A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The House Plant Forum Is hard water or iron in the water a problem for plants?

I tried to do a search for information about hard water but could not find any usable information on it.

I live in the country in central Indiana and all of our water is from a 65 foot deep well. It seems like good water but does leave calcium deposits and has some iron in it also.

Does this type of water do harm to plants would be the first question? it does not have the typical chlorine found in city water but will what is there cause problems?

If so, can someone tell me a simple way to correct or extract what is in the water before it is used on the plants?

I think that just putting the water in a container and then just letting it set will cause the calcium and iron to settle making the water more pure but I am not positive that this thought is correct.

Any help or discussion would be appreciated.

Tom

I feed my plants calcium and iron. Actually people with water softeners need to use different sources because of the salts used to soften it.
I don't think the deposits in your water will harm your plants. It could leave deposits in your soil that would mean repotting in fresh medium is important on a yearly basis.

When I lived in the country, back in the day, we used well water too. Our water was hard and it also had lots of Iron in it. Other than possibly repotting my pots sooner than I would normally I had no problems.
I had an Umbrella plant that was 25 years old when we moved and several pothos that were just about as old. They did not seem to mind.
I will say that I "usually" let the water sit for say a day or so before I watered my houseplants.

Thanks Tina and JunieGirl

I appreciate your replies. We use the well water for about everything and do not use a water softener. I think it is important to let it set because that should let things settle a little and but most importantly, it would bring the water to room temperature which I think is best. My wife, Jan does use a water pitcher with a filter for our drinking water so I will probably run the well water through the filter first to help delay a mineral buildup in the soil.

After I posted this question, I did google it and several sites said the main issue with hard water was the buildup of minerals in the soil. It was also stated that a good rinse out monthly would help and that it would probably need repotting annually.

I value your comments. Thanks for taking the time to reply.
Tom

Well water, hard water.
No problem here with it .. Ask my Christmas cactus.. They bloom their heads off.LOL