Problem! Water or Orchids

[Polly@golly]

I've been growing Phal orchids for several years succesfully, using rain
water from a butt collecting it off the garage flat roof. The water had
turned a bit murkey, and I found in the garden centre a water butt
cleaner solution that you added to the water to remove smelly, soapyness
and colour (I should have emptied and washed the butt out first did
failed here!). My orchids have now started to go limp and seem very very
slow growing ( I use the standing upto the neck in water for 1/2 hour
techmique).

I suspect that the water could be the cause, or though not expecting
anything, I can not say that the problem definitely started after I
"cleaned" the water.

Any ideas please. I will start trying to collect rainwater in clean
buckets and use that on some of the orchids to see if it makes a
difference, but I do really need the water butt in the longer term.

Thanks for your patience in reading this quite long request and for any
help/solutions.

[Bob Hobden]

Considering the amount of rain we are due over the next week or two I
would empty the butt, wqash it out scrubbing with a broom, and start again.
--
Regards
Bob Hobden

[Stewart Robert Hinsley]

On 17/02/2024 18:56, Polly@golly wrote:

The active ingredient of one water butt cleaner I found online is
benzalkonium chloride, which is a bacteriostat/bactericide. This leads
me to suspect that when they say it controls algae then mean
cyanobacteria (blue-green algae). It also has negative effects on fungi.

As orchids (some orchid? all orchids?) have symbiotic relationships with
fungi I find it conceivable that the cleaner is killing off the orchids
fungal partners.

But, I don't know what the active ingredient of the product you used is.
Nor do I know how dependent Phalaenopsis orchids are on fungal partners,
and how sensitive those partners are to benzalkonium chloride.

--
SRH