STOP Killing Your Plants With Tap Water 

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I'm a public water supply engineer and I used to run the Maine State Drinking Water Program, the health agency responsible for the regulation of Public Water Supplies in Maine. When I was in graduate school my classmates researched how common disinfectants, such as chlorine, chloramines, chlorine dioxide, and ozone killed off bacteria, viruses, and cysts. The relationship between the percentage of inactivated organisms and water temperature, pH, disinfectant concentration, and time were discovered in their research. EPA requires a 3-log reduction of the most difficult-to-inactivate organism. In other words, if 1,000 Giardia Lamblia cysts are treated, 999 would be inactivated and only one would remain viable. You can't get to zero. So chlorine is added to water and allowed a specific contact time to acheive or exceed the 3-log 'kill'. At the end of the required contact period ammonia is added which ties up the free chlorine and makes chloramines. Chloramine is a very weak but persistent disinfectant. It continues to suppress any bacteriologic regrowth. It is used in very large water distribution systems where it may take days to reach the ends of the system, especially where there are warmer temperatures and bacteriologic regrowth is a problem.

I have always used a rain barrel under the spout in the back of the house. My grandmother had a cistern in the basement, she used that water in the winter and rain water when it got warm, she had an amazing green thumb, I am so fortunate to have inherited her Hoya Hindu rope plant that’s over 50yrs old and several other plants around the same age.

Same here. So many of my plants were effected from my tap water. I recently put an RO system under my kitchen sink. My plants are soooooo much more healthy.

Rain water collection people who are new to the gig should be taught to always put a screen or mesh of some kind over their collection barrels, totes, vessels... Any life forms that get into it will drown and die so please be cautious!

5 tips to keep your plants alive this winter 👉 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE--4k2_MZwu5E.html

I sincerely just pray over my water. Remember when as youngsters we drank out of the water hoses......sigh

Thank you, I'm glad to have learned i can use water collected by my dehumidifier, i somehow thought it could be harmful 😅

Good evening- I’m a new subscriber from deep East Texas USA and love your channel - I follow several really good girls on upside gardening and have learned so much from them - but haven’t found anyone until now that knows so much about houseplants as you do - I like your common sense approach to all the care you give your plants- after all we pay good money for these babies and want them to grow and be beautiful- thanks again for you videos-wish I had found you years ago!

Excellent take👍 hardly anyone thinks about this important point I have always used a separate 500 litre tank for watering plants and in it i tie about a kilo of activated charcoal inside a muslin cloth and I am sure it is working so far. It is my granpa's tip

Excellent video, thoroughly covering the topic. Another option can be to water every other time with distilled or collected water, which will flush out excess chemicals, salts, and other minerals while helping to stretch the water supply and minimize any damage to the plants.

Something I have noticed when it rains. Applies to vegetables, garden and house plants. I store rain water to use out and in, but plants grow faster when it rains. Using a water can won't have the same effect. I check the weather beforehand, and rush to get all my house plants out before it rains. Also I applied seaweed to water for all my plants in the growing season every Thursday. It stopped my bell peppers rotting. Big overall boost! I was in Spain and observed spider plants in public gardens. My spiders Even when the stay most of the year outdoors now. Even when they are killed by frost they make a comeback once temperature improves. great videos, thanks.

I use a few drops of aquarium water conditioner. It neutralizes the chlorine and other chemicals. So far it seems to work. No more brown tips on my Calathea or my spider plants

I think this is one of your Best videos!!😊 Be Good To Gardeners x ❤

I have about 12 gallons of distilled water purchased in gallon jugs which I used for my room humidifiers during winter months. I had a whole house humidifier installed and now I have a great use for all the distilled water!!! I will pick up a jug per week when I have 2 jugs left. That will do me nicely for the month and then some. Thanks!!!

I have been using tropical aquarium water. I change 20% of the 20 gal every 10 days. I keep the waste water specifically for my plants and they are thriving.

I use a water distiller i bought for 100$ worth every penny. I get about 2 liters per use, and it been going well for over 1 year now. If you want distilled water forget buying it, waaaaay to expensive

Interesting idea about the dehumidifier. Great idea! I'm going to do that and also collect water from the brita pitcher and store it in my old distilled water jugs

I try to use rain water. I've started using water conditioner and it helps. Thank you 😊

Another way to get rid of chloramine & chlorine is to buy a removal product made for aquariums. I live in Florida and collect lots of rain water. I put my plants outside when it rains too. They love it, especially the orchids.

