I swear my pothos died faster after I switched to filtered water

Everyone online keeps saying tap water is the devil for houseplants because of chlorine and fluoride. So six months ago I started using a Brita pitcher for my pothos and peace lily. Figured it would be the magic fix. Instead both plants started dropping leaves within three weeks and looked worse than before. Turned out the filter removed the small amounts of minerals the plants actually needed to thrive. It took me four months and losing half a plant to figure out the real problem was moisture consistency not water quality. I switched back to tap water let it sit out overnight and everything bounced back in two months. Has anyone else had a plant react worse after trying to be too careful with water?

2 comments

2 Comments

william4073d ago

That "sitting out overnight” trick saved my plants too, it lets the chlorine gas off without losing minerals.

caleb_gibson17d ago

Wait, did you actually test the mineral content in your filtered water versus your tap? Brita filters use activated carbon, they don't remove dissolved minerals like calcium and magnesium... they mostly just take out chlorine and bigger particles. Your plants dropping leaves was probably from something else changing, like maybe the filter let through less oxygen or your watering schedule shifted when you switched waters. I've been using tap water for years with no issues, just let it sit overnight like you said, and my pothos is pushing out new leaves every week.