African Violets with well water?

14 years ago

Hello everyone,

I`m new here and new to African Violets. The Q and A on this forum have been a great help. I live in the country and we have well water. The water is quite hard, and full of lime and minerals. I`m wondering if this is too harsh for AVs and if I should buy distilled water for them?

Thanks for your help.

Barb

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Comments (5)

fred_hill
14 years ago
Hi Murphy,
I would try using your well water on just one of your violets. That way if the plant goes downhill you will still have the rest of them. If you can drink the water, I don't see why your plants won't tolerate it.
Fred in NJ
murphy40
Original Author
14 years ago
Thank you, Fred. I will try that, maybe get a cheaper violet from WalMart [keeping it separate from my Optmaras]
to see what happens. Our water is fine for drinking [not sulpher] but when left standing in something, like the animals' water bowls, it will eventually coat the sides with a hard white crust from the lime, which has to be soaked in vinegar to remove. My concern was that this might cling to the violet roots and kill them.
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biologyteacher60
14 years ago
I have hard well water also. What I do is fill up my watering can and let it sit (for at least a few days)before watering my violets. This allows much of the salts to settle out(the white coating that you see)before it gets to the violets. I only use water straight out of the tap if I have to. Since I use a wick system, I also make sure that I occasionally leech the soil and re-pot regularly.
murphy40
Original Author
14 years ago
Biologyteacher, thank you for your input and suggestion. I will defnitely do this, as I did not know that the salts would settle. This will be much more convenient for me than trying to always have distilled water on hand. This forum is certainly a great place for learning and picking up helpful tips!
irina_co
14 years ago
Murphy -

it depends - if your water has 150 mg of minerals per liter - you are OK, if 1g - it will possibly kill plants and your kidneys won't be happy too.

You do not actually need distilled water. Rainwater, water from an airconditioner - is great - free too - and just a regular drinking water from store - these large blue plastic bucket size bottles work just right.

When people have a huge collection - it gets too much to haul water - they install a reverse osmosis filter - for the plants, fish and drinking.

I keep a trash barrel and a hose attached to the AC in summer and use it on my plants. Have a sump pump and a garden hose in it - and just add fertilizer - and off we go.

Irina