• shalafi@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    Indoor plants are almost all tropical and adapted to grow under 3 canopies of treetops. They work in our house because the tiny bit of sun coming in the window is good enough.

    Being tropical, they need a fair bit of water and the chemicals in tap water are often too much. I use rainwater, but you can set your pitcher out for 24-hours and get good results.

    The stuff you see growing in cracks outdoors is almost certainly local and adapted.

    • gens
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      11 months ago

      I live in a city that has one of the cleanest water in the world. And I remember people leaving water out for a while before watering plants. I also remember ppl just watering immediately, and the plants seemed fine.

      Didn’t find anything conclusive as to why it matters in the 5 min of googling, other then clorine that seems to not be used much anymore. Hmm, a mistery.

      • 31337@sh.itjust.works
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        11 months ago

        My tap water noticeably stunts the growth of my plants (and probably contributed to some plant deaths). It could be because my tap water is alkaline (and all soil around here is also alkaline), or contains fluoride and chlorine. Chlorine is toxic to plants and the bacteria and fungus in the soil that plants rely on. A lot of water treatment plants are switching to chloramines, which you cannot off-gas by leaving water sit out, and are probably worse for plants because they take longer to degrade.

    • DrPop@lemmy.ml
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      11 months ago

      I wish I could collect rain water here but we get acid rain from living near a city and next to the Mississippi