Mmm, cycad salad??

LOL Elaine!!

I have a question regarding watering now:

We've recently purchased a water filtration system: Zuvo based on UV and ozonification of water. Would this water be suitable for cycads too? First of all, it reduces the chlorine in water, and of course other germs or parasites cysts, etc. I was thinking that with chlorine reduced, it would be better for the cycads to water them with this filtrated water than with the regular tap water.

Any advices? Thank you in advance.

Just my opinion, Mima, it makes no difference to the plant. You should drink your lovely filtered water, and water the plants with the tap water. You can let it sit in a watering can for a few hours if you want the chlorine to blow off, but I honestly don't think it makes any difference to the plant. Here's why:

I have 3 kinds of water, rainwater, tap water and well water. Orchids are supposed to be very sensitive to what type of water you give them because they get nutrients from the air and from water that lands on the leaves. I've watered my orchids religiously with rainwater (as long as I have some) but when we put in our well, the whole outside irrigation system was put onto the well water. It is untreated and has a pH of around 8.2 i.e. alkaline. I was so careful not to use the well water on my orchids, until I had to go away for 3 weeks and put them on a timer using the well water to mist them daily. The orchids looked fantastic when I got back, and I've left them on the auto system with well water misting ever since. As long as I rinse them with rainwater (or it rains) once a week or so they don't get white crusty stuff on the leaves and are very happy. The fact that they do get the white crusty stuff if I don't rinse them tells me they are filtering the water themselves.

As far as the chlorinated water (tap water) a friend of mine had two of his orchids blow into his swimming pool and they were underwater for nearly a full day. He says he was amazed that nothing happened at all, the plants were fine.

Also whenever you need to treat plants with something for bugs or other disease, you're spraying them with water that has a lot of "stuff" in it whether it's soap, or baking soda or some chemical . . and the plants handle it just fine.

Elaine, I could not agree with you more. I have no source for rainwater and have no well. All my plants receive regular city tap water. The only variable is that while my orchids and other tropical plants are outside from April until October, they get rained on. Even then, they still get watered from my hose weekly and in really hot weather, bi-weekly. Five months out of the year while in the house, enclosed porch or greenhouses, they get nothing but tap water. I have over 400 orchids and over 100 miscellaneous tropical plants and they all do just fine.

Growing my cycads, I find they are not picky with the water. Tap water works ok. What is important is drainage, it enjoys getting some stepped up watering during very warm to hot days as long as it drains well. I like to keep it simple if I can.

OK then, I shouldn't sweat watering my cycads.

I think I will water them with the purified water though. I was already keeping the tap water a while in open pots to wait for it to clear the extra chlorine.
Thanks for all the input.

Not everyone's tap water is the same....

That is true too, Hetty.

I have found that tropicals are very sensitive to flouride usually found in tap water...it will do the Cordylines in really fast. But it will flash off with the chlorine if left in an open container.

I would caution using mayo or oil to wipe the leaves of plants. Plants 'breathe' and receive all kinds of signals thru their cellular structure in the leaves (stomae?)....

Just my experience living out here in the bush

Thank you Carol. Good to know about mayo, I didn't try it yet because I was so busy lately.
I was thinking about fluoride too, this purificator removes most of it.

It's most likely the vinegar in the mayo that takes off the hard water deposits. So maybe you could just use vinegar diluted with water and it might do the same cleaning job. Then rinse the leaves with your purified water.

That being said, the mayo idea came from a fellow who grows and shows orchids, which are epiphytes and take in a lot of water and nutrient through the leaves. He's used mayo/water to clean the leaves of his orchids for years. You wipe it on with a paper towel, rub gently to get the crust off, then wipe most of it off again, and it takes the hard water deposits, dirt and dust away, and leaves a nice sheen on the leaves.

I was given a bunch of orchids that had been watered with well water for years, and they came to me all crusted and ratty looking. I cleaned off all those leaves laboriously with the mayo/water and so far, (18 months) have not lost a single orchid and only the odd leaf, in the normal course of things. I'm thinking the dirt and hard water deposits also block the leaves' ability to uptake stuff, so a little residual oil might be less harmful than all that crust and dirt. You could always wash off the residual oil with soapy water on a paper towel, too. But I didn't.

Interesting, Elaine....good to know! I remember my mother touting milk to clean the mineral deposits with. I had thought it would be lethal!!!!