Water

[uno]

I was reading Vince's thread about the seedlings turning yellow and I thought of this.

I had the same problem and I'm trying something new this year.

Here is what gave me the idea. It was maybe 10 years ago and my Mom bought this little bamboo plant at the mall. She brought it home and watered it and it started turning yellow and looked bad. She was back at the mall and the lady that sold her the plant asked my Mom if she was using tap water and she was. She told my Mom to use spring water or rain water but never tap water.

We watered the bamboo plant with only rain water or bottled water like auqafina and it bounced back and I still have this plant right now!

Also in the hot part of summer when I have to water I use the hose and my plants although they are getting enough water start to look sickly and there is a noticable improvememt when they are watered by the rain instead of the hose.

I even had yellow squash taste like "hose" after watering it with the hose.

I wish I had a solution to water the plants outdoors with only rain water but I don"t know how to do that??

I would need a lot of water.


But for this year all my seedlings are getting rainwater!

My seedlings looked like Vince's last year and I might be wrong but I think the water might have been the problem.

I went out yesterday and filled some big containers with snow I'm melting it in the basement and I'm going to use it to water my seedlings this year...I'm trying to get about 10 gallons worth.

As I learned from the bamboo plant to a human tap water might not make much difference but it's life and death to a plant.

It also shows how bad chemicals are!

I hope this works out this year. And Vince try the rain or bottled water and it might turn things around.

Jim

[dcarch]

Not to be controversial or to start an argument:

1. Tap water, except added fluorine, is essentially rainwater.
2. Lots of bottled water are made from tap water.
3. Rain water may have more dissolved air pollution (acid rain).
4. Tap water mixed with ground water, may have more trace minerals than pure rainwater.

dcach

[Lee]

Could be the chlorine in the tap water that causes the
yellowing....
You could also try letting your tap water sit a room temp
for a while to allow some of the chlorine to evaporate....

Lee

[MawkHawk]

You can also dechlorinate tap water with a solution sold at pet stores for aquarium keepers.

[Tomstrees]

Just as an idea - you could let your tap water sit on the counter (with an open-air opening on the top) and let sit for 12-24 hours -
Most of the "bad elements" evaporate in that time frame ... I do it to water all my houseplants - its better to wait that extra day then to water them right then in there ...
Also very helpfull for bonsai trees ~

Tom

ps. just my $0.02

[PaulF]

Lots of studies have been done on the differences between tap and bottled water. I cannot cite specifics but I remember that Consumer Reports did a test and the conclusion was that there are as many or more bad things in bottled water as in tap at a cost that is way, way, way (you get the drift) more expensive. Like Carolyn has stated many times...if you can drink it, the water you use should be OK for tomatoes

[garnetmoth]

Ive killed sourdough starter with tapwater before- its probably not the best thing to use all the time. rested (left out on the counter) water was just fine for it tho....

"rested" water- sit out on counter for a while is perfectly fine for most applications. commercially available filter (On-faucet, pitcher, in-frige) is a more expensive route, but tastier for humans. Bottled water is a and besides sealed for emergency use, is unnecessary, IMHO.

Clorine schmolorine, isnt a great idea to drink in huge concentrations (ie bleach) but has prevented millions of cases of waterborne illness, so im not too offended by it.

Good luck!

I trimmed off a rear downspout last year, added a barrel(garbage can), and started using caught rainwater for watering. Im rebuilding my beds so I can do a better job of my gravity drip irrigation, and will have mostly rainwater this summer!

[TomatoDon]

Go out in the country and find someone with a deep well. Or, spend a little more and get some reverse osmosis water from the health food store. Or put a rain barrel under the eves of your house. Or use lake water. My home country was judged to have deep water sources that were absolutely 100% pure water, but that was years ago and they had to go deep. GI's from here, traveling off to war, always talked about coming home and having the best drinking water in the world. I think the water here actually won some taste competitions, if there actually was such a thing. We haven't been too urbanized yet, and I do have a well in the country. That, and a shotgun, is all you need.

Don

[dcarch]

I am not sure about this. I think well water is never pure.
Well water is "hard water" packed with minerals, which may be good for plants, not good for clothes washers.

dcarch

[amideutch]

The bottom line is get your water tested or test it yourself. Many times whats comming out of your municipal water plant isn't the same thing comming out of your faucet because of what it picks up in the water lines. I grow kombucha so I have to be careful with the water I use. I also have a carbon block filter I use even though I have very good tap water.
You can go to home brewing sites on the web and buy inline carbon block filters that are fairly inexpensive and connect to your garden hose. My filter is good for 8000 liters before it has to be replaced. Ami

[sirtanon]

Speaking of water.. and how it can vary based on how is treated..

My wife received a link in her email from a close friend of hers in Australia, to a web site featuring an experiment having to do with microwaved water and its effects on plants. Now, I can't speak as to the truth in it, but THEIR findings are actually quite disconcerting.

Have a look:

http://www.rense.com/general70/microwaved.htm

[sirtanon]

...and of course, there's the rebuttal - this from a fairly well known and respected "urban myth" debunking site:

http://www.snopes.com/science/microwave/plants.asp

[dcarch]

There may be differences in boiling water on open fire and boiling water in a microwave oven:

1. Microwave reacts stronger if the water contains minerals and may change the composition of minerals.
2. Depends on the design of the microwave oven, it heats the water unevenly, therefore to top can be boiling and the bottom can stay just warm. This may make a difference if the water contains microorganisms.
3. Boiling water on an open fire may introduce CO2 into the water.
4. Otherwise the only way you can change the molecular structure is to make oxygen peroxide or deuterium (heavy water, for nuclear bomb making).

One very very important note:
Read the instruction/operator’s manual carefully about boiling water in microwave oven. Many people have been seriously injured. Water can explode if heated in a microwave oven (superheated water).

dcarch

[uno]

I even noticed that in some years that it seemed worse than others with tap water.

It would go like this...in the spring everything would be lush and green and as soon as I had to use the hose everything started loooking much worse.

If you ever grow a bamboo plant it's life or death for it to have fresh water.

It also might be different for different areas.

I might be wrong but I'm going to try the rain water (it's actually snow water) on my tomato seedlings this year and see if it makes the difference...I figure it can't hurt!

I'm looking into a rain barrel or barrels for this season. If anyone has any that they think are good I'm all ears.

I'm also trying to figure out about how many I would need so I don't run out of water.


Jim

[Mantis]

Tap water is a problem when your local water board doesn't tell you that it is mixing the normal lake water with bore/ground water that is salty. Hapened to me last year. Very yellow foliage till I figured it out.