beats chloramines, which is coursing thru most of our taps these days … just beware the zika skeeter

Well if you are getting about 70% water from rains, definitely use rain. There is no one who gardens who would not prefer to have enough rain throughout the year that 70% of plant waterings could be done by collecting rain water.

I have four rainbarrels attached to my gutters. I use rain water exclusively for my orchids and potted container plants. I also have an RO system on my kitchen sink which I use when the barrels go dry. There is no comparison between rain water and regular tap water.

Use the rain water! It is liquid gold!!

Jane

I'm Curious how long rain water stays okay to use for watering my indoor plants ... Does it go bad if I "bottled" it into milk jugs and kept in my garage? ( believe I read someone on here does this each year) if I'm using the gritty mix is it still worth it/ beneficial? Most indoor plants are very hardy other than my FLF trees. Thanks! ( I live in Texas and we cannot get a break from the rain dumping by the inches so figuring I should take advantage of it somehow)

Save it. It doesn't go bad. My rain barrels are outdoors in heat and sun. Don't drink it, it's great for plants no matter what potting mix you use. Get some rain barrels. So easy to use and always handy.

I started collecting rainwater for houseplants last year after continuing to notice the benefits of it in my vegetable garden.

It is especially apparent early in the growing season when the plants are growing most actively. We'll have a dry spell where I'm watering with tapwater all the time then finally get some heavy rains. After the rains the growth put on by the corn, tomatoes, peppers, etc is amazing over the next day or two. Happens each year if we get heavy rain after a dry stretch.

Some in the citrus forum said this is due to high levels of nitrogen in rainwater. Some discussion on it came up in this thread. So others have noticed the benefits of rainwater. http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/3929861/growth-over-eight-daysincredible