Tag: TDS meter

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Water.

Just like sunlight, water is essential for plants to live. You can’t have too much, and you can’t have too little.

What needs to be understood about watering plants, is this: Not all water will work for all types of plants. I’ll explain.

In a general sense, most plants will take whatever water that’s available. Certain plants however, will not last very long, when consuming certain types of water.

Many plants are okay with taking tap water, but as most of us know, tap water is filled with chemicals. Most of it is unacceptable for plants in general. You have chemicals like fluoride and chlorine, neither or which is good for plants. Just imagine, if it’s not very good to put on your plants, then you understand why it’s not good to drink.

When looking at certain plants, plants that prefer chemical and mineral free water, which is basically distilled, rain, or reverse osmosis water, you can look at the carnivorous plants, where they get their needed nutrients through capturing their prey, and absorbing nutrients from their food. Their food being primarily insects. Water with minerals, will be a problem for those plants, because they would prefer not to have them. It can tolerate some nutrients in water, but again, they would prefer not to have them in their water.

Tap water isn’t all that bad for carnivorous plants, as long as it’s parts per million is quite low. Anything from 50 PPM to 140 PPM, is much closer to ideal for carnivorous plants. Having a TDS (Total disolved solids) meter to measure what’s in your water, is essential for your plants water, and your own drinking water.

Spring water may have minerals in them, and generally the TDS readings are in a similar range to tap water, at their lowest readings. I’ve tested some I purchased from my local supermarket, and they measured around 30 PPM, from what I had at the time. Would I use spring water to water my plants? Maybe, but I would refrain from using that on carnivorous plants.

Distilled water would be seen as the best, for pretty much all plants, because there’s just water and no chemicals and no minerals in it. TDS meters will generally read 0 PPM for distilled water. It’s best in my opinion, because no plants will absorb anything other than water. Should anything else be absorbed, that will come from the media the plants are already in.

From what I’ve dealt with when it comes to water, watering and spraying, generally isn’t an issue, especially with the tap water I have available to me. The measured TDS readings go from as low as 50 PPM and as high as 60 PPM, depending on the temperature (I’m not sure why this is, but this is what I’ve observed).

What’s good about watering plants, is that depending on how many plants you have, the more you water, the likelihood of raising the humidity around it will occur. This can occur best when misting or spraying your plants. I’ve seen this firsthand, with humidity gauges nearby to notice the differences. I’ve seen some areas, where the humidity rose from as little as 5%, to as much as 15%. If you have bushy plants, that will be more of an incentive for the humidity to be increased in that area. That increase will also be beneficial towards plants that thrive in tropical climates; albeit minimal, since it’s unlikely it will go nearest to high percentages like 80% or 90%. Stranger things have happened.

I do have a tank that will help some plants, mostly those deemed tropical plants, to have that increase in humidity, to where they can reach as high as 90%; as long as the tank is covered, this will be the result after a good, strong misting.

So yes, water and the types of water used for plants does matter. Your safest bet, if you can capture it, rain water. However, for convenience, have distilled water. There are two ways to get distilled water. Either make it yourself, with a water distiller, or purchase it from the local supermarket. I don’t know much about reverse osmosis water just yet, but when I do, I’ll document what I observe. Tap water is still okay, as long as it measures with the readings mentioned previously. No higher than 150 PPM, but best to be as low or lower that 50 PPM.

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My Successes With Plant Care.

I’ve had my share of failures, and often it takes enough failures to result in success, eventually. For some plants more than others, it is more of a trial-and-error process, in order to succeed in growing, or at least maintaining plants.

There are a handful of plants I’ve maintained for a good year or so, so I can say that some have been on the verge of growing and multiplying in various ways. There are others that will simply grow slowly, and they aren’t fickle about having the simple things needed for standard growth. No fertilizer, just water and sunlight.

Now, granted, it’s ideal for most (if not all) plants to be watered with distilled water, but there are some that are quite content with simple tap water. I’ll elaborate in a bit.
I have a TDS meter to measure the quality of the water, and this is needed to say whether or not it’s safe to drink, and to show that it won’t be harmful to you, or to your plants. Right now, where I’m located currently, the reading is just below 30 ppm at cold temperature, but closer to 50 ppm, at either warm or hot temperatures. Usually higher than that, may be a cause for concern, especially if you are watering carnivorous plants.

