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Cold water watering

I've been wondering how benefitial it would be to water and mist with cold water on my highland nepenthes? I have always used warm water so as not to shock them but if they appreciate cold wet air perhaps cold "rain" water too?
If I were to use cold water-how cold should it be? Just refigerator cold (40*F or so) or melted ice cold?

Thanks for any thoughts!
 
The idea is to try and mimic nature as closely as possible. In nature, the temperature of the rain doesn't drop from 85 degrees to 40 degrees instantly. If your highland neps are kept at 80 degrees during the day, you should find no harm in spraying them or watering them with 50-55 degree water. This temperature change would certainly have the effect of cooling the plants. Good luck.

Kim
 
I would just be careful and not shock them too quickly with really cold water. My other concern is excess water when it is used for cooling purposes. Cooling the plants won't do much good if they die from overwatering.
Tony
 
My use of cool water would not be in excess in an attempt to cool the plants, only as a matter of trying to mimic natures rains in their climate when I do my weekly watering - I use a plastic can with a rose so I can water the whole plant and potting mix til it drains through so it hopefully seems like a good down pour to the plant.
I still have the AC hooked up to the tank and everything. I just always used the same top of refigerator/top of lighting hood warm water for both the lowlands and the highlands and just got to thinking about it today when I was watering the plants.

I was just wondering which would be best... or if it even mattered at all!
smile.gif
 
ahh I follow you now.

Well I agree you probably don't want warm water (not sure how warm but I can imagine it might be pretty warm on top of the light hood). So it couldn't hurt to keep it cooler. Would it make much difference if it was say room temperature vs 50degress? Probably not if your looking at using it once a week. On the other hand watering with 90 degree water even once a week would probably have an adverse effect.
T
 
I have something to add. My Ultrahighlands and more cold tolerant highlands in the morning have thier pots very cool, the soil is extremly refreshing so you might want to think that since the soil is so cold in the morning why not water when the soil si as cold as your watering water? See what i am saying? Try to water when the soil is cold.
wink.gif
 
i keep the water cold in the trays of the highland Neps that i have and they seem to be ok.
 
Which neps have you got sitting in water? I've always read not to do that for fear of causing root rot.
 
i have lowii, rajah, & khasiana with there pots sitting in water. i water both of them from the bottom and keep the l/f moss moist. mist from the top and let them draw water from the bottom.
only a small clay dish with maybe 1/4" of water up the side of the pot. not drenching to cause root rot
 
  • #10
I really don't think that this is an issue as long as you don't water your plants with
overly cold ( < 15 C) or overly hot ( > 30 C) water, provided everything else is OK.
However, be careful about watering lowland plants with cold water.  I once made the
mistake of accidentally watering N. bicalcarata with water that was about 10 C, and
it went into shock.  It recovered alright, but some of the leaves near the base of the
plant turned yellow....
 
  • #11
Yes, I keep the water jugs in warm locations to avoid putting cool water on the lowlanders. It's never warmer than about 85* usually 75*. I was just thinking cool/cold water might be something they'd be happier with. perhpas I'll just let a jug stay off the fridge and find it's own temp and use that for the highlanders.
 
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