FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I have many venus flytraps with almost all in 20 oz styrafoam cups. using the tray method is using up too much water a day. is there a more effective alternative to the tray method that waters the plants without using up as much water as the tray method?

you could try watering it from the top untill it runs ou of the bottom this will prevent evaporation from the tray.

Cover the exposed parts of the tray so you don't lose water to evaporation.

Is it to much work to water the plants or are you finding it hard to acquire the correct water ? ie buying distilled water ? collecting rain water ? etc

well its about 80 cents a gallon. that's not much, but it starting to add up. half a gallon a day is alot. i need a better way to water while still keeping the plants healthy without using up as much water.

Don't have as many plants?

One of the best things i bought for my plants was a RO unit

If you want a constant supply and eventually over time it will pay for itself

The one thing with top watering is it can lead to rot and leaf scorching. If you want to avoid these you need to water and avoid getting the leaves too wet (or do it later in the day when the sun isn't too bright without it being too cold). You can always get a watering can with a long spout and purposfully shove it under the leaves and water this way... but it may take time to do that to every plant.

So can i use one of those water filters that are in the pitchers? would that keep my water clean and reduce the amount it costs to water? something like this

Grey wrote:The one thing with top watering is it can lead to rot and leaf scorching.

surely leaving the plant in a tray of water (constant water around the roots) would be worse for root rot than watering from the top occasionally?

pieguy452 wrote:So can i use one of those water filters that are in the pitchers? would that keep my water clean and reduce the amount it costs to water? something like this

i'm not sure if they work there was a thread about it a while ago and somthing about constant filter changing?

An ro unit is built into a tap or water pipe and when you run it the water from the pipe is filtered the PPM will go up but you wont have to change the filter for a few years as the filter breaks down very slow, although i think they are initially very costly? you could try getting a water butt theyre quite cheap and mine holds 200 litres of water an i ahve never ran out of water as it just fills back up.

I looked at RO filters and they are about 200-600 dollars which is almost 250 gallons of water just for the 200 dollar one. any other ways to water that don't take forever or cost as much? what about the flytrap store? they have so many plants, how do they water theirs and where do they get their water?

pieguy452 wrote:what about the flytrap store? they have so many plants, how do they water theirs and where do they get their water?

Here in Ashland, Oregon, I'm lucky enough to have tap water and water from the nearby irrigation ditch that are both below 50ppm, so I just use water right from the tap.

Steve recently bought a new RO unit for around $200 and it's a really nice one. Maybe he'll post here with the details. If not, I can dig up the old emails and post some information.

I got a report on the ppm but i have no idea what it all means. can someone help me to figure out if this is ok water for my plant? just scroll down for water quality tables.


http://www.auburnhills.org/vertical/Sit ... ey2011.pdf

pieguy452 wrote:I got a report on the ppm but i have no idea what it all means. can someone help me to figure out if this is ok water for my plant? just scroll down for water quality tables.


http://www.auburnhills.org/vertical/Sit ... ey2011.pdf

This report doesn't tell you what the mg/L(PPM) of dissolved solids are in your drinking water. It only reports results for the chemicals and bacteria of concern for human health. There are many other possible disolved solids that could be present but you're water department isn't required to test for or report them.