Is distilled water good for plants?
Read on and learn the benefits and considerations of using tap water or distilled water for watering plants, including pH value, impurities, and plant types.
Read on and learn if you can take even better care of your plants.
Table of Contents
Introduction to distilled water for plant watering
If gardening or raising plants are your hobbies, you might be interested if distilled water is a better choice for your plants.
What is distilled water?
Distilled water is tap or well water that has been purified by removing dissolved minerals and salts that are dissolved in it.
Distilled water can be produced by boiling water and then condensing the vapor.
While using distilled water on plants provides an impurity-free source of irrigation, it may not necessarily be the best option for all plants.
It is mainly used for laboratory experiments, and other applications that require pure water.
There are other more convenient ways to get distilled water quality in home, like reverse osmosis membrane filtration.
What problems can make water quality for watering plants?
As an example, long time watering with high hardness water can raise the pH of the soil, which is not suitable for many plants.
Hardened soil that repels water makes big problems in the growth of outdoor plants, but the problems are bigger for indoor plants.
Why is distilled water good for plants?
Distilled water has several benefits when it comes to watering plants, especially for plants in containers.
As the amount of soil for home plants that live in containers is usually small, it gets easily contaminated by excessive amount of minerals from tap water or even well water.
Some of the greatest benefits include:
Impurity-free, pure water as a source of plant watering
Using purified, reverse osmosis or distilled water for plant irrigation provides a source of hydration that is free from toxic impurities, which can help prevent plant damage.
pH-neutral water
Watering with neutral pH water will not affect the pH balance of the soil or the plant in the long term.
Better nutrient uptake
Because distilled water is free from other impurities, it allows for better nutrient uptake by plants. The absence of minerals and salts in distilled water means that there is less competition for the plant to absorb nutrients from the soil.
The Considerations of Using Distilled Water on Plants
Using distilled water on plants has its benefits, but there are also some drawbacks to keep in mind. Some of these drawbacks are:
Lack of minerals in water used for watering
Although the lack of impurities can be beneficial for plants, it also means that the water doesn’t contain minerals that are essential for plant health. Minerals such as calcium and magnesium are necessary for plant growth and development.
If your plants are not receiving enough minerals from their water source, you may need to supplement with a fertilizer.
Cost of distilled water
As distillation uses electrical power it adds to the cost of tap water, and it makes it more expensive.
Not necessarily required by all plants
While some plants may benefit from using distilled water, not all plants require water of such quality, without natural minerals. In some cases it can even harm plants.
Most plants will do fine with tap water unless you live in an area with higher heavy metals and chemical contents.
How to get distilled water for plants?
There are two ways of getting distilled water quality for plant irrigation.
First one are water distillers, and the other are reverse osmosis systems.
It is important to take note that the distilled water usually have neutral pH value, while the water from an RO system usually has a slightly acidic pH value.
This means that RO purified water needs to be treated to raise it’s pH value.
Who am I?
I am working as a water treatment technical manager and I have more than 25 years of practical experience in water purification.
Water purification expert
After many years of experience in water purification, I want to share some of my knowledge and get people to know the real importance of water quality.
Water purification and water treatment are very complex themes, so it is important to explain them in an easy-to-read way.
On this blog, you will find many understandable, easy-to-read information about water purification.
I hope you enjoy it, find some useful information, and thank You for reading.
More info on my work and my expertise on water purification can be found on my LinkedIn profile.
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