Open discussion of water types...

I need a little input from everyone for my Av's.

We recently moved back to Texas and the area here has soft water.Where I was living the water was very hard. My violets did fine as far as I could tell, but I was wondering if anybody else had seen any changes positive or negative when switching water types???
I know I will need to eventually repot them to a different mix for here but I'm wondering if they are going to suffer any ill effects from the aburpt water changes.

Thanks for any discussion/comments

MsC

I am in south Texas....you must be either in the hill country or Austin area. The main thing I do is to repot anything I buy the minute i get home with a mix of 2/3 perlite and 1/3 African violet soil mix. This is a very lite mix but I simply cannot use any vermiculite....then I self wick all plants using 1/4 strength with the fertilizer. Some people say to only use rain water, but I don't find that feasible and mine do well with city water. Some say don't rotate fertilizer, but I do mine......I rotate Eleanor's VF11, optimara food and Schultz AV food in liquid form.....
Mine grow on gro-light stands and some in southern, eastern and northern windows once the buds are on.
This is just my opinion but I don't think they will suffer from a water change.....with a soil as light as what I described, they are depending on their food as much as anything plus at least 10 hours of day of light.
good luck,
gail

I live in an unincorporated area of our city, and we don't have city water we have a deep well. Our water into the house comes through a water softening system, using salt pellets ... so I don't use that water for any plants! For all the houseplants on my deck and in my screened pool enclosure I use straight well water. For my African Violets and plants inside the house I use water that goes through a purifier.

It might be a good idea to have your water checked to see what chemicals, minerals, etc. are in it. I know our well water has a high lime content. A lot of cities have water with high levels of chlorine, which would not be too good for plants.

I have been living in my house for 2 years and I have a water softner, the kind with the salt pellets, and I use that water on all of my plants, they are doing wonderful. I use 1/4 tsp. Jack's fertilizer per gallon every time I water.
Thought I would put in my 2 cents.

Sandi

The main difference as far as your soft water now vs. your hard water before might be a change in the pH. Soft water tends to be more acidic compared to hard water that has dissolved calcium and magnesium and a generally higher pH. Time will tell what effects if any the change in your water will make to your violets. I hope you are happy in your new area and that your plants will be also.

woohoo! congrats on the move back!

well, not that I know where you prefer to live, but I just remember you had to slap humidity domes (and equivalents) on everything when you moved to AZ.

I haven't had to deal with major shifts in water, so my comments are academic.... I've been "in" on various discussions of water among orchid and gessie folk. From those I gather that ultra high TDS (total dissolved solids) can be a problem, and a pH that is too far one way or the other can also be a problem, but more importantly, the amount of salts is what matters. If the salt content is just too high, then the water is simply not suitable in the long run, regardless of what adjustments you make to the potting mix, fertilizer, watering habits etc.

On milder issues, you may have to supplement with more cal-mag, adjust pH etc.

Does your local water board provide an analysis of the water? Around here, most have it posted online. (In the "old" days before I cared about water, you had to sweet talk the info out of someone... so they say.)

So I guess the answer to your question is no - immediate ill effects from the abrupt change are unlikely.

We have a water well to use with livestock, etc...but my brother says it is not good for the veggie garden or living needs.

Hi MsC ; )
I have hard water...the super strength kind. lol And because of that, I've bought distilled water for some plants, including av's. We plan to move this year into an area with soft water. I was excited because I'll finally get to just run the tap instead of having to drive 30 minutes into town to buy some. lol But you raised a really good issue...your plants are used to having things a certain way. It wouldn't be possible to switch the water to soft gradually. Have you noticed any of them "pouting" at the change?

Ms C
I Moved from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan which we had Well Water to Waukegann ILL. Which has city water. What I have done is use Milk container to put the water in to let sit what I have read somewhere is it takes a while for the plants to get used to things like water and lite. but after 2 years my plants are blooming and some look pretty good. It has taken a while for them to bloom but they are starting . Don't mind the date I take the batteries out and to lazy to change the date I just took them today
Kim

Thanks everyone for your input. I know they did not suffer much from the water on first move but I wasn't sure what to expect on returning to Texas . The are happier I can see that...no more boxed AV's..they're free!

Yes, Keyring I am SO HAPPY to be home . The Av's & all the ZooCrew were happy to be home to! I will never leave Texas again!! I like what I know & I know Texas best...lol

The area does have its water quality listed but I don't remember much I'll have to go check it again.. maybe you can advise me if I need it deciphered??Thanks for the reminder.

Gail, I'm just outside of Austin to the east in College Station. We love it so far. Got to go to my first DG round up this year.It's close enough to the grandbaby & big kids to visit, but far enough not to panic during the hurricane season. It's really nice to see green & rain again..lol

I'll post some pics for the group later after I get better organized.

MsC

Glad you are so happy to be home again!!! Look forward to pictures, MsCritterkeeper
gail