Great video Great information I’m fortunate that I have good well water at my home. Glad to k ow I could use the water from my dehumidifier.

I just got a juniper bonsai today and I think the topic of bonsai trees would be a great video if you have any or are thinking of getting one. Your tips could probably improve people's bonsai and help begginers who have no idea what there doing and go to youtube like me lol

I have a well at my house and the water is very high in iron and sulfur, so I have to buy jugs of distilled water and it is getting quite expensive. I recently purchased a 55g drum for collecting rain water, and in the winter I will be collecting snow. :) I'm so glad I seen this video because I just got a brita filter pitcher and almost used it to water my plants, I'm sure they thank you for saving their lives and leaves.

I live in the south here in the US and collect more than enough water from my dehumidifier. Ive always thought it was such a waste to just dump it out. Now i know my plants will get a gourmet watering. Thanks for the tip.

I have started collecting rain water as well. Like you, I use the large plastic totes but place a large golf umbrella upside down over the tote with a couple of small cuts in the top of the umbrella. I also drop in a couple of stones so the wind won’t blow the umbrella away. Only takes a minute to set up my system when rain is in the forecast and I get a good bucket full. From there I fill up the milk jugs.

Ordered and started using API after this video last week...already see the differences in my plants. Cheers :)

Here in the states there are places that you can buy purified water with no salts in it. So I purchased 2 5 gallon tanks from Amazon and take them there and it only cost $3 dollars to fill up 10 gallons. I have found this to be the most cost effective way for me since I live in the hot Desert of Las Vegas and we get absolutely not enough rain in a year to even be worth collecting. So spending $6 a month on 20 gallons of water has be the best and most cost effective way for me to water my 300+ house plants.

My local grocery stores have refillable purified reverse osmosis water. This is what I use for my mineral-sensitive plants like my calatheas, dracaenas, ferns, spider plants and peace lilies. It is only 39 cents a gallon for refills. Much more sustainable and much cheaper than buying tons of distilled water. I also use the purified water for the humidifier in my plant room. When I can, I do use rain water to water the mineral-sensitive plants but since I live in the desert, the only rain we get is our monsoon storms in the summer, which have been less frequent and inconsistent in the last few years due to climate change. So, I have found that purified water is the next best thing.

I was using Evian Bottled water initially but as my plant collection is growing, I am now using filtered tap water and distilled water for rooting.

Hi from 🇬🇧 I use the Revised osmosis filter or the big burkey, for all my needs people pets n plants, but you do have to change the filters. I also use rain and fish tank water. Thankyou for the tips on the snake plant much appreciated sir

I have been using rain water for about 15 years and my house plants are all thriving

We have well water, but just got a water softener…ugh… I love the dehumidifier idea!!! Will have to give that a try.

I collect several gallons of rain water every winter and store it in recycled plastic jugs , it's not enough to last all yr but it helps ... like you I have around a couple hundred plants to care for as well.

I use rain water and the water of my pond and i have healthy plants ! Thanks for the aditional tips ! Also in summer I use destilated water from the air conditioner .

My kids never finish their bottled water from their lunches- i collect the water from their bottles each day and use that to water the plants.

I've followed your advice on calathea, and it's doing much better. Thanks. I wonder if tap water could be what's hurting my oxalis. It's full of brown areas on leaves and is very weak in general. Also, anthurium, which has big fleshy leaves, so it should be ok, but I'll try anyway.

I always heard it was risky to use dehumidifier water just because it can collect fungi spores which could end up killing your plants, but I may try to use rain water as a test. Though the rain here is likely very acidic so I don't know how that will go either

I reuse the water from my dehumidifier. Works well so far. ☺️

I've had bad experiences with condensation from a dehumidifier or air conditioner, after a while the plants grow slower (they were carnivorous plants for me) or stop growing and eventually die. Only a change of substrate could save the affected plants, but even this is no guarantee. I attribute this to the aluminum and copper ions because the heat exchangers in air conditioners and dehumidifiers are made of copper (tubes) and aluminum (fins). You can use rainwater, of course, but in areas with a lot of industry and laxly enforced environmental protection regulations or accidents with product spills, unwanted substances can also be dissolved in it, which slowly kill the plants. Here I would at least run the water through an activated carbon filter before using it for watering. I have been using osmosis water for over 10 years with great success. Not only do plants say “thank you” with this water, but also irons and coffee machines (never descale again).

