it at least a couple of time with each batch of water.

I know where you're coming from, water is expensive!
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] (Est @ Nov. 28 2006,2:15)]I know where you're coming from, water is expensive!
Well, I am not at the point where I have to invest too much money into distilled water. To me it's more of a trouble trying to remember to constantly get distilled water at the store; or needing water and not needing groceries... oh, the troubles we face.

xvart.
 
Back
Top