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Post by AWD on Jul 25, 2016 12:54:38 GMT -5
I made a quick mini bog with a small rectangular plastic container that's filled with rain water to cover bottom of pots. Can I use tap water to top of my bog or do i need to use rain water? Bog currently has a Sarracenia Cobra Nest and a Sarracenia purpurea. Correct me if I got the species wrong
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Post by RuBisCO on Jul 25, 2016 13:08:56 GMT -5
I would suggest getting a total dissolved solids (TDS) meter and checking your tap water if you have not done so already. From what I have read and believe, TDS <100ppm would be ok from tap but I imagine over long enough time it would still accumulate salt. I have mini-bogs outside and they receive regular times watering from my city water with TDS ~85 and they are doing ok. My mini bogs are vented and have a drain from the bottom up to a point that I set the water level (I have a thread in here titles 84ppm water) - Lots of posts on this sort of stuff here and other resources around... Cheers
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Post by AWD on Jul 26, 2016 8:42:50 GMT -5
Ok I'll try to phone the city today. Anyone know if Coquitlam's water is soft or hard?
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Post by bince on Jul 26, 2016 18:01:50 GMT -5
Best thing to do is order a TDS meter from Amazon, it is going to run around $20.00. That way you can check your water on a regular basis.
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Post by lloyd on Jul 27, 2016 6:22:26 GMT -5
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Post by porcorosso on Aug 1, 2016 17:00:22 GMT -5
when I was still living in east vancouver / mount pleasant area I consistently used tap water for my planted bog garden container. It did very well. I would often leave it for 24 hrs for a lot of bad stuff to evaporate from the water before using. I would supplement occasionally with water collected from burns bog or other bogs on occasion to keep the water area of my bog full of healthy bugs and flora.
I still do this( leave my water out for 24+ hrs) for my neps, which grow like crazy. I am in Squamish now. Testing is a great idea of course.
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Post by RuBisCO on Aug 1, 2016 17:26:18 GMT -5
when I was still living in east vancouver / mount pleasant area I consistently used tap water for my planted bog garden container. It did very well. I would often leave it for 24 hrs for a lot of bad stuff to evaporate from the water before using. I would supplement occasionally with water collected from burns bog or other bogs on occasion to keep the water area of my bog full of healthy bugs and flora. I still do this( leave my water out for 24+ hrs) for my neps, which grow like crazy. I am in Squamish now. Testing is a great idea of course. Caution - tap water can vary greatly in dissolved solids and that is the more concerning issue. Chlorine will dissipate rapidly but the big concern would be accumulation and concentration of calcium and other salts over time.
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Post by porcorosso on Aug 1, 2016 21:11:47 GMT -5
when I was still living in east vancouver / mount pleasant area I consistently used tap water for my planted bog garden container. It did very well. I would often leave it for 24 hrs for a lot of bad stuff to evaporate from the water before using. I would supplement occasionally with water collected from burns bog or other bogs on occasion to keep the water area of my bog full of healthy bugs and flora. I still do this( leave my water out for 24+ hrs) for my neps, which grow like crazy. I am in Squamish now. Testing is a great idea of course. Caution - tap water can vary greatly in dissolved solids and that is the more concerning issue. Chlorine will dissipate rapidly but the big concern would be accumulation and concentration of calcium and other salts over time. no doubt, Over a decade in Vancouver for my Sars and darlingtonia and five elsewhere and over 6 years in Vancouver and five elsewhere for my neps thus far. I guess I have the luck of ten really lucky people :) Someday I will get a tester, I swear...... It really does seem like a great idea.... I should just stop being a cheap bastid and order one..... Because what everyone here says does make sense... edit: alright.... I ordered one.........
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Post by WillyCKH on Aug 4, 2016 1:33:45 GMT -5
Caution - tap water can vary greatly in dissolved solids and that is the more concerning issue. Chlorine will dissipate rapidly but the big concern would be accumulation and concentration of calcium and other salts over time. no doubt, Over a decade in Vancouver for my Sars and darlingtonia and five elsewhere and over 6 years in Vancouver and five elsewhere for my neps thus far. I guess I have the luck of ten really lucky people Someday I will get a tester, I swear...... It really does seem like a great idea.... I should just stop being a cheap bastid and order one..... Because what everyone here says does make sense... edit: alright.... I ordered one......... It's really useful, you won't regret ordering one I use it to test my aquarium water, test the water in trays, test everything I can think of haha
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Post by thorns65 on Aug 24, 2016 11:23:54 GMT -5
I did buy one of those tests meters off eBay. Best 14 bucks ever spent!!!
My city tap water has a reading of 145ppm. Distilled bottled water 0 ppm. (not the same as boiled water, which does not remove minerals at all, reading after boiling tap water remained the same 145ppm.) My cottage lake water is 43ppm
With this year's drought in ontario, at least where I live, that distilled water became a daily purchase it seemed, otherwise rain water would be fine.
I decided on cottage lake water. WOW, can I tell you the growth spurt everything had! I'm serious amazing! Fly traps starting growing erect and tall and Sundews and vft all grew multitudes of flower scapes.
Hope this helps.
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Post by sarah on Aug 24, 2016 13:39:52 GMT -5
I did buy one of those tests meters off eBay. Best 14 bucks ever spent!!! My city tap water has a reading of 145ppm. Distilled bottled water 0 ppm. (not the same as boiled water, which does not remove minerals at all, reading after boiling tap water remained the same 145ppm.) My cottage lake water is 43ppm With this year's drought in ontario, at least where I live, that distilled water became a daily purchase it seemed, otherwise rain water would be fine. I decided on cottage lake water. WOW, can I tell you the growth spurt everything had! I'm serious amazing! Fly traps starting growing erect and tall and Sundews and vft all grew multitudes of flower scapes. Hope this helps. You can get distilled water out of boiling but it involves a slightly complicated setup where you need to collect the condensate, kind of the same way you can purify salt water by boiling.
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Post by porcorosso on Aug 26, 2016 15:20:41 GMT -5
So after giving in and buying a meter, it turns out our tap water in squamish is around 27 ppm . Seems reasonable :)
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Post by AWD on Aug 27, 2016 17:26:33 GMT -5
It's been little over a month ago that I put my mini bog outside on the south side. Does it look healthy? Are the colors normal? I notice the Sarracenia is getting a little redder too. The Cobra Nest is growing also but not too quick.
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Post by lloyd on Aug 27, 2016 17:32:32 GMT -5
Looks good.
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Post by AWD on Aug 27, 2016 17:42:14 GMT -5
Whew..I can sleep tonight...lol. Thanks Lloyd.
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