Using snow to water plants

[John]

This winter I have read comments on the Board about melting snow for watering orchids. Last week I saw an article in the newspaper from the Associated Press stating that when snowflakes form, about 85% of the time they form around bacteria. The most common bacteria was Pseudomonas syringae which can cause disease in several types of plants including tomatoes and beans. Researchers from Louisiana State University tested samples from France, Montana, the Yukon and Antarctica and found varing levels of bacteria in all of them. I don't know if this bacteria could affect orchids but why chance it? I started out collecting and using rain water for my plants but two years ago we had drought conditions in our area and the rain water had a lot of pollen and bacteria in it and I feel it contributed to the decline in my plants. I now use RO water so I have a consistant clean source of water.

[Tindomul]

In order for rain our snow to condence, solidify, they do it around particles. Some are bacteria, others are dust etc.... I can only imagine that every snowflake has a tiny amount of bacteria and pollutants from the air. Basically whatever is in the atmosphere ends up in the snowflake. But you can say the same thing about rain water except snow flakes have
A: more surface area to gather all sorts of nasties (bacteria, pollutants), and goodies
B: snowflakes fly around the air alot longer than rain drops, giving them more chance to gather more nasties and goodies (nitrogen, oxygen etc..)
If you are worried about the bacteria, boil the water from the snow before use.

[driggs]

hi john. i was reading your comments and found them to be very interesting. i use only rain/melted snow to water my orchids and thought it would be best for them. the melts have produced so much water this winter it has been easy to collect. but what i found even more interesting is that you are from rockford. me too! small world. nikki