My current success happens to be the coleus plants, and I have both the red leaves with green veins, and the green leaves with the red veins. I can’t remember when I bought it, that’s also how I know it’s a success. It started out as a small 5″ or 6″ plant, in a small pot for each of them. I do remember growing some when I was younger, and I had the leaves grow to nearly a foot long – each! Since then, I figured, maybe I would have some different success with a new set. That’s an understatement.

Right now, I have a good set of coleus plants, to fit into window planters, as a result of some successful water propagations. Some I’m trying for moist soil propagations, and I think it will be just fine. I know this, because of the amount of time it does take to develop roots from cuttings, which can vary from a few weeks to a month. Water propagation is much faster, and that’s close to near half to three quarters of a month.

For the first set I’ve propagated, and allowed to grow, it took a while for it to spread out, to the point where it’s reaching out through the window guards. To add to that, in recent weeks, I saw something I didn’t see in my previous planting experience with coleus. It’s beginning to flower, while going into the fall months. I barely noticed this, because part of it was covered by the window curtains and blinds. I just thought that this was amazing! Not only that, but it happened with two of the plants (I have a total of seven cuttings at the windows; four in one planter, and three in the other planter). I’ve made sure it gets enough water, so there’s no need to worry about that.

Sometimes, for plants like the coleus plants, it’s more like a no-fuss plant. As long as it gets those essentials – proper soil, water, and sunlight – it will be just fine.

As far as watering, it’s not hard, but spraying to get the leaves some dampness, it can be tough, so I decided to go the route of looking for those pump sprayers needed to do the job, without wearing down my finger from pressing the trigger of the spray bottle too long. This was needed because the coleus in both planters, were getting very, very bushy.

To me, it’s just crazy to know just how well this worked, because I didn’t have to worry about doing anything. At times, some leaves every now and again would fall off, but that’s okay. It does happen from time to time, and it hasn’t hampered the growth of the rest of the plants. Besides, what I don’t pick up, will become fertilizer over time.

I did have a cactus, that I chose to buy, and there’s a word of warning about getting a cactus. Once you have one, you have to repot them, and because of the needles, it’s not that simple. This is why I got some decent leather work gloves from the hardware store. This made it easier to handle maneuvering the cactus when preparing it to move from one pot of soil, to another.

This particular cactus didn’t have a flower glued onto it, like most people tend to see, thinking it’s real. No, it’s plastic, hot glued onto a cactus. Is it possible for a cactus to grow flowers? Yes, but often you’ll know what they look like when it happens.

Since this didn’t have that issue of having a fake flower glued on top of it, there was no worry of the plant having any issues. The needles stayed bright white, and the flesh of the cactus stayed green throughout its stay in my home. So far, so good. I water it maybe once or twice a week, and it’s seems to be keeping its vibrant color. it is by a window, but nearest to my air conditioner. The sunlight shines from the window, since I didn’t anchor down the blinds above the A/C unit; and it shines right onto the cactus, giving it a decent dose of sunlight. I can say I’ve had this for maybe three to four months, maybe longer.

I have some other plants that I have hanging at the window that gets the most sunlight, and some of them also do even better in tropical environments. Now when I say tropical, I mean high humidity areas. Anything measuring 70% humidity or higher, would make these and other plants deemed tropical plants, very happy. These seem to be just fine with 60% or lower, but it will show some drying out, if it goes anywhere near 40% or lower.

These plants that I have hanging at my window, currently are the “baby’s tears”, and the “creeping fig”. I’m not really sure the latter is that, but this is what I was told, so I’m going with it; I’ll research the name later. These are plants that will grow, and hang, which makes it interesting. These are good for trimming every so often, to place the cuttings in a variety of areas. I have some small terrariums, a big one which is a fish tank setup, and some other pots, where they aren’t the kind that hang by the window. The “baby’s tears” are great and keeps itself with small leaves, even in the humid areas in my home. Both types seem to grow well in either grow lights, or sunlight. They are watered regularly, maybe two to three times a week, depending on the types of planters being used. Those that are sealed with its own false bottom, I water maybe less frequent to prevent any root rot issues from occurring.

I mentioned previously, the fish tank setup I had as my large terrarium, but not in such detail. This is where most of my successes, besides the coleus, has taken place. This is an interesting one, because it revolves around lots of plants, many of which I forgot the names of most of them. For the ones I do know of, I’ll mention by name.
This tank setup I had to go through a few scenarios until I got the right one. In another journal, I’ll explain what I have, and how it works for me. For now, I’ll scatter some details here and there.

