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By LunaticGazelle
Posts:  17
Joined:  Thu Jun 03, 2021 6:45 am
#386155
Hello everyone. I wanted to share a story that unfolded just recently.

About some time ago I bought a small pot of 3 typicals from a local flower store. Everything was going well, the plants were being watered with distilled water and getting about 4 hours of direct sunlight per day. (I know that's not optimal but that's the most I could get for them) My initial post was this one after having them for a few weeks: topic50920.html

Recently Greece has started being struck by one of the worst heatwaves we've seen the last decades. Temperature is between 38C (100 Fahrenheit) and 46C (115 Fahrenheit) during the day. My little pot on the balcony started struggling and drinking all its water very fast. As I mentioned earlier, I am only used distilled water bought from local grocery stores.

At some point, I started noticing that the plants were not looking healthy and started wondering why. A couple of days later when the water was all evaporated from the pot dish, I noticed that there were salts to be found which shouldn't have been the case. Got myself a TDS meter and tested the water I was using for the last days, and to my surprise the water was about 78 PPM. Checking another bottle of the same brand of water, the results were the same, so practically the store I bought them from, was far from selling actual distilled water...

Between the scorching heat, and the water quality being what it was, I believe the plants were pretty much suffering. Even new growth was turning black and before spawning teeth. Got a new big pot, proper soil, proper water from another store (I tested it before trying it on the plants this time and it was at 6 PPM. The second bottle was at 0 PPM.)

Now the plant has been repotted, I've cleaned the roots from any old soil residue by bathing it in the proper water before moving it to the new media and moved inside the house were temperatures don't go above 33C. Also since there is a lot of room in the new pot, I've given them space, and I'm having grow-lights on them for 12 hours a day with a timer in order to compensate for the lost 4 hours of sunlight the were getting previously. Space in the pot is reserved for other plants that I intend to plant alongside those. First time repotting so how does it look to you guys?

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IMG_20210803_204549037.jpg (22.7 KiB) Viewed 2527 times

Lessons learned:
* Don't trust the label "distilled water".
* Direct sunlight in the middle of summer in Greece can be brutal.

From the looks of it, the plants appear to be doing better day by day and they seem to like their new environmental conditions better. I really do hope they make it back.
Cheers!
MikeB, schmeg liked this
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By MikeB
Location: 
Posts:  1854
Joined:  Sat Apr 25, 2020 4:13 pm
#386173
LunaticGazelle wrote: Thu Aug 05, 2021 7:56 pm A couple of days later when the water was all evaporated from the pot dish, I noticed that there were salts to be found which shouldn't have been the case. Got myself a TDS meter and tested the water I was using for the last days, and to my surprise the water was about 78 PPM. Checking another bottle of the same brand of water, the results were the same, so practically the store I bought them from, was far from selling actual distilled water...
From the sounds of it, that bottle contains drinking water that had been distilled, then minerals were added for "taste". 78 PPM isn't horrible, but it's far from optimal. I'm glad that you caught it early.
By LunaticGazelle
Posts:  17
Joined:  Thu Jun 03, 2021 6:45 am
#386175
Yeap exactly, that water was practically drinkable. I was thinking about making a complaint at the store, perhaps there is something wrong with their supplier or something. I'm guessing that other people are buying the same water for ironing or whatnot and it would damage such equipment.
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