EI Aquarium Water and house plants....

[JohnC]

Hi,

I water my house plants with my spare aquarium water all the time and have done for years. They love it as far as I can tell, and it actually makes me remember to take care of them as well as the tanks.

I was just wondering while researching the reasons why my house plants get brown tips (basically everything causes it) is there a danger in over fertilizing using EI tank water in comparison with say a standard Baby-bio water mix.

I've not done enough research into house plants to work out if i fertilize them enough or too little. They don't die, which is a start.

Can I enquire what are everyone else's successful house plant fert dosing regimes in regard to their aquarium water and any additional non fishtank related ferts and watering they do?

Best Regards,
John

 

[nry]

Can't imagine the EI is anywhere near as strong in ferts as a proper fertlilser. I've been feeding my houseplant (yes, only one!) with old aquarium water for 4 years and it's doing lovely

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
EI would be much less concentrated than most commercial liquid fertilisers. Because it is a complete nutrient solution the best option is actually to use it as a liquid foliar feed and spray it onto the leaves, foliar feeding of iron, magnesium, nitrogen and potassium gives you most "bang for your buck". A weekly spray with a dilute foliar feed is pretty well optimal for most house-plants (even slow growing, low nutrient requiring ones such as orchids, bromeliads and ferns).

cheers Darrel

 

[JohnC]

Hi all,
EI would be much less concentrated than most commercial liquid fertilisers. Because it is a complete nutrient solution the best option is actually to use it as a liquid foliar feed and spray it onto the leaves, foliar feeding of iron, magnesium, nitrogen and potassium gives you most "bang for your buck". A weekly spray with a dilute foliar feed is pretty well optimal for most house-plants (even slow growing, low nutrient requiring ones such as orchids, bromeliads and ferns).

cheers Darrel

After a little more reading about yesterday I was seeing suggestions of 100 to 200 ppm N for most liquid fert mixtures for house plants dependant on the plant, so yeah the EI water with say 10 to 20ppm ish N would be much weaker.

To summarise your point, into a general house-plant "dosing" schedule.

During growing season I should be using commercial liquid fertiliser while watering and spraying with my fishtank water to provide adequate amounts of nutrients.

In the off season I will just stick to watering and spraying with the fish tank water when needed, as the little amount of ferts it contains should not do any harm or lead to excess.

Thanks for the help,
John

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

In the off season I will just stick to watering and spraying with the fish tank water when needed, as the little amount of ferts it contains should not do any harm or lead to excess.

Yes that is the answer it is like EI, as the light falls of in the autumn and the house cools the plants need less fertiliser.

The "brown tips" from the first post have 3 main causes, chilling, overwatering or underwatering and too dry an atmosphere. The last is really common in centrally heated houses, cooler air is often saturated with water (100% RH), even though the actual volume of water is very small, as the temperature rises the air can potentially hold much more water, but it is in a dry house so the RH falls to low levels and causes the brown tips. If you have a plant prone to this try standing it on a tray of dampened hydroleca.

cheers Darrel