Wiandry Adi wrote: ↑Tue Nov 21, 2023 1:45 am- The weather's gone pretty much unpredictable by now: when report said it'd rain, it's shiny all day and vice versa. I've planned that I'll only collect rainwater if there's a thunderstorm, esp. with loud thunders but preferably less wind. Also nightfall rain would be preferable.
- The rain has claimed few sacrifices (I'd say victims, but of course for such nicely perpetual growing season, I think it's safe to say my climate demands some sacrifices ), in which few are valuable and some are not. Some of my Euphorbia cuttings bit the dust after a consecutive two-nights rainfall and one valuable cactus as well; as expected, perhaps, a Mammillaria.
- I'm started drilling my pots on the sides to prepare for extra moisture that'd be occupying my pots. Think it as an attempt to mimic hydroponic pots. Hopefully this would help such unnecessary moisture to wick away as well as aerate more area of the roots. I planted some of my cacti and succulents in hydroponic pots and while they dry out ridiculously quickly, it yielded great results when it comes to excess moisture during rainfall, and of course I can't manage to repot everyone to hydroponic pots, so there goes the drill.
You're at a disadvantage because you don't have a way to put a roof over your growing space. Maybe you can, and
if you can, this is the type of material I would highly recommend:
https://www.tokopedia.com/wijayapackind ... c%3Dsearch
The tricky part -- coming up with a frame that'll support the roof. Protecting your plants from the rain would solve the excess moisture problem.
Wiandry Adi wrote: ↑Tue Nov 21, 2023 1:45 amAlso, I read somewhere that pollution rate here rises from 9:00 AM where traffic is the busiest, reaching its peak in the afternoon, and lowers in the night at 7:00 PM, though this is affected by rainfall rates, as evidenced by the drought that happened quite recently (and what I've experienced). So, my plan still sticks: collect rainwater at night, during a thunderstorm with loud, rumbling thunder and lightning, plus after it's raining for more than three days (doesn't have to be consecutive; just enough to clear the air).
But in the end of the day, using tap water is more convenient than I'm having to either stay awake until midnight or awaken during midnight just to collect rainwater (until I have my own rain catchment system) so yeah, acidified tap water for the win!
Your rainwater strategy sounds good. Since your aquarium test strips test for nitrate (NO3) and nitrite (NO2), get a reading of both from your rainwater. Remember that mg/L = ppm, so if you can give me the nitrate and nitrite numbers, I'll add 'em up, then figure out the following:
- Is the combined nitrate-nitrite number low enough to justify using the ferts and supplements you would use with tap water?
- If the answer is "no" because the nitrate-nitrite number is more than 50 ppm, I'll recommend a monopotassium phosphate-potassium sulfate "special" just for your rainwater. I'll have to crunch the numbers.
There's no urgency on this -- if you watered your plants with nothing but rainwater for a month, they wouldn't be starving to death. The main thing right now is to get the combined nitrate-nitrite ppm numbers from your rainwater, and make a determination on what to do if the answer to question #1 is "no". In the meantime, you do have a winning combination with the ferts and acidified tap water, so I'm glad I was able to help you.