Shaken not Stirred

This section is about a popular drink for your plants as well as for you - the drink of course is water. You will find that your plants seem to react very positively to rain water that comes directly from the skies more so than when you water them with rain water that you may have collected. You will also notice a greater difference in water that you may have taken from your garden hose directly from your house.

There are a couple of reasons for this. The roots of your plants thrive in oxygenated water. Water, interacts with air through movement to attract additional oxygen molecules thus providing oxygenated water to your plants naturally in the form of rain.

The rain water that you collect is simply sitting in its rain barrel or pot and is not able to, by itself give your plant the same level of oxygenated water.

If you are using water from a hose and not using a garden hose filter or do not have a home filtration system for your entire home, the water that your plants are receiving 1. have less oxygen and 2. have trace metals in them and 3. may be acidic (this is simple to test, the same PH strip you use to test your own acidity can be used.) This is not to say that your plants will die, it just means that it is more difficult for them to thrive.

There are solutions of course to the issues mentioned above. To oxygenate your water, simply shake it for at least 1 minute (5 is ideal but very boring!) before watering the plant. The movement allows more oxygen molecules to attach.

If you do not have a water filtration system in your home (for your entire home) and want to use the water from your hose, you may want to look into some garden hose filters (I will review a few in the next newsletter). If you have a water filtration system in parts of the house (your kitchen perhaps?), use the water from there to water your plants. If you do not have any of the above and have a Brita or similar water filtration device, use the water from there.

Plants are like people, the less they have to fight chemicals and metals, the more they will be able to divert their energies to thriving - remember when watering your plants - shaken not stirred!