For the plants inside, there are many that are growing quite well, and are happy being in this environment. How do I know they are happy? Well, for one, they root much faster after being transferred from the pots I purchased them in, into there. Most (if not all) of the plants inside the tank, are seen as tropical plants. Once they begin to root and adjust to the soil, the leaves begin to spread, and for some more than others, flowers may bloom.

Now, it also results in new growth, and I found this out recently with the parlor palms I have inside of the tank. I started to see new shoots reveal themselves, well after maybe five months after purchasing them. There was another that grew ridiculously fast, and I had to cut and propagate them within weeks of transplanting them into the tank. After a few months, I had to transfer them to pots outside, because they were literally outgrowing the height of the tank.

I have two types of nerve plants; one green with red veins, and one green with white veins. The latter I got last, and wouldn’t you know it? It did something a bit strange, at least I thought so. I had some separated in a few terrariums, so I brought it over to where I normally buy most of my plants (this one I didn’t buy there). I wasn’t sure of the scent it emitted, but from what the plant shop owners suggested, it was somewhat of a minty scent, but it was showing how happy it was, by emitting such a scent. I was relieved that it wasn’t a bad reaction to the humidity, but it was the opposite.

I also bought the plant known as “string of turtles”, and these were quite fun to grow. These tend to also like humidity, so the tank, and other terrariums were perfect settings for these viney plants. These, along with other plants like the ones I have hanging by the windows, are good in the tank and the terrariums also, as mentioned previously.

One other thing I neglected to mention earlier. For the plants inside the tank, the humidity range is in the high 80% range, closest to 90%, which is a very tropical setting for them. It’s closer to 90% depending on how much water is sprayed, and every week or so, I let it air out maybe for a couple of hours on the weekend. When it’s closed, the plants get that strong humidity, which is great. Also, for some plants, and actually for most eventually, they begin to develop air roots, which shows that they are really getting a strong dose of humidity. At first, I thought it was a cause for concern, but no, it’s actually a good thing.
I also have some large pieces of lava rock, and I placed one into the tank, and a few pieces in the smaller terrariums. Any of the viney plants growing on them will have their roots growing onto them, and the roots will feel as if they were hooked onto it. This doesn’t inhibit the growth of the plants, but it gives those plants a place to anchor themselves to.

The tank literally looks like a jungle in there. “It’s like a jungle sometimes it makes me wonder how I keep from going under.” (I couldn’t resist!) If I were to have maybe a turtle, or a lizard, I’m sure it would enjoy that setting, and have lots of places to hide.

There was also a remnant from a lady luck nepenthes that was a small plant, and eventually after growth in a smaller terrarium, where I salvaged and placed it, from a previous failure, it began to grow and it grew fast. Once that happened, I moved it to the tank. Within some months, it grew to the point where I had to cut and propagate it, because it nearly outgrew the height of the tank. After that, the propagated cutting rooted, and before you know it, it began producing flowers. It was the first set of flowers I saw growing in the tank, and so far the only one that has done so in there, outside of the red dragon VFT I once had.
For the most part, I’ve seen great things from these plants especially.

There are a few others, and they are the standard pitcher plants which are of the nepenthes variety. These were the wild nepenthes that are made available only certain times within the year, and are available in a certain flower district in NYC. Finding the right store was my toughest challenge, but when I did, that’s when I saw a pitcher plant in action.

After a while, because of the lack of humidity, it started to lose its traps, but it kept growing. I did have some success in propagating this, but it didn’t always work. I eventually bought another pitcher plant, and had this hang by the window, but not the one where the “babies tears” is hanging. It’s getting plenty of sunlight, and I water them as best as I can. I repotted all of these pitcher plants with sphagnum moss for a growing media for them. Since it’s lighter than soil, it’s best for hanging plants, so that it won’t weigh down the rod it’s hanging from.

There are a few others I can’t name, but these are still growing and have been for a while. Along with a small fern, right now, I have a good set of plants in my home, that are growing, and growing quite well. Just about every window in the house has a few plants on them. The only one that doesn’t have one, even hanging, is the bathroom window, with the frosted glass. That may change. I did try that, but that’s explained better in the failures section.

For now, these show just how I’ve been able to grow lots of plants quite nicely. There are some that are still works in progress. Should they be successes, I’ll add to them in a second installment of my successes. Should they be failures, I’ll add them in a second installment of my failures. Only time will tell, I guess.