Expert: Sarracenia Northwest - 4/22/2011

Question
QUESTION: I live in California and have a small collection of North American carnivorous plants and a collection of Nepenthes. In order to conserve water was hoping to reuse the water that drains out of my Nepenthes to water the NA plants. Is this okay? Or am I introducing undesirable sediment to my water by passing them through the Nepenthes pots? The water going through the Nepenthes is distilled and/or filtered to begin with.

ANSWER: Conserving water is definitely something that all gardeners will need to consider.  At this time, I don't know how the run off from your Nepenthes will affect your North American plants.  It's something I never tried.  If I were to try it, I'd be thinking of three things: 1) Use of fertilizers, 2) type of water and 3) type of soil.  

Obviously, you don't want to use the water if you fertilize your Nepenthes regularly, or if you use hard water with your Nepenthes, or if the soil is unhealthy or breaking down.  If it were my plants, I'd consider using the run off water only if I didn't use any fertilizers for my Nepenthes, AND I was using only mineral-free water AND the soil was a simple mix of sphagnum moss and perlite.  The sediments won't pose any problems as long as the soil is healthy.  

Again, since I've never tried it on my plants, I can't say for sure what would happen to yours, so it's a bit of a judgement call on your part.  It's also a matter of knowing what to look for if your North American plants were adversely affected by the water.  In most situations, you won't see any difference until the end of the growing season if there were something wrong with the water.  For now, I don't see anything wrong with using it as long as the conditions I mentioned earlier were met.

Good growing!
Jacob Farin

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thanks for the quick reply! I do add orchid bark and a little charcoal to my Nepenthes soil mix. I don't think the orchid bark will be an issue but does the charcoal affect the water adversely? Otherwise, I use 0 TDS water and I don't fertilize. My Neps from Sarracenia Northwest are so robust I don't need to!

Answer
Charcoal isn't a factor since it's only carbon and very inert.  Bark is a consideration if it's old and breaking down. The rate of breakdown depends on age, moisture and temperature.  The more these factors increase, the more likely the bark breaks down.  When that happens, it'll release nitrogen, which will have an adverse reaction on the North American plants.  So if you recently changed the soil, it'll be OK for the summer.  Again, this is an educated guess on my part.  This is completely unexplored, so you'll have to do a judgement call on your part.  Until I tested this myself, I can't say for certain what the results will be.