Using dehumidifier water to water plants?

emorrin

My old 50 pint dehumidifier is leaking badly so I am going to be replacing it soon. A thought occurred to me, does anyone use the dehumidifier water to water their plants? This water is basically distilled water. I cannot see too many metals leaching into the water by the dehumidifier myself. I am curious since I use distilled water on my tropical plants and am looking for a good way to cut down on such expense. I think this would be a good way to recycle water. Any thoughts?

yamadorinige

If you want to cut down on expenses, use rain water! Laughing

emorrin

Collecting rainwater is an option but I still need to figure out a good way to do so. I was thinking of putting a barrel next to my gutter downspout but I would have to cut the gutter. Also, in the summer it would be a breeding ground for mosquitoes/algae if I didn't add any chemicals to it.

With my new dehumidifier, I haven't hooked up the direct drain hose connection yet so it is collecting in the internal bucket. It looks like if I didn't hook up the drain hose, I would have to empty the internal bucket daily. The bucket holds 1 gallon (16 pints) of water. I use about 1 gallon of distilled water on my tropical bonsai/pre-bonsai daily, give or take. This would be convenient because all I would need to do is dump the bucket in a gallon jug then use it that day or next.

I have looked around and saw that people do water house plants with the dehumidifier water with no ill effects. The water is essentially demineralized in the dehumidifier so it is pretty much distilled water. The only reason why one could not drink it is due to bacterial and molds from the dehumidifier.This should not harm any plants but it would make you sick. The only thing I can think of is having some trace metals (i.e. copper, aluminum) leaching into the water from the coils. This should be negligible as well. I am just curious if anyone does this with tropical bonsais. Some tropical species are after all used for house plant to begin with (i.e. ficus, Hawaiian umbrella, etc.)

Stymie

A vestige of copper in the water could only be beneficial and might even keep fungal problems at bay. I don't know about aluminum.

Bye the way; In Yorkshire we have aluminium and 8 pints to the gallon. Razz

emorrin

One of these days I am going to get my conversions right ...

I forgot about the anti fungal properties of copper. I know it is used as a trace element in one of the fertilizers I have used. I guess when you think about it, you can use aluminum to wire a tree so it shouldn't be too harmful. We drink beverages out of aluminum cans, etc. The more I think of this idea, the better it is sounding.

Surrey John

Ed I can't see much wrong with using dehumidifier water if it is essentially distilled, apart from (as you said) the cost. But distilled water is just what it says - virtually nothing but H2O, and very low indeed in trace elements and also oxygen. Perhaps you could give a drop of Superthrive to each watering-can, for the trace elements. The only way I can think of to oxygenate such water would be to let it stand for 24 hours - but my instinct is that this wouldn't re-oxygenate by much. You could do it with a pump but that's more expense again. The other way could be to have a very porous soil mix, so when the dehumidified water sank through it would draw atmospheric oxygen down with it.

SJ.

emorrin

I always put 2 drops of superthrive and liquid seaweed in my water. I also usually add a drop or two of chelated iron as well so the trace elements are there. My soil is very porous and fast draining so I don't think I have to worry about oxygen. You can actually hear the air getting pulled into the soil every time I water.