Water for plants

It is acid rain causing the problem. Place small umbrellas (open) over your plants. They are free with your cocktails.

 

To be honest im ok with tap water its just i worry about the white mineral deposits on the leaves that i was reading about

Im sort of ok with rain water but do worry about what its picked up from the atmosphere by the time it reaches the soil.

Im not in favour of tumble driers from a cost and environmental perspective so havent thought about their waste water.

but im sure i have read about people using water from their baths. This to me sounds disgusting, you are using water which has dirt and goodness knows what you have washed off your body to feed to plants which may produce fruit and veg that you eat. Surely these plants will take up some of the dirt from the bath water

Normally i just use filtered tap water thats been through the water filter jug but today Ive splashed out and got some ultra pure distilled water. I cant do this on a regular basis

 

My water softener says not to use it for plants.
It works by removing calcium and magnesium and replacing them with sodium so the water is no longer hard.
Whilst it also says it is safe to drink as the amount of sodium added works out to less than 1 teaspoon of salt a year I find the taste dull and slightly metallic, so I never drink it.
Used on plants, the sodium builds-up in the soil over time and can then start to poison the plant.
But it is so good not to have limescale anywhere.

 

The white mineral spots on tap-watered plant leaves is mostly just calcium with a hint of magnesium. It won't do any harm at all.

Plants are very fussy about what can and what cannot enter their root systems.
They can absorb some toxins from the soil they're planted in, but bathwater is fine unless you use cyanide bath salts.
They'll use the water and nitrogen from detergent and the rest will be left in the soil for fungi and bacteria to break down.

 

Most of us who use "grey" water don't put it on food crops. I use it on the young shrubs in my front garden, which are not yet established enough to survive a drought. Pretty sure it wouldn't actually do any harm though, after all the fruit and veg in our gardens is growing in dirt, isn't it? And it is constantly shat on by birds, insects etc. I'd be more worried about the cosmetics you might be washing off yourself.

 

Sometimes it’s a case of needs must. Living in an area of high rainfall (usually) and with a household comprising two people with medical conditions that require constant changing of clothes and bedlinen, plus two rescue cats with mental health problems that result in twice or thrice daily vomiting bouts on their beds and the floors (which then need washing), we aren’t able to wash and dry the amount of laundry that we produce without resorting to a tumble drier. You will be glad to know that the washing line has been in full use today from 8am to 5pm.

 

Right in that case you almost certainly have soft water and I seem to remember you have blueberries if these look green and happy then you don't have hard water.

There is very little soluble matter in rain so no spots and no it's not silly it's sensible to put the water on the soil rather than the leaves, the water is absorbed from the soil not the leaves.

 

Acid rain is much less of a problem these days in Europe and also the US the rest of the world well.
I do get Saharan dust on the car from rain. Also in Easterly winds I get salt deposited on the windows and some plants can get salt burn.

 

Consider it as fertiliser, most of what comes off your body is biodegradable and can be used by the plants, the inorganic components just add to the soil.

 

Plants can absorb metals like arsenic, lead, antimony and selenium. Some "Locoweed" species selectively absorb selenium which is toxic to animals. Tea also contains more selenium than many other plants.
Some plants have been used for bioremediation of spoil heaps and also looked at for extracting metals from low concentration sources. When grown the plant is taken away, dried, burnt and the metal is then extracted from the ash.

 

Ultra pure water is dangerous for humans, so it probably doesn't do plants much good either.

 

Fortunately it doesn't remain ultrapure for long even if it doesn't hit the soil. Also most leaves are water proof.
Even tap water (especially if hot) is an aggressive solvent, brass taps have to be made from a dezincification resistant alloy otherwise the zinc dissolves and you end up with a weak tap that is porous.

 

I can't remember the place it happened but some country/ state ensured that residents only drank pure water with no minerals or whatever. The experiment was abandoned as the people got sick.
Edit. Found this.
Pure Water Can KIll You

 

Indeed, distilled water has a L50 value meaning that 50% of the drinkers died after a certain amount. If I remember, the testers were rats and not humans, but it started my lifelong sceptism on "not tested on animals"- claim.

Try finding a PETA and whatnot approved super organic product that doesn't have purified (distilled) water in it.

Sorry for digressing. @hi2u_uk , it's often best to trust your judgement and wait and see how things go without interfering too much. If your plants are doing fine with tap water, it must be ok.

With watering, it's usually the quantity, not the quality that matters.

I use tap water and any collected rain water (no water butts and the downpipes are on neighbours' sides ) for everything, but if there is a leftover in the kettle I empty it into the indoors watering can. Boiling evaporates the volatile things and sediments some of the Calcium stuff into the bottom of the kettle so what is left should be pretty soft and nice.

 

I always use boiled Egg water for my seeds, it works for me.