Hi Tiff!!

Once again, Welcome!!!

I personally think rain water is the best for plants..

Most of us would like to have rain wells to collect the rain water. I just have two 5 gallon trash cans that i have to collect the rain from the gutters. It sits and drains into my first rubber can and then i notched the second to have the overflow drain into the second can.

Works great except when i don't use all of the water and i start to the little larvae from the mosquitoes. Argg!

I then dump it out and start fresh. When the rain doesn't cooperate with my needs, i take my well water or if you have city water and fill up a container and let it sit until it reaches room temperature.

Sometimes in the winter, i will fill gallon size milk jugs or even use the five gallon pails from Lowes or HD. Ill carry them upstairs and use them as needed.

Hope this helps...

Love it when it rains...

Plants love the rain as well!!

Take care,

Laura

Brita filter....

Hi
I have a 250 gallon Rw collection systen which i use in my fish tanks old aquarium water goes to plants. Gives clean water for the fish, weak fertilizer for the plants.
Works well as long as it rains regularly lol
You can get reverse osmosis water in grocery stores for 30 cents a gallon if you just need a small amount. You really don't want distilled for plants anyway. gary

Brita filters & the like are designed to remove larger organic particles that affect taste & odor - NOT the dissolved solids that cause all the problems with plants.

Rainwater, distilled water, snow melt, water collected from dehumidifiers, water that has passed through a reverse osmosis filtering system ...... are all good choices. Keep in mind that tap water is usually just fine too, as long as your soil allows you to water properly - so you flush the soil of accumulating dissolved solids when you water.

Al

In interior landscaping, we don't have the time to use fancy water -- got to use what comes from the tap, as long as it's not softened - that would definitely be bad. Some plants, most especially dracaena 'janet craig', and other dracaena species, are especially sensitive to things like fluoride and chlorine in tap water, although watering carefully, reworking the soil yearly, sometimes a little lime, all help. At home I would water those plants with rain water, etc. By and large, most of the plants we use don't seem to care; water amount is much more crucial.

I try to catch rain water in the summer, as said above, WHEN it rains. I was looking into this a couple months ago and what stuck in my head is that rain water can help remove hard water spots (limescale) from leaves and deposits from soils because it is slightly acidic. Once it gets cold, I'm not that dedicated and just use tap.

Newton
more Newton
Open University

"Posted by tapla z5b-6a mid-MI (My Page) on Wed, Sep 26, 12 at 7:41

Brita filters & the like are designed to remove larger organic particles that affect taste & odor - NOT the dissolved solids that cause all the problems with plants.
Rainwater, distilled water, snow melt, water collected from dehumidifiers, water that has passed through a reverse osmosis filtering system ...... are all good choices. Keep in mind that tap water is usually just fine too, as long as your soil allows you to water properly - so you flush the soil of accumulating dissolved solids when you water.

Al "

It brings the ph down to 6.0. It takes the chlorine out....

Thanks though.... ;)