I have a Brita filter and several empty gallon jugs. I keep the jugs filled with filtered water all the time. I might try collecting rainwater this fall too. Since I’m a new plant person, I don’t have anything really exciting, but I do have a couple of spider plants with brown tips.

You hit all the important points 🎯💯

Hi another idea is to use the water from the fridge dispenser as that is filtered and contains no nasties. Informative video once again 😊

Oh my gosh! 😱 I think this is my problem with my pothos.

I collect rain water BUT I hadn't been using it for ALL of my plants. I have to rethink this. Thanks from MD, USA!

I have a dehumidifier and use the water from the tank to water my houseplants. Works a treat. 👍

I’ve used rain water for about two years now. When we had a water shortage we actually boiled water for 20 minutes then stored it in plastic milk containers. We used a large stock pot. I have recently purchased a super large container from the supermarket of purified water which was relatively cheap as a backup.

haha wow I do live in San Diego + rain is indeed a scarcity! I accidentally killed 2 of my 3 starter houseplants before i realized it was due to the terrible tap water here :( using distilled water has really been helping my plants/ propagations thrive a bit better despite my very dry climate! I worked at the nursery of an online/ ecommerce plant store + we used a reverse osmosis system for our drinking water as well as the plant water, so I am currently saving up for a reverse osmosis system for the humans, animals + plants in my place

I am using Berkefeld filter for filtrate the water (ceramic filters), english brand with excellent quality (have it for 7 years). 8,5L container allows me to use this water for drinking and for watering. Can't say it's quick to filtrate, approximately 1h for its volume because it's gravity fed. But comparing the filter life time, price and quality to plastic coconut/charcoal filters it's worth a shot.

Some plants are also sensitive to the fluoride put in water, and it will cause the same buildup like lead. My carnivorous plants want nothing but distilled/purified water to thrive! Be careful what dehumidifier you use, some have lead finishing on the coils that could end up in water, monitoring which plants take well to it is advised!

Hello Mr. Sheffield, (I hope you don't mind me calling you that as I don't know your name🙂). Thank you for another informative presentation! I had a calathea for about one week, and after reading about how fussy there are, I chickened out and returned it to the gardening center in exchange for an easier plant! 😀😀 I admire those of you who are brave enough to tussle with Calathea because they are such beautiful plants! The only plant that I have started using distilled water for is my Peace Lily because I read that tap water is what was causing the tips of my leaves to brown. I haven't been doing it long enough to know if it's making a difference yet, though.🙂 Otherwise, I don't have any DIVA plants.😀....And BTW, I am STILL afraid of the Wicked Witch of the West!😂😂😆🌴

I live in northern Virginia and tap water doesn’t seem to hurt all my plants, include orchids. I’ll move most of my plants outside on summer. They all love outdoor.

Nice I will start using dehumidifier water during summer. I use tap water as I have no choice. But I thought the chlorine evaporated. I have horrible hard water in my apt.

The only water I have access to is tap water. My mom told me never to water my plants directly out of the tap, but to let water sit at least for a day. I'm thinking of maybe adding zeolite to the sitting tap water.

Thank you so much, man!! 😁😁 Scientia potentia est 👍😌

I knew about calatheas, and I also use either destilled water or dehumidifier water for water propagations. But I've been watching my tradescantia nanouk get brown spots on the leaves that turn completely dry, even baby leaves that haven't unrolled yet and I was really sad about it because it's a baby plant and it wasn't going to last much longer. I searched for plagues and thought it might be a fungus (I saw your video about tradescantias and I made sure the water never touched the leaves when watering, but that wasn't the issue). I really hope it's the tap water, if so you just saved my lovely plant 🙌

The main reason some states in the US restrict collection is that too much rainwater harvesting can disrupt the cycle of rainfall seeping back into the earth. 🤨

I have a well fed by a natural spring. my plants thrive. We do have our water tested annually. we share our water with lots of friends and neighbors who have city water or hard well water.

Water butt in the garden (if you have one) one of the best things you can do! Have enough to water all my houseplants year round and again so handy during hosepipe bans out the garden in summer.

Hai sir .slways watching your vedeo its so benefit.tq.sir i am from malaysia and a my house facing west .its afternoon sun until 7pm.so .so many mmy plant in side the house with house light .but im using filter water.is it ok .sir.once a will im bring out for sun.love my plant..

