Well water effects on palms?

[Zeeth]

Our current house has a well for irrigation, which includes sprinklers. One thing that I notice is that spots on the house that the water hits frequently are coated in what is essentially rust, so the water obviously has a high iron content. One thing this makes me think of is Beccariophoenix sp. windows, which is a notorious iron hog. I haven't tried that species of Beccariophoenix yet (but I'm looking for one), but would this well water solve the problems that so many people have with that palm? Does well water have a net positive or negative effect on the growth of palms as a whole, compared to city water? What have you guys noticed?

[Mauna Kea Cloudforest]

Every town is different. Many cities use well water. I see no harm in it. You just need to know it's generally hard water and may only be detrimental to acid loving plants if you don't use the right acidification supplements for those species that need it.

[Jubaea]

It really depends what is in the well water vs surface or municipal water which depends on what is in the soil and rock below that the water comes in contact with, or what is added to the water during the treatment process. There can be beneficial nutrients in the well water but their also can be harmful minerals or salts that are too concentrated. In arid regions especially, surface water can have lower concentrations of dissolved salts and is of better quality. You might be able to find a publication by the city with water quality, however some areas will use different sources at different times of the year so can be hard to know without testing the water coming out of the tap or well. In some areas of the central valley in California there can be high concentrations of boron in the well water and this can cause some necrotic tips on leaves of plants.

[Jimbean]

well water often has iron in it, which makes the plants look a bit greener.

[edbrown_III]

Depending upon the size of the muncipality they put a quarterly review of the Drinking water constituents regulated iron is one of them --- most FL water has real high levels of iron --- softening takes out some as does aeration. It appears as particulate iron which aint to solulble and bioavailable you can see what the city does I think its Manasota -- but concentrations typcially are under 1 ppm -- because it forms a residue and doesnt say dissolved most chelated iron is in a solution that you spray or in a powder sulfate form which dissolves.

Best regards

Ed

[Tyrone]

If you have high concentrations of iron that tend to stain things, this can clog the leaves of plants and turn them brown/black. I had the same situation in my old garden and resorted to only using ground based emitters rather than overhead spraying. The plants loved the water, just not on the leaves.

[tropicbreeze]

Because of the extreme variability of mineral content of ground water it's best to get proper tests done rather than to make assumptions. My next door neighbours have a very high iron content in their bore water, so much so that they have to keep pumping during the wet season to try and make it a bit clearer. Dry season it settles down a bit. My bore water on the other hand has very low iron content (20 µg/L), despite having a lot of ironstone/laterite near the soil surface. The bore goes down to 45 metres.

As Tyrone pointed out, some water you can't allow on plant leaves, with some water it's not a problem. That also depends on the plants. I had tests done for the following on mine, and surprisingly the major issue turned out to be turbidity rather than minerals.

pH
EC
Alkalinity
Turbidity
Carbonate
Bicarbonate
Nitrate
Nitrite
Sulphate
Chloride
Phosphate
Ammonia
Fluorine
Calcium
Potassium
Magnesium
Sodium
Silicon
Silver
Aluminium
Arsenic
Boron
Barium
Berylium
Bromine
Cadmium
Chromium
Copper
Iron
Mercury
Iodine
Manganese
Molybdenum
Nickle
Lead
Antimony
Selenium
Tin
Uranium
Zinc
Sodium Chloride

Not the whole periodic table, but a decent part of it. This is more a drinking water test, but the same water goes into the house as goes into the garden. Anyhow, once you know what's in the water you can find out what's going to benefit and what's not. It only cost me about $120 about 4 - 5 years ago.

[edbrown_III]

I wasnt too specific but the particulate iron is the stuff that causes the rust and red stains --- it is several ppm perhaps 2 -5 ppm or so. It is a precipate of iron oxide and water molecules that isnt very soluble or bioavailable to plants. The dissolve iron is abotu .5 ppm as this is about the limit it stays dissolved . It takes one million gallons of water to get a bout 4 pounds of soluble iron at 1/2 ppm concentration. thats about a bag or two of real good palm fertilize or a 5 pound bag of iron sulfate. you are most likely leaching more iron than you adding with this concentration.

Best regards

Ed