Re: Chloramine ??????
Karl Hoover wrote:
>
> >The last question on this FAQ page is 'Will chloramine harm plants'? The
> >answer is a definate NO.
> >
> >IMO, Karl's problems with his plants are simply that they are not adapted to
> >cope with hard water. The use of peat or soft water resins should solve the
> >problem.
> >
> >David Field
> >London UK.
> >
>
> Thanks to all for the various responses.
>
> As to the 'definate NO', my father always taught me (though
> he now claims it must have been my high school science teacher)
> "Don't believe anything you hear and only half of what see."
> To which I would add "and believe the opposite of anything you
> read on the internet." [and in e-mail <8) ???]
>
> It just seems unlikely that material that causes obvious
> inflamation in humans and which can kill all mannner of
> microbes, algae and parasites just so happens to be completely
> harmless to all plants of any horticultural interest;
>
> I was able to grow Gardenia jasminoides, the water,
> which is disinfected with chlorine not chloramine,
> alternated between well water which was quite hard
> and water imported from the Sierra Nevada mountains which was
> fairly soft.
>
> I've got two 1 year old Meconopsis betonicifolia which
> I've been watering with distilled water, I think I can try
> a controlled study and report back in a few months.
>
Somewhere I heard that the EastBay water district, where I live, also adds
something besides chloramine to raise the pH of the water, so that it lasts longer
in the pipes. I haven't been able to confirm that with the District (getting
information from a government bureaucracy . . . ). That could also effect the
ability to grow certain plants (Meconopsis b. coming from high rainfall areas
where the water would have a negative pH, might also be susceptal to alkaline
water). I now use water purchased from Glacier Water machines at supermarkets for
watering my sensitive species tropical rhododendrons, until I can figure out a
cheaper way to treat the water. Their information department says that their
activated charcoal filters take out "99%" of the chloramine. At least our water
district gave us all warning of the change to chloramine, and the lethality to
fish. They didn't propose any cures, except to buy trewatment products from
tropical fish stores. Interestingly, the South Carolina water district that has
the webpage that David Field referred to, offers free water at several stations to
its cumstomers with chloramine removed, for those that want choramine-free water
for drinking or fish. It's too bad the California water districts aren't as
enlightened or customer friendly as those in South Carolina.
Karl, if you're a chemist, what's the truth to the proposed homegrown cholramine
removal treatment, of letting the water stand for a week or so, with composted
orgainic matter in it, to "use up" the choramine; or the use of sodium
thiosulfite?
