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I moved to a new home about a year and a half ago. The couple of sad,… | Anything about plants | Planta community

Charlie G.

I moved to a new home about a year and a half ago. The couple of sad, straggly houseplants I’d been carting around me with over the years suddenly thrived in their new home and voila! A plant obsession was born. Since then, my collection has grown exponentially but I’m definitely still a novice with much to learn from the wise plant folk here. My question is: my house has VERY hard water (approximately 684 if that means anything to anyone). Is this causing problems for my plants? I can’t imagine softened water is desirable either? Rainwater will be doable once winter’s over but for the times I don’t have rainwater, what’s my best bet? Thanks as always for the shared wisdom 😊

2 likes 11 comments

11 comments

  1. Amie206

    I buy distilled for my really finicky plants. There was a post by someone else last week about treating water from the tap with something that is used in aquariums. Sounded like a WAY better option, but I haven’t gone digging again to find the post

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    • Plant Father

      i’m a fan of api brand water conditioner, just two ingredients and one bottle lasts ages as you only need a drop per gallon

      2 likes
    • Amie206

      Thank you. I was in a Wilco the other day looking for fertilizer and then saw they had aquarium stuff and I was like what was it that was suggested?! 😂🤣

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    • Charlie G.

      Thank you Amie206 and Plant Father! That sounds like a great simple option. I’ll head over to the pet store in a bit to see what they have.

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  2. Plant Father

    is 684 the tds (total dissolved solids)? most houseplants won’t care too much about minerals in their soil. if you have any sensitive plants though, i’d recommend getting a pitcher filter (the zero-water ones work great) and then treating the filtered tap water with some aquarium water conditioner. this will break down any chlorines that pass through the filter. this is what i do when rainwater is unavailable. i’ll also add a touch of white vinegar (maybe 1ml) to increase the acidity, as our water’s ph is close to 8

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    • Charlie G.

      My county’s website says 684 is the hardness “mg/litre measured as CaCO3” 🤷🏻‍♀️

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    • Charlie G.

      Fantastic! Thanks for the info!

      1 like
    • Plant Father

      oh i see, that is quite hard water. i’d suggest filtering the tap water even for your less sensitive plants if you notice a powdery looking white crust forming over the top of your soil— those are calcium deposits

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  3. Sunny

    I have hard water. I don’t know the count. I know after washing and drying my hands it feels like it’s dusted with talcum powder. I have lotion bottles strategically placed like hand sanitizer at the doctor’s office. At the worst time, we used filters attached to the shower heads and only used water filtered from the refrigerator or a Brita. I recently added an RV filter to my backyard garden hose. I keep most of my plants outside for 10 months of the year. I got tired of the water marks left on the leaves.

    3 likes
    • Diane Bar2

      RV filter is a great solution

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    • Sunny

      It worked once I got the right fittings. You have to remove it in winter or it will freeze and burst. It’s about $40/year max if I use up 2 filters. I have about 100 potted plants on my covered patio. I bought it late in autumn. So, I’m not sure how often I will replace it. I’m sure the plants will appreciate having the chlorine, lead, copper and chalk like deposits removed from the water.

      0 likes