FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

tommyr wrote:If the plants are in direct Sun I would be worried about the droplets acting like a magnifying glass and the leaves burning.

Water evaporates...

When water hits a surface it will evaporate before it can burn something, otherwise don't spill waster on yourself outside.

jamez wrote:

tommyr wrote:If the plants are in direct Sun I would be worried about the droplets acting like a magnifying glass and the leaves burning.

Water evaporates...

When water hits a surface it will evaporate before it can burn something, otherwise don't spill waster on yourself outside.

This got me thinking because the common knowledge was that you shouldn't water plants during the days because A. evaporation wastes most of the water and B. it can burn the plants. I've always wondered why there was never any issues after sun showers that are frequent in Florida but I just brushed those thoughts aside. So to Google I went...

As far as I can find there is no confirmed evidence that getting plants wet during the day causes any damage. For evaporation reasons you shouldn't do it, but that's a different matter. I found reference to one study that showed where water droplets caused damage in the sun. But it was only on a single species of aquatic fern that had hairs that raised the drop enough to focus the light. That's a pretty specific instance that really doesn't apply to terrestrial plants, let alone smooth skinned CP's.

To take the argument further, if this were a problem wouldn't sundews exhibit signs of leaf burn from the sun, I imagine the dew drops can focus light similar to water drops.

The only argument that I found that seemed plausible was that if you're using tap water with a high TDS and the water evaporates quickly it may leave salt deposits that "burn" the leaves. But we're certainly not misting our CP's with tap water.

So all in all it seems this may just be the case of an old wives tale getting passed on and on.