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What Type of Water is Best for your Plants ?
Water is not just Water....
Overall the Best water for your houseplants is rain water (when conserving water; every drop counts), distilled water or aquarium water.
However most of us use tap water when watering our houseplants so taking care to follow some water preparation tips will make for overall healthier and happier houseplants. The quality of tap water varies from region to region but unless you are on well water you will most likely have chlorine in your tap water and this is no friend to your houseplants.
Why is this Important?
Chlorine is a disinfectant added to drinking water to reduce or eliminate microorganisms, such as bacteria and viruses, which can be present in water supplies. The addition of chlorine to our drinking water has greatly reduced the risk of waterborne diseases.
So although beneficial to our health to have chlorine added to water supply; Some plants are sensitive to the chlorine compounds in tap water, including chloramine. This includes Dracaenas (Dracaena), Ti plants (Cordyline), Spider plants (Chlorophytum comosum), Prayer plants (Maranta), Calatheas (Calathea), Carnivorous plants and Airplants (Tillandsia's).If these plants are watered with heavily chlorinated water, it can cause the tips of the leaves to die and turn black. Lower levels of chlorine can lead to black spotting on the leaves.
Our water is not heavily chlorinated in our region but it can only help our plants grow healthier if we remove this chemical from the water we use to hydrate them.
Removing Chlorine from your Tap Water
It is very simple to remove chlorine from our tap water and we recommend that you make it a common practice every time you water. If you let your water dissipate (sit out) for 24 hours or more you will have let the chlorine evaporate out of the water.
Pro Tip: I fill my watering can after I am done watering my plants then storing my watering can away filled with water. This allows me to always have chlorine free water when needed. This also ensures perfect room temperature water, is ready to go. (Read more about water temp below).
What about Water for your Mister?
Misting is a great way to add humidity to your houseplants; particularly tropical houseplants. When filling your mister with water to use you also want to make sure that you are using chlorine free water. Follow the above recommendations to remove chlorine or fill your mister and leave the top off for a minimum of 24 hours before sealing the top. Your Airplants and carnivorous plants especially will be very grateful you took this extra step. You can refer to our Plant Care Guide for a list of plants that love to be misted.
Water Temperature for your Houseplants.
The temperature of water is important for your plants well being. Too hot or too cold of water can cause shock to the plants roots. Room temperature is a great rule to follow when watering your plants (average room temp = 18-22 degrees Celsius.) You can have water temps a few degrees either side of these numbers as well with no worry of shock.
There are some plants that an ice cube on top to melt into the soil slowly works well. (example: Orchid). In these situations that is not too cold as the ice melts at room temp before getting to the roots of the plant.
I hope these tips were helpful for you to follow when watering your houseplants. Proper hydration is very important to the health of our plant babies. A healthy plant is a happy plant!