You can decalcify the irrigation water for your plants with three simple methods
Created: 01/06/2023, 2:30 p.m
By: Ines Alms
Tap water is not the first choice for watering most indoor plants, ferns and orchids in particular suffer from this.
That can easily be changed.
Hard, calcareous tap water makes it difficult for plants to absorb important minerals for their growth.
Therefore, soft, slightly acidic rainwater is often a very good solution.
Except in hot summers, this is not a problem in the garden either, it is only a rather cumbersome matter for indoor plants.
Especially in residential areas with a high level of water hardness, it is therefore advisable to decalcify the tap water - as quickly and easily as possible.
Descale water: Plants like it softer when watering
Boiled tap water should be left for a day before watering.
© Westend61/Imago
Especially lime-sensitive plants such as ferns, azaleas or orchids react to hard irrigation water with discoloration of the leaves or weakening of the roots.
In the worst case, they die.
So if your plants look kind of limp, it's worth taking a look at the hardness of your tap water.
Up to a degree of hardness of 10 °dH (German hardness), it is
still in the green according to
Mein Schönen Garten .
From 14 °dH you should definitely steer against it.
The harder the water is, the more calcium and magnesium salts it contains, the more its pH value increases.
This is problematic for plants that prefer it slightly acidic.
Fewer salts in the irrigation water make the water softer and less lime.
Three methods make the tap water less lime
The easiest way is to leave the freshly tapped tap water in the watering can for several days so that the limescale precipitates.
With these three methods you can decalcify your irrigation water even better and faster:
Dilute: If you mix tap water with deionized water such as distilled water, the lime content will decrease.
For hard water, use one part deionized water and two parts tap water, for very hard water the ratio is 2:1.
Boiling: Leave hot tap water or water heated in a kettle for a day.
As a result, the hard mineral compounds break down and are deposited on cookware, for example.
Water softener: With commercially available water filters, the concentration of minerals in the water is changed for the better by desalinating it.
You can find even more exciting garden topics in the regular newsletter of our partner 24garten.de.
also read
Ten colorful houseplants that spread a good mood in winter
Pre-cultivation in January: You should sow this and under no circumstances
If you still find it too cumbersome to treat the tap water for the plants in this way,
Hausgarten.net
recommends repotting the indoor plants once a year.
With the new, slightly acidic potting soil, they are then well supplied with nutrients for another year.
Or you actually put a rain barrel on the balcony or in the garden to collect the valuable water from above.
Ten houseplants that don't tolerate tap water at all - they react to lime
View photo gallery
Incidentally, whitish deposits on the soil in the flower pot are not always limescale.
Check that it is not unhealthy mold.