I’ve been collecting rain water for a few months now (not in a rain barrel, just in a metal bowl I put outside and then transfer into a clean empty milk jug) and recently the water has started to smell absolutely FOUL. What could be causing this?? I read that stagnant water can be harmful to plants, should I just ditch it and stick to distilled water?
Yes lol rain water has any pollutants that are in the air as it falls. If it’s smelling bad just use regular water. I have never even used distilled water in my plants and they’re perfectly happy and thriving.
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Yes and make sure to also never use hard water! I learned that the hard way😔
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Not “pollutants” lmao. Things like algae grow in stagnant water. If it’s only a little funky it’s fine but if it’s real foul I’d give it to an outside plant, mostly for your sake
3 likes Lmao if you think rain water isn’t full of pollutants that are in the air it falls thru that is CRAZY 😂 not saying those are inherently bad for plants, it’s just a fact and a potential explanation for the smell.
0 likes Didn’t say there aren’t any, nor did I feel the need to call someone crazy. But these aren’t causing the smell. Bye.
0 likesYou could also use a conditioner with regular water if you don’t want to buy distilled. A little goes a very long way.
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You could always just boil it and strain it but you’ll lose some of the benefits
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If you have a plant that needs distilled, then yes, use distilled or rain water. Most plants can handle tap water fine if they don’t specifically need distilled water. I have hard water and still use it to water everything but my carnivorous plants. As for the older water, I’m not sure, my issue is usually mosquitoes in the water so I leave a mosquito dunk in there. As for rain water being bad, yes I’m sure it has pollutants in it, but all of the plants in nature deal with that just fine. Plants filter out what they don’t need. Plants love rain water because it contains minerals/nutrients they need. All of my food plants perk up and look like they are raising their hands to the sky when it rains. It’s cool.😊 As for stocking rain water, maybe stock smaller quantities? You can collect some outside and put it in an old milk jug or distilled water jug inside. So bugs can’t get in to die and make the water funky.
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