I just learned something today .I have been boiling my water and letting it sit for a while after it cools...maybe that's why I have seen a few small issues with brown tips lately

I have been watering my plants with tap water for over 10 years, the only ones that I use rain water on are my Calathea White Fusion, which gets brown patches on the leaves and looks awful when I get lazy and use tap water, and one of my orchids who is very sensitive to the minerals in tap water. I also have a terrarium filled with plants and orchids which receives only rain water. The rest of my plants have no issues.

Gosh it was raining so much in LA last week, I really wish I'd seen this sooner!

When would you add this? 1 silica 2 calmag 3 conditioner? What order do you suggest?

I give rain water to my plants, but I also have a blackwater aquarium. I don't use this water for my plants because I'm not sure what the tannins will do to my calatheas. Great informative video by the way

Thank you for this! . I’m never throwing my dehumidifier water again !

Tesco sell a cheap water purifier jug for about £5 the filters are about £3? i cycle water through them and keep it bottled. i also use water from my tropical fish tank its warm, (not that that matters to most plants except my Triostar) and its full of free food! For me tap water seems to be a no no for plants that have fine long leaves or points on leaf tips Begonia Macularta Wightii. My triostar has no brown tips but i only use fishtank water it is a moody plant that hates drafts and on cold nights i have to put it next to my boiler or it droops. keep up the good work!

I have a water filter tank which use the same filter you have on your job in the video. Supposedly good for 120L, which is enough for my housemate, me, and my plants. Yes there is a price but I'm already spending it the money on this anyway and I have nowhere as many plants are you do. I probably only need 1L per day or so. But hey, good idea with the deshumidifier, I will get the water from there as well from now on, instead of throwing it again.

I use water from my aquarium. The water is treated by reverse osmosis so it is is very soft and acidic. This water + fish poop = my plants love it!

Hiya. Saw something recently that said to add cinnamon to water. I googled it and it did have a lot of positive feedback. Just wondered if you had ever tried using cinnamon. Your videos are Great BTW. 👨🏼‍🌾

Distilled water is great for my peace lilies, calathea, spider plant, aloe…

The game-changer for me was the use of homemade reverse osmosis water. I then bring the conductance to something between 100-200 µS/cm by using a fertilizer or mixing in water from the aquarium accordingly. I set the pH value to 5.8. The effort for this is minimal. The results are great.

I try not to use tapwater unless I absolutely have to. I moved to a house in October that happens to have a great spot to collect rainwater. One quick downpour will fill a 50 gallon barrel. I'm so spoiled! Since I live in New England and I can't use a rain barrel for half the year, I'm having to use buckets at the moment. Even then, I have all the water I need for an 8x12 sun room full of plants. I use it for misting as well since it leaves nothing behind when it evaporates. If I can't water with rain, I use the waste water from 2 small fish tanks, one of which lives in the sun room with the plants. I inject a small amount of CO2 for the aquatic plants, so the waste that offgasses gets used by the other plants in the room. With the help of a grow light in one corner to compensate for the short days, it all seems to work pretty well. Everything has continued growing well right through the winter months. Even my strelitzia has popped 2 new leaves in the last month. I sort of can't believe it, and can't wait to add some rarer fussier plants to my collection.

I have a bottle sera aquatan, I don't use it anymore, because my aquarium is just fine without it (no fishes, just a very hardy anubias, everything is in balance) I thought it would be a good idea, to treat a bigger amount of water. Copper, zinc and some other heavy metals are also binded with this treating method. But plants need some. I just wonder if soil contains the right amount of these metals? Or the regular, appropriate amount of fertilizer can solve the problem? Probably I will search for another product when this bottle will be empty 😅

I use an on tap filter. I rent and there's no extra plumbing required, and the filter is activated carbon. Not as good as rainwater, I am sure, but good enough it seems since my calathea and orchids seem happy enough.

Hi mate couple questions I live in the west Midlands Birmingham area so hard water. I live in a flat but get good partial sun perfect for my snake plants, cactus and succulents etc . But I've come to the tap water problem should I use my brita or use my dehumidifier water which I have on when I have my dryer on . I read online the dehumidifier is grey water and can have bacteria in but what would u think . My snake plant in my bedroom has been growing new growth recently but it got to a nice height but it developed a big bite out if it . I checked for mites etc but nothing (the other leaves have some small little bits out but nit that bad) could it be a fungal thing or just the water. I have now discovered to water from below

I use the condensed water that collects in my tumble dryer after each cycle, granted not all tumble dryers have heat pumps, but if yours does it's a great way to re-use the water that would otherwise just be tipped down the drain.

