Should you pee on your Venus flytrap?
This is a follow up to my previous post on not using tap water.
It seems that some morons out there have been thinking up some truly stupid ways to purify water. Including the following:
- Urinate on your plant
Oh for the love god no! Urine is often described as ‘clean’ due it not containing dangerous bacteria. However, it is still packed full of all sorts of metal salts which will likely kill your plant extremely quickly. Plus it’s disgusting, so don’t do it. If you have ever recommended this technique to anyone, then please slap yourself across the face now as punishment! - Leaving water to stand over night
This may get rid of a tiny amount of surface chlorine gas, but 99% will remain and at worst some water will evaporate and you will concentrate the remaining inorganic contaminants. So basically you will likely make your water a pinch more toxic by doing this! - Boil your water
Jeepers! This is even worse. Yes you will remove a simdgen of chlorine, but you are still concentrating all the inorganic contaminants which will kill your plant, so don’t do it. - Use a coffee or paper funnel type filter
Argh! Well at least this one doesn’t make things worse, but it certainly doesn’t help. You are just wasting your time. These are sieve type filters which can not filter out chemicals. The chemicals are too small to be blocked by a simple sieve system. - Collecting water from your fridge
Well this is a little weird, but may actually work. The water your fridge creates is condensed from the air, so technically should be void of almost all inorganic contaminants. This sound difficult though and I can’t imagine the average fridge would create a huge amount of water anyway.
Another good way to purify water which I didn’t mention in my previous post, is to use a reverse osmosis unit.
Thomas responded on 07 Apr 2008 at 3:13 pm #
I found during the summer time if you collect the water coming from an Air Conditioner drain this works great, it is distilled water which comes from the water vapor in the air which is cooled on the coils of the A/C while it’s running and a small A/C will generate several gallons a day, and if your lucky enough to have the in-room type A/C it even has built in storage tanks you’d normally have to empty down the sink….
((( And keep your traps away from an A/C as it will end up drying them out and killing them, they love the heat and humidity even if there owners don’t )))
Ryan responded on 09 Apr 2008 at 12:12 am #
Thanks Thomas,
I’ve heard of that theory before. As long as the tank is clean then the water should indeed be very good quality.
anna responded on 01 Jun 2008 at 7:28 pm #
how about river water or lake water?
Ryan responded on 07 Jun 2008 at 7:51 pm #
Hi Anna,
No, river or lake water will also contain lots of contaminants, although significantly less than some other sources.
Eamon responded on 10 Jun 2008 at 6:25 am #
Would water from a well or a garden pond be okay for the plant?
Ryan responded on 28 Jun 2008 at 10:23 pm #
Hi Eamon,
No, well water or garden pond water is not okay. The water needs to be pure. Well water and pond water are unlikely to be very pure.