Understanding What it Really Means to Water Your Houseplants Properly
You may feel like you’ve finally nailed down the watering needs of your plants, but when you take a closer look at what proper watering really means it will make you reevaluate. There are many factors involved that you probably didn’t think of or weren’t concerned with!
Different types of water to use
Tap Water
Never consistent in quality: changes throughout the day
Because it comes through a water system shared by the entire city, you would be surprised at the particles that find their way into your tap water. This really matters because many houseplants are VERY sensitive to water contaminants.
Find your tap water quality at ewg.org tap water quality database
https://www.ewg.org/news-insights/news/national-tap-water-quality-database
Does Filtering Water Work?
This depends on what contaminants are in your water! Contaminants like fluoride and chlorine are commonly found in water systems as a way to keep water clean and are often not filtered out by regular Brita Filters. That really makes you question just what your water filter isn’t catching! Public water can contain anything from fluorides and pesticides to heavy metals and minerals. While they may not affect your quality of life, your plants will make it known very quickly that they don’t like it! It’s always best to filter your water as a safe-guards because some contaminants can be filtered out of your water, but others are able to slip through that filter. It may take a more powerful filter, like the Boogie Blue Basic Filter to really get rid of those contaminants.
If you don’t have a filter, you can let your water sit out for 24 hours before using it to water your plants. This allows some of the more volatile contaminants to evaporate and helps stabilize the temperature. Most houseplants were originally tropical plants, so they prefer that you don’t water them with that ice cold (or burning hot) water!
You may consider boiling contaminated water to get rid of any pollutants. I mean, that’s what they tell us to do when our city’s water is contaminated, right? You actually should not do this because boiling water only concentrates those contaminants more! Your best option is to just let the water sit in a container —without a lid— overnight. To keep up with your plants watering needs, always keep a container sitting out!
Rain Water
It comes from nature, right, so it has to be okay!
Sorry guys, this isn’t necessarily true because of the things that rain water can come into contact with. You also have to take into consideration potential air pollutants (if you life in an area with a high air pollution), and things like acid rain and contamination through run-off if you collect your rain water using a run-off system.
Distilled Water
Think of this as the holy grail of water for finicky plants. It’s an angel, a saint, water in its purest form. You can purchase it in gallons, and can find refill stations at some retail stores. However, not all plants love this nice, clean skinny water if you will. They need the extra nutrients from the minerals that water contains. Because distilled water is boiled, distilled, there aren’t any extra nutrients for your plants.
Applying your new-found knowledge
Now that you’ve learned all about the different types of water, let’s talk about watering your plants. There are a few different methods, all of which are great. The important thing to remember is that not all plants are the same. They all grow differently in nature, have higher or lower water demands, and prefer for their soil to stay in certain conditions. As a general rule, you want your soil to be a little moist after watering, but not soggy.
Top Watering
This is the most common method that a lot of your plants will be just fine with. After checking to make sure your plant actually needs water, begin watering and go around the circumference of the pot. By doing this, you’re ensuring that the entirety of the root system is getting the water it needs, and that no one section is getting too much. If you aren’t watering your plants this way you may have noticed random leaves that are very dry but are surrounded by healthy leaves. This means that water isn’t getting to certain roots!
Bottom Watering
Bottom watering is exactly what it sounds like. It’s perfect for fuzzy plants with little hairs on their leaves. Any houseplants with soft leaves like this are not going to appreciate even a tiny drop of water sitting on their surface. To prevent any splashing that can occur when watering your plants thoroughly, you can place your plant on a tray of water. Test the moisture of the soil frequently to monitor the amount of water it has absorbed. You want the soil to feel moist. Think of your favorite cake. Is it soggy and under-baked or is it nice and moist? You want your plants soil to feel like the idea bite of cake when its finished bottom watering. This is a perfect way to make sure water makes its way to the very top of the soil!
If you’ve learned anything today, I hope it’s that you should always take the time to do a little research (insert link to care guide page) about what your plants need/want from you before winging it! Every plant has different tolerance levels when it comes to soil moisture, water type, and the method for watering, Good thing we’re here to do all that hard work for you!