Rain Water ??????????

[Lesley Jay]

I was watching a repeat of Gardeners World and Alan Titchmarsh was transplanting seedlings. He said to always water the seedlings with tap water and not rain water because rain water contains chemicals and can cause damping off. I have never heard this before and I always use rain water. Is he right?

[smallblueplanet]

Shouldn't that be the other way round? Tap water has chemicals (such as chlorine) for purification? Maybe rainwater is 'acid rain'!?

Are yours damping off?

[SueA]

I would think it depends on where you live & the quality of your tap water.There is a lot of talk of 'acid' rain & pollution in the air & I would imagine that if you live in a built up or industrial area your rainwater could probably kill anything! If you live in a hard water area your tap water could contain minerals & chemicals which I would think could harm some seedlings.We live near Manchester & have lovely fresh soft tap water which I always use to water my seedlings with no ill effects & we have so much rain that I'm sure any impurities would be so diluted as to make no difference!

[Peter]

No quite correct.

Tap water has been purified to make it drinkable. Yes I know that does not remove all the chemicals and Chlorine and in some places Flouride are added. In other words all chemical content (lime excluded) are within "safe" limits.

Rain water will contain whatever airborne contaminants it fell through, remember Chernobyll, that arrived in the UK by air and descended by rain, which is why some hill farms (where rising ground causes precipitation) are still having some problems.

So if you are on the west coast of Ireland the rain is probably clean , if your are next door to a coal fired power station it is probably not.

[pigletwillie]

If the rain water is fresh it shouldnt be too much of an issue Lesley, its when you drain it out of a waterbutt that has stood for a wee while that the problems start. It will be full of things to cause your seedlings to rot. Tap water obviously will not be stagnant so you dont get that problem.

[bramble]

I think there a mixture of chemicals in both rain and tap water. I would go on what Peter said, it depends on where you live.

[poultrychat]

I can't remember where I read it but somewhere I did read that you can put a teaspoon of ***** fluid in your water butt and that keeps all the nasties at bay. It suits me nicely to blame my seedling failures on the water butt though

[nick the grief]

Peters right, it's the airborne fungus spores that are the problem. If you are worried, you can always boil the rainwater first. & save the water in the butt for more established plants.

[bramble]

Would water purifying tablets work for small amounts of water to use on new seedlings?

[sewer rat]

Last year I used water from my water butts to water all my seedlings - mostly annual flowers - and had no problems, but this year with the water in the butt having sat for so long without being used, I think I'll only use it on maturer (is there such a word - doesn't look right to me) plants.

[Alice]

Sure sewer rat. Maturer is a word but maybe you're thinking " more mature "
sounds better. What does it matter.

[ric]

ive used rain water for years, the bath by the polytunnels is a mix of rainwater and tap water at the moment is the colour and thickness of a dubious pea soup, yet all my plants ars fine on it. have a look at this website http://www.execonn.com/sf/