FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I just got a low ppm water thingy for my plants but it says it is "alkaline water". What is this and this safe for my plants?

There's also another brand that offers oxygenated low ppm water but in the filtration process it says "ozonization". What is this?

Well I got you on the first one . It’s talking about the PH of your water. Alkaline would be hi PH meaning it has a lot of calcium in it .

Hungry Plants wrote:Well I got you on the first one . It’s talking about the PH of your water. Alkaline would be hi PH meaning it has a lot of calcium in it .

So it's OK for CPs right?

I’m not sure if the ph maters. Hopefully someone else will chime it but I don’t think it’s a problem

Peat and in particular LFS pump H+ ions, making the media acidic. Most CPs vastly prefer this acidic media, and will die in media that is too basic.

I've used low TDS alkaline water on some sarrs for a few weeks without any visible signs of damage though. I wouldn't try it on flytraps.

Well dang it. My flytraps and drosera are getting dry.

EDIT:
It says pH > 8.3

That’s pretty high.

High pH doesn't necessarily mean there is a bunch of calcium, it just has something grabbing protons off of the water, increasing the concentration of OH- in the water. Most organisms are evolved to have various proteins that function optimally at a specific pH. For plants that are found always in acid media, I wouldn't use that water.

Benurmanii wrote:For plants that are found always in acid media, I wouldn't use that water.

oh well, guess I gotta go walking!

EDIT:
I just went to the local mart and got some water that I have used before. It took about 30 minutes there and back.

Occasional watering once in a while won't hurt, but consistant watering will raise the ph of the media and affect the plant deleteriously in the long term.
Cheers
Steve