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water Does it matter if you water with tap water or any other kind?

T

tindell9

I am just wondering how much does it matter if you just use tap water to water your plants, if not could I prepare tap water in a way to make it better?
 
I prefer distilled tap water myself and use water holding tanks/barrels inside and out for this purpose. They don't like cold water either and have found ambient temps to work nicely.
 
declorinte it, and let the temp rise by leaving it in a container for 2-3 hours before watering with it, put a fish tank bubbler in it to let the chlorine dissipate out into the air.

I believe the minerals should still be fine in it.

Also test with a TDS type meter, and see if your water is clean enough for watering with. Hard water could hurt also.
 
The problem isn't so much Chlorine anymore, it's Chloramine (more commonly used now in place of Chlorine and more difficult to remove). Unfortunately good old tricks such as leaving water out overnight, using a bubbler, boiling, etc, are far less effective--if effective at all--at removing Chloramine.

One method of removal, as SuperHot suggests, is to distill your water. Adding pure Ascorbic Acid to the water should do the trick also (at about 1000 mg per 40 gallons).

Not sure how Chlorine/Chloramine actually effects plants directly but as it can kill beneficial bacteria in your soil, it's always best to remove it from your tap water.
 
really,??????????// no. some of you guys cause problems with all of your problems. im just being serious water with what ever you can water with,and enjoy your plants

if you want to impove things add a cycle of real chemicals,not some bullshit but a real chemical cycle!
 
ive started posting in this thread many times and canceled every time. here is the deal, depending on where you live tap water is probably ok but some areas have a high salinity. some plants do well others dont. i live in one of the higher salinity areas where i couldnt use well water if i wanted but tap causes slight salt burn. in an ideal world you would have perfect everything but thats not going to happen so live with it. on a small scale you can get close to perfect. you can control the water, light, soil etc but it will be at a cost. on a larger scale water management and so forth using commercially available source is what you eat with everyday and frankly america feeds itself and the world with tap water in some of the most productive areas. will your plants do ok on tap, yup. can you do better, yup. is it worth it, up to you.
 
I am an avid fresh water fish breeder. To treat chlorine a simple product called sodium thiosulphate is used. Its in crystal form. It will instantly neutralized chlorine. But if ur tap water contains chloramine, sodium thiosulfate will break down the chlorine but what's left is ammonia. For fish keepers we still need to further treat ammonia. But for plants is ammonia in small quantity harmful?

Mark T
 
Check your ph,in the tap water. That can be adjusted. I use distilled water when germinating my seeds. After they're up I use regular tap water, but I have a dozen empty gallon bottles that I fill up and let sit around at room temperature. Some get filled with Bonicare products, epsom salts, and other nutes. Those are the base that get futher diluted for the water cans. The city water here is near perfect........but it does contain chlorine.
That may not be such a big deal with the plants, but we do alot of bread making through the winter with different live dough cultures. Those feed better without the "killer" Chlorinated water".

Greg
 
I read that if it's safe for you to drink, it's safe enough for your plants...Heck, I don't know one way or another - guess I'll find out though...
 
i had problems which i think stemmed from using softened water. the softner system i use is salt based. And from what i understand from asking around. The salty water clogs (for lack of a better word) the roots so they cant soak up what they need..
Either way once i switched to city water (i do get it from the city) the plants started doing better.
 
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