Everwhere I look it said use distilled water or rain I have one of those Brita ( I think thats how you spell I am bad at spelling) picture and I also fill up empty milk jugs to water my plant do you think that would work or should I just get distilled water
Kim
Question about the water for VFT
Equilibrium
May 16, 2007
You'd need to test your water with a TDS meter. You could very well be ok depending on the tap water before it is run through your Brita.
http://brewery.org/brewery/library/FiltBrita0596.html
Overall, I don't believe the Brita can hold a candle to many of the RO set ups that are available. I'd purchase distilled water until I could get my hands on somebody's TDS meter.
I agree with Equilibrium-- Tap water, unless it is really low in TDS (total dissolved solids) can slowly kill a Venus Flytrap. You won't notice anything wrong for a while, but when you finally do notice that the plant seems "sick," it's too late: the minerals and salts will have built up to a toxic degree in the plant and it will die because there is nothing (that I know of) that you can do to get those minerals and salts out of the plant.
So, it would be best (safest) to buy distilled water (not "drinking water" nor any other kind of store-bought water that contains other ingredients besides pure water), or to use collected rainwater (which is what I use) or water from reverse osmosis (which you can also buy).
Good luck with your pet plant! :-)
Steve
Equilibrium
May 26, 2007
You know something, I think you summed it up when you referred to our plants as pets. I never thought of it that way before but they are our green babies!
I haven't any kids so my plants ARE my babies!
Tom
Equilibrium
May 27, 2007
Well, then you are amongst friends.
I think of Venus Flytraps and other plants as living organisms just like me (well, not just like me, but you get the idea) :-) One of the things that occurred to me some time back is that: "I'm a vegetarian, but my pet plants aren't" (referring to the carnivorous plants in my care). I thought that was kind of a cute spontaneous thought. :-)
Anyway, best wishes with your Venus Flytrap.
Steve