When I change the water weekly on my 220l fish tank i use a declaration liquid that removes the chlorine and chloromine. I do put the tank water I take out into a water butt and use to water my plants. I does contain lots of nitrates etc from fish waste. Is this OK to use? I do use pure rain water on my fly traps though or when I can get it... smart water, from smart water stations around the UK. Its just pure water with absolutely no minerals in at all.

Hmm. Very interesting! I didn't know that water companies are now adding something called "chloramine" that won't evaporate. All I can say is, that I have been putting water into 5-l bottles and leaving it overnight: and I can see the bubbles evaporating out of that.. I am in Cornwall. I did not know plants liked water out of dehumidifiers! Good to know!!

I used the aquarium water 😁 thanks

I am delicate , like a plant. I wondered all this time IF it was the water causing things (politely speaking) - not to flourish - It just has to be the water. My Plants, my garden pLAnts and herbs, me...all trying to do so well - yet 'something' is not right. WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT OUR WATER, EVEN AFTER FILTERING i FIND SAME...??

I really keen on using rainwater. If I collect it and put it in a bottle it looks like it can store for a week.

I use tap water that I store open in lg Tropicana jugs and let them sit for a week to air out, my plants are doing great!

Where I live, you can drink the tapwater and it doesn‘t even have high amounts of chalk, because it is from a lake. (I live in switzerland next to lake constance.)

I saw a study of chlorine and chloramines in water and ascorbic acid or vitamin c neutralizes them, during the test they put their fingers in the water and the fingers absorbed the chlorine and chloramines immediately, I haven’t seen anything else to verify this, but I did notice putting vitamin c in my tap water removed the smell, anyhow Cheers, thanks for the presentation, Cheerio

We don’t buy individual water bottles often, but there are times when we have them for some reason, and inevitably my kids will leave theirs half finished and we can’t remember whose germs are on each bottle. Or, sometimes they’re left out in our hot car, and I’m worried to let them drink water that’s been in the hot plastic. So when that happens, I put them under the kitchen sink and save them for watering my more sensitive plants. If we don’t have any bottled water, I use water from our Berkey filter. Fortunately, though, most of my plants are not sensitive to our tap water.

I wonder if water melted from clean snow is comparable to rain water......we get tons of snow here in Minnesota. I'd totally start collecting snow for my plants if it'll be worth it.

I have a rainbarrel. My houseplants and herbs love rain water.

I've been using sump pump water for all my plants for about 2 years with no obvious issues. A garden hose fitted to the sump pump collects the water in to a 60 gallon rain barrel..

Would water from a condenser tumble dryer be any good? X

Can you use the water conditioner that you use to prepare new fish tank water?

How do you filer rain water caught in a bucket?

I'll just keep using tap water then, there's no chloride in it here in Denmark, and I haven't had any problems so far that weren't obvious and easy to fix. I would like to try rain water though, but I live in an apartment with no balcony, so that would make collecting a little difficult. :( Can't wait to finish my studies and get a house with a whole garden to play with. I have so many plans already, I'll make it my own little fantasy land, and the interiors will be a little tropical rainforrest. Let's just hope the future Mr. Profetspurvius likes plants too.

I don’t know my father-in-law waters, all of his plants with a garden hose and they’re all in pretty good shape. I totally get if you have bad water and it smells like chlorine. Maybe don’t use it personally I think Im ok.. I live in the Chicagoland area, and our water is some of the best in the land. So we’ll see.

I am a tap water setter. For what it is worth it sits in a bucket for larger surface area exposure.

You can distill water on your stovetop. There are plenty of video's on YT that show you how to do it, check it out.

Can I use filtered water from my refrigerator? I live in hot sunny southern California, we haven't had rain in months!

What was the solution you've been adding to the water please, I forgot to take a note and I can't find the right video again 😫

I use purified drinking water since there's a lot of water stations near me. 50 cents for 5 gallons as long as I provide the container.

My prayer plant was doing well for ages and now it’s started not to since I’ve moved. I wonder if that’s why!

Filtered, dehumidifier and rain water best for house plants…specially calathea,maranta,ctanthea plants 🪴 Thanks again always makes useful tips