I'm on a private well where I live, but have a water softener and have been using water from the tap to water inside plants ans palms including spraying them daily with same water, usually with some dish soap and/or Hydrogen Peroxide as well. I can't say that I've had issues that I can blame the soft water on, but had been curious about what appeared to be a whitish residue on wider fronds of palms that easily wipes away, as well as some painted clay pots that I've been buying because they were 50% off for the off season, but with these pots after watering a white chalky residue forms on the outside. It too can be simply brushed off. I thought maybe it was some minerals in the pot itself, but now wonder if it's salt residue from me watering from the tap.

I now fill jugs of water from the spigot on the house, since I know it's just straight well water(prefiltered to remove some iron) I let them sit for a few days to get to room temp.

My question since we have members here all over the world is what do you use to water your INDOOR palms? Buying distilled water wouldn't be practical for me.

Thanks,

Scott

You have hard water my friend. I know that water that has been through a softer isnt good for fish, i would have to assume its not the best for plants either (probably the salt). I had this problem in calgary. The water there is directly from a glacier river (the bow), so its chalk full of sediments (see what i did there 😀 ).

The "powder" on the leaves is from the soap/dust build up on the leaves. I spray my plants with soapu water once or twice a week, and the rest of the week with water. Also, the sediments in the water are probably adding to it.

THe residue on the clay pots is probably from the soap/peroxide/fertilizer (from the soil). The clay pots were probably painted, but not glazed. They soak up water, and dry the soil out really fast (this stopps after a while). The salts will build up in the soil (salts from the fert, and softer) and sediments from your well water are building up in the pot. You could soak the pot for a few hours (may harm some plant roots i guess), or you could try frushing the pots with a ton of water (making sure the soil drains well enough that you dont drench the soil).

I use tap water in the winter, and rain water in the summer.

Filtered tap water, which is hard down here.
I set them out for rain when it is warm, as it has been lately. Bottles and some others are too heavy to move n and out and so have lived on just the tap water for months now.
Not sure this is ideal and so appreciate the discussion.

Hi Scott,

I fill 5 gallon buckets with our city water (soft, never have kettle "scale").
Buckets go in basement for 2 days to warm.
Also hope the chlorine chlorine dissipates/evaporates.

In summer big plastic garbage cans catch roof water from barn.

My parents were on a well and had a water softener.
Years later they had the softener disconnected from the kitchen tap so they could cook with unsoftened water.
Had heard all that salt from softener was really bad for kidneys.
Certainly not good for plants.

Barb

I will try and collect rain water this year too now for plants I leave indoors. The "ionization" of the rain water I know is good for them.

In the mean time, since it's not always practical to get water from the outside spigot I will look into on of the Brita attachments for the laundry room sink or the pitcher strainer method.

I don't want to spend all the time and money getting nice plants and palms only to water them to death with salty water.

Barb, I did get a 5 gallon bucket of spigot water and is warming in the house. I'm going to "flush" my cat palm in one of the pots that has the powder residue on the outside. I know it's from the water I've been watering it with since it leeches out from inside. I thought at first it was maybe some minerals in the pot, but when I asked about it at Mulhall's the workers there that have the same pots don't experience the same condition.

This Cat palm was one of my .99 specials, so it's a good one to experiment with.

THe cat palm LOVES to be flushed. You can sit there all day pouring water in the pot and it wont harm it. THey live near waterfalls and moving water, so they LOVE oxygenated water.

lol, yea I knew they liked their water so thought that would be the best plant to try it on. Will put in the shower this weekend and let her pour! If it works, I'll do the Clumping Fish Tail I have. Both of those plants are in similar style of same brown pot (tall and slender)

Yeah, that's gotta be it, Scott, with your water.
A Brita is OK, but the low volume will drive you nuts.
Especially when you've got 35 palms and half of 'em are in 20 gallon pots 😆

Re my summer bucket catching barn roof water, it occasionally breeds mosquito larvae.
But that's OK as larvae die on top of watered soil as it drains.
And then the larvae that are at the bottom of the big bucket, I feed to the fish in the pond. 😈 😈

The goldfish nearly jump out of the water with delight when I dump that into the pond.
My fish won't eat the commercial fish food anymore.
They're waiting for the mosquito larvae bucket :evil4:

We don't get enough rain though for a steady supply so I just fill the big bucket at the barn with tap water.
If left outside in the sun, you'll have no trouble attracting mosquitos.

Barb

LOL, I don't have the huge containers that you do Barb...not yet.

Bought a Brita faucet mounted filter. Doesn't say on box or instructions about filtering salt residue from softened water....so well see.

Here is pic of the brown clay pot before the flushing and the white residue on the outside.

white residue on the outside.

Try to wash this white residue with a slightly diluted vinegar. It works!

Igor, I put this Cat palm and pot in the shower and flushed it with fresh water(5 gallons) the white residue is easy to brush off, but am going to switch the type of water I was using (softened) to straight well water and see what happens. Thought too it might just be minerals in the clay leeching through to the outside from regular watering.

We used this vinegar trick those days when I was working for interior plantscaping company in Toronto, ON. Just in case if a planter is huge so you don't want breaking your back. 😥

Good stuff scott! THe one thing ive noticed about my Cat palm is that they dont liek to be dry (plants not the soil). They get brown leaves. They seem to almost need a good shower once in a while.

Igor - I STILL read "Almaty", as "alMIGHTY"..... ALMIGHTY KAZAKSTAN!! lol

Igor - I STILL read "Almaty", as "alMIGHTY"..... ALMIGHTY KAZAKSTAN!! lol

Borat style ! 😆 😆 😆