Water for plants

My father always said 30 mins to an hour of steady rain does more good than you can do all day with a can or hose. That said in this current weather, as others have said tap water is much better than no water. We are watering every other day with a hose at the moment. The waterbuts are empty.

 

@hi2u_uk - this why people keep asking you where you're located. I'm not sure why you don'tput it on your profile. No one expects you to give your full address and postcode - it's just a general idea so that advice can be more tailored.
I have West central Scotland on mine - that actually covers a very large area, but it gives that general nod so that people could see [approximately] what works here - or doesn't. On this page alone @NigelJ has Paignton, Devon, @Selleri has North Tyneside, @john558 has Ramsgate etc etc. It helps enormously to know roughly where people are, and their general conditions, so that they can suggest planting that suits, or ideas to try.

Tap water here is soft, and although I collect/use my shower water before it warms up, and also have a small waterbutt for using, I use the tapwater without any problems for anything that might need it during longer dry spells [mostly potted plants] including topping up the pond now and again for ten minutes, using the sprinkler setting on my hose handle.
I'm also not sure why you think rain water could be problematic in some way for plants. No one would have anything living in their gardens if that was the case!

 

Here’s something in today’s BBC news. An “expert” offers advice.

Expert gives tips to keep plants alive in heatwave

 

This is what I've been wondering, all the deionised distilled ultra pure water says human beings shouldn't drink it. I therefore wonder if its ok for plants. Then again I don't understand these studies as presumably the people still ate as normal so would get missing minerals etc from food
It's also the same acidity as tap water as I checked

 

Yes it does say don't drink, but if you drink too much tapwater or bottled water you will be at least unwell and possibly an ex person.
Here you go explanation: "The median lethal dose (LD50) of distilled water is greater than 90,000 mg/kg (90 g/kg) for rats, meaning it is practically nontoxic orally. In humans, water intoxication, which can occur from excessive water consumption, is not a result of the water itself being toxic, but rather from the disruption of electrolyte balance when the body is flooded with too much water. "
It is okay for plants if you put it on the soil, because as soon as it hits the soil it's no longer distilled water.
How did you measure the pH of the tap and distilled water and is your tap water soft or hard?
Soft tap water is in the range pH5 to pH7, hard water will be greater than pH7. Note measuring the pH of distilled water accurately is non-simple.
Soon as you open distilled water it will start to absorb carbon dioxide and thus be slightly acidic and with a pH meter you can watch this happen especially if stirred.
If you wish and can afford to water your plants with something other than tap water or rain water (which is easy to collect) then go ahead.

 

My garden gets tap water. I fill one water butt to have a bit of a warmer water, for cucumbers, for example.
For indoor plants watering I use RO (reverse osmosis) filtered water purely because we have filter installed for drinking water.

 

Dirt is what plants grow in - for example:
-Farmers spread sewage sludge on their fields
-I mulch my squashes with horse manure
-Compost is organic matter that has been processed through the bodies of bacteria, insects, slugs etc

...and of course, there are roughly the same number of bacteria cells in your body as there are human cells:
"Thoroughly revised estimates show that the typical adult human body consists of about 30 trillion human cells and about 38 trillion bacteria."
Revised Estimates for the Number of Human and Bacteria Cells in the Body - PMC

Life is gloriously circular!

 

And: Dogs have fleas and other things upon their back to bite them;
The bigger fleas have little fleas and so on ad infinitum.

 

Just read that there will be a hosepipe ban in Hampshire from Monday. Guess what everyone will be doing this week-end?

 

Standing in the rain?

 

Filling their swimming pools.

 

We don't have a ban as such, we just stop using our water when the tank on the hillside tells us to. We had a month of using bottled water for nearly everything, because nothing was running in, then a bit of rain let us drink again. The ducks and other small birds breathed a sigh of relief too, as their ponds were getting very low. The ground water tastes so much better that we were glad to get it back, even though it contains what many would call impurities. We have been drinking it safely for 40 years, my daughter has from birth. An article I read recently about the purity of the water produced by the big water companies went so far as to suggest that we might be in a tiny elite of our own!
We had a proper downpour nearly all day yesterday, which means that I don't have to bother about drinking water for now as almost all the water butts are full to the brim. We have 9 altogether which have all been topped up and the garden got a good watering too.
That means less running around trying to rescue endangered plants, though most have grown really well and the grass has not really stopped growing for any length of time, surviving on dew. I have had difficulty keeping up with it as it is either too long or too wet or too dry to mow. Plus I'm silly and too soft- there's quite a large patch of grass which I can't bring myself to mow, because the bees are enjoying the clover so much!

 

Repeating a message posted elsewhere - if you are disabled you may be exempt from hosepipe bans.

 

And I remember when I had a pond with koi, that Severn Trent allowed you to top it up with a hose for the sake of the fish, even during a ban.

 

I think I read you can use a hosepipe for animals, here, fish , usually comes into that as well.