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warm water vs. cold/room temp. water

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Posted by ottomike 6 (My Page) on
Tue, Nov 16, 10 at 8:43

I was wondering if anyone has experimented with using warm water during waterings as opposed to cold or room tempearture water and if it makes any difference. As the temperuratures are getting colder now up north, I know container citrus vitality can degrade if the roots get colder and the leaves stay somewhat warm (causing leaf drop). Reading through some old posts I see that some people use christmas lights to keep some warm on the soil or covering in blankets. In the colder weather, I'm only watering about every other day or every third day, so I'm not really sure if warm water would have any lasting benefits or if it would only temporarily warm the roots before they go cold again and cause more stress. Any thoughts?

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RE: warm water vs. cold/room temp. water

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I use slightly warm water to keep the root-zone warm, indeed.
It makes sense to me, although I don't have any empirical evidence.
Here's my logic, however:

Warm water penetrates and saturates soil media more effectively.
It also dissolves salts more readily, which helps to flush old solubles
from the mix, as well as deliver a fresh dose of nutrients when fertigating.
Also, warm water is closer to vapor form than cold water - so it seems that
warm water will become available to roots and will "dry" sooner.
During the winter, I try to water my succulents with warm water in the morning.
This gives the media a full day to dry before night-set.

Recently, I've re-potted several chile plants. After potting, I watered
my plants into their containers with warm water. I've heard that peppers
slip into a dormancy when their root-zones are consistently below 50 degrees,
so I wanted to keep them in an active growth state when transition from garden
to containers indoors.


Josh

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