FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I've been collecting rain water all Summer for the fly traps. Some water is obviously green and I'm not using that. But I have another bucket that I use but it's starting to look dirty from bug debris and guess just stagnation. It gets rain water almost every day. The only reason I havn't dumped it cause it seems water is stagnant in bogs anyway. And it's just looking cloudy.

Maybe I need to dump it and clean it with some bleach, rinse well and start over?

just check the TDS and if its ok then use it . Im doing the same thing and my traps look good!!

Thanks. I guess I need to buy a water tester. Yea, of the vfts I've seen on ftc site, the ones with rain water look the healthiest. It would be interesting to know how much nitrogen is in rain water from lightening

If it smells bad, looks nasty, or the TDS tests high, toss it and start over. That shouldn't happen in a closed container though.

I'm looking into buying a water tester for ppm. Thank you. The water is ok. We will get rain in a few days and I can dump it and start over. I've had rain water in that same 10 gallon bucket for a month. I just didn't want to switch water while they are so happy now.

taking the advice of another user here (IE: stealing what he does to also use haha) I use an under bed storage bin I bought just for the purpose let it pour for a few minutes to wash a bit off our carport then collect from the dripline can fill a few gallons pretty quick with a heavy rain using my old distilled water jugs cap em and keep em in the shade

I think water can go bad too, even in plastic jugs. anyway, birds were having a bath in the water today so I'm tossing it and hope for rain. I have another water barrel but gonna rain tonight.

Water can't "go bad", it's water. Algae and contaminants can get into it, or the container can leach materials into it, but a properly sealed container of clean water can't spoil.

i use rain water that has algae (green) in it and have stored it for several months and my plants love it. Understand that i got it fresh from gathering it not sitting somewhere!

If the TDS is still real low it's most like good. Where I am rain water is typical 2 ppm give or take 1.