Question
You have started me on a new hobby. I want to do the best I can. On a smaller scale of plant growing than yours, is there a reverse osmosis system for outdoors scaled down for a home owner? Buying distilled water in Vancouver grocery stores by the gallon is silly now that I am on my 20th plus plant. I walk out of the store with ten gallons of distilled water! Most hardware stores like Lowe's or Home Depot sell under sink systems for the kitchen but none show me a scaled down outdoor system. Any suggestions as to scale, output, gallons per minute, storage and such or am I missing the obvious?

Answer
Hi Richard,

If by "outdoor systems" I interpret you want something you can connect to a garden hose.  That was what I needed to do when I bought our first unit here.  Hydrologic makes several units of different sizes that do just that.  We have both a Merlin and an Evolution that combined for us can produce 1400 gallons a day.  Here's some links:  http://www.hydrologicsystems.com/products/product.php?id=6&cat_id=34&keywords=St  http://www.amazon.com/HydroLogic-Stealth-RO100-Reverse-Osmosis-System/dp/B002WDF  

The Stealth 100 can do 100 gallons a day, and as you can see is about the same price as what you were probably seeing at Lowes or Home Depot that only did about 25 gallons a day.  The Hydrologic units use the same high-capacity membranes as Merlin, so they can filter quite a bit of water.  Not only will your plants have good water, but you'll have a great source of low-mineral drinking water.

Good Growing!

Jeff Dallas
Sarracenia Northwest
http://www.cobraplant.com