AusBonsai

I use Melbourne tap water to water my trees, straight from the tap in the back yard. I notice that after a good rain the trees appear to respond much better.

Is there any reason for this, is it worth aging the town water or even catching rain water to water my trees with or am I imagining things?

trees always look better after a good downpour.

JaseH wrote:I use Melbourne tap water to water my trees, straight from the tap in the back yard. I notice that after a good rain the trees appear to respond much better.

Is there any reason for this, is it worth aging the town water or even catching rain water to water my trees with or am I imagining things?

If you can collect rainwater then yes its better.

Hi Jaseh,
Town water has chemicals to make fit for human consumptions. You could try putting town water in used wine barrel or similar to let sun burn all the chemicals off, that can be done with tank water if it's in an iron tank. Rain water is a lot pure and very little chemicals. Particularly if you live in country, just a bit of dust from the atmosphere, much better all round for you, me, plants, every thing.
Cheers Rod

JaseH wrote:I use Melbourne tap water to water my trees, straight from the tap in the back yard. I notice that after a good rain the trees appear to respond much better.

Is there any reason for this, is it worth aging the town water or even catching rain water to water my trees with or am I imagining things?

Rain water has a little disolved nitrogen in it but I think the main reason trees look better after a good rain is the a combination of thourough wetting of the medium combined with saturated air...and the trace N makes the trees look crispy fresh.
Watering with stored rainwater doesn't give the same response but you have the benifit of lower pH and no flouride but I don't think it makes a lot of difference in the end.
I would collect rainwater in Adelaide ( if I was growing very sensitive spp) but Melb has very good water.

Had a discussion with a guy at work thinking that dissolved nitrogen could be part of it. Might try aging the tap water to reduce the chlorine and see if I notice any change.

Hi JaseH, I have been watering my tree's for the last 3 or 4 years now using collected rain water. I don't know if it is my imagination or not but I am sure that my tree's respond a lot better for it. I know of no technical reason for this apart from the lack of chemicals, good or bad, that is in just about all tap water. Good luck with your tree's, Michael.

The reason they look better after rain is the HIGHER humidity in the air. I have always used tap water on my trees, without any problems.

Cheers Pup

Treeman, jaseh and pup have all hit the nail fair on the head, IMHO. Rain water does indeed contain a good percentage of Nitrogen, which is a very soluble form so therefore readily available to the plant. The higher humidity offered by a rain storm also aids the plant as well. Rain water also cleans a plant better than tap water, further aiding the appearance of a better looking plant. Of course all the crap they put into the town water, so we can drink it doesn't really do a plant all that much good either, along with all the other rubbish that gets collected while the water is being transported from the source to our tap. Then again, I guess the stuff falling from the sky isn't all that clean anymore, what with the amount of pollution in our sky's today as well, but it's still better than the stuff we have to pay for.

An interesting aside to Nitrogen levels found in rain drops is there is even more Nitrogen contained in rain drops that fall in company with lightning. I was told why once, but now I forget

Definitely not your imagination. Bonsai and my vegetables both put on a spurt of growth after getting fresh rainwater. Stored rainwater from the tank does not have the same effect. From my experience water from a creek or dam does not have that effect either so it is just rainfall that gives the plants such a boost, especially noticeable during hot weather.
There is a lot of science behind treated town water and it is really good for plants (and people), Often far better than other sources because it has been cleaned and pH balanced.

A rainwater tank in the city is a good investment because even though it may not supply all your bonsai water needs for the whole year every bit of treated water that is saved means it will be just a bit longer before you need to build another dam/ desalination plant/ piepline, etc to take water from some other source where it is already needed.

shibui wrote:Definitely not your imagination. Bonsai and my vegetables both put on a spurt of growth after getting fresh rainwater. Stored rainwater from the tank does not have the same effect. From my experience water from a creek or dam does not have that effect either so it is just rainfall that gives the plants such a boost

Only recently a good friend and I had this very discussion, he advised me that the key chemical ingredient which fresh rainfall contains is Hydrogen peroxide 2(HO), with collection tanks (tankwater) the 2(HO) is lost after a few days, I forgot the correct term he used, but it's the main reason why fresh rainfall gives a growth spurt to the garden as a whole.

We took it a step further to see the benefits of Hydrogen peroxide and another friend who has tankwater, we started to trial adding 2(HO) to a watering can of his tankwater for some plants and water others only with the tankwater, those who received the Hydrogen peroxide water are much healthier than those that didn't. It seems to also work wonders on freshly collected material.

Cheers

David

Hi All
I'm with shibui on this.Ive used stored rain water, tap water, bore water and all are the same.rain falling from the sky really gives things a push along.
I have planted grass seeds and watered them religiously watched the ants having a feed and getting very little sprouting along comes a storm and hey presto shoots everywhere.
Anybody noticed Murraya always seems to flower after a thunderstorm?
Regards Steve

It seems rain water oxygenates the roots and that makes all the difference.

I grow mainly natives, but living on the central coast (Gosford Council) area compared with Sydney, it is my understanding we actually do not add flouride to the water here. Either way, I have never personally seen any difference from town water or rain water. Scientifically speaking, there is obviously a difference, but unless you are growing particularly sensitive species, I wouldn't be too concerned. Whatever is easiest for you I would recommend that.

Having said that, I have noticed that the main problem is, if you rely on rainwater, you have to be very careful that the bonsai have definitely been watered thoroughly. As the advantage with manually watering them, is that you know how much water they are getting. But with natural rain, you never really know how much the bonsai is getting, unless you stick your finger in every single pot, which can be very time consuming and not worth the effort if you have a large collection. There is certainly something to be said for keeping your watering schedule on a military regime.... this way they get watered when they need it.

Does any one have a view on chlorine upsetting micro organisms of soil/potting media? I use tap water at home but if i had rain tanks i would use that i think.

Thoughts?