Tropicals & Tender Perennials: Tropical garden #8, 1 by fredrump

fredrump wrote:
Hap,
GM = Good morning?
RO = Reverse Osmosis.

The problem with ground (well) water, in these parts at least, is too much Sodium and Calcium Carbonate (all that limestone). I've pretty much neutralized the Calcium but the salt can't be removed except by a reverse osmosis process. Every orchid grower I know of has huge tanks of water which has gone through some salt removal process to benefit his orchids.

Yesterday I went to see Jade Orchids here in Naples and they showed me their water system clarification process. The owner found out a long time ago that the salt content in his groundwater was killing his orchids over time. He now even has a backup RO system in case one should fail. Everything we see down here in the Southern part of the state was under the ocean until about 6000 years ago. There is lots and lots of limestone which formed over millions of years which makes up Florida. At one time, about 10,000 feet deep, various land living creatures lived. They are all covered with this limestone stuff mixed with salt from the sea.

From a geology of Florida: "The calcium carbonate which makes up the rocks associated with carbonate platforms is produced by various organisms which live in marine environments. When the tiny animals that live in coral reefs die, the reefs (made of calcium carbonate) may be preserved as one type of limestone. Some varieties of seaweed (algae) have the ability to secrete fragile skeletons of calcium carbonate. When the algae die tiny crystals of calcium carbonate fall to the sea floor and form carbonate mud, or lime-mud. This carbonate mud is preserved as another type of limestone. These are only two examples of the sorts of organisms which construct calcium carbonate skeletons as part of their life cycle. If a carbonate platform is to form, these carbonate-producing organisms must be able to grow prolifically. The water in which the organisms live must remain shallow, since some of them require light to survive."

Anyway, the water we extract from under our gardens is full of all kinds of chemical components which orchids aren't used to. They are epiphytes who clung onto trees and received their moisture from the sky and from evaporation of rain water. No artificial water from below or man made is in their genealogy. :-)

So the orchid growers try to reproduce what the orchids like which is water mixed with only minute elements other then H2O. The reverse osmosis process produces water which is actually too pure and growers reinject minerals to approximate what nature provided.

The other problem is a sinking water table because of human consumption which tends to bring the nearby ocean into play. Water gets saltier as we approach the edge of the water. Here in Naples we are not all that far from the Gulf of Mexico.

I really found out about all this salt after I had sodded most of my 2.5 acres with zoysia and it didn't grow at all like the grass I saw on the sod farms further inland. As a matter of fact, the more I watered it the worse it got. Checking with golf courses as to how they get their grass so nice revealed elaborate water systems which modified their available ground water via acid and fertilizer injections. My lawn is coming back now that I have my own acid injection system. I also found out why everybody has Floratam St. Augustine weed grass on their lawns in Florida. It doesn't care about salt and it's roots barely touch the soil but spread above it.

Here a picture of Florida just a little while ago in earth time.

Fred