FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

So I live near the airport. The airplanes come by ( 5 blocks away from home ) . About to pick up my Venus Flytrap in Manhattan, and I don't wanna spend any money on tupid distilled water, any suggestions?

It depends on the tds(total dissolved solids) in the rain water , I just buy jugs or glacier water or just bottled water at Fred Meyer, because rain water is hard to get and you don't get it everyday .

Air con drip/leak water from the drain pipe. Measure with a TDS meter first

Yep, measure with a TDS meter, if u dont have one or dont want to buy one, and u have enough plants,
U could try to give a few plants the rain water for a month or two, and the rest distilled water, if they respond well to it, u can assume the rainwater is ok, but it wont be 100% fail proof.

Sander wrote:Yep, measure with a TDS meter, if u dont have one or dont want to buy one, and u have enough plants,
U could try to give a few plants the rain water for a month or two, and the rest distilled water, if they respond well to it, u can assume the rainwater is ok, but it wont be 100% fail proof.

I'm surrounded by two floor building so sometimes in my street i find a place that is not surrounded by two floor buildings made of brick and trees. Northern BLVD. Or Astoria Blvd. But are you sure the rain water will be clean and won't kill my plants?

tish wrote:Air con drip/leak water from the drain pipe. Measure with a TDS meter first

Nope. I usually catch rain water in the air.

Rain water is acidic and can collect alot of minerals from air for the first 10 minutes of heavy rain. And longer for light rain. Best to use TDS meter. Direct answer for your doubts

tish wrote:Rain water is acidic and can collect alot of minerals from air for the first 10 minutes of heavy rain. And longer for light rain. Best to use TDS meter. Direct answer for your doubts

so should i use a brita, or i don't honestly know where to find a tds meter... thanks for the advice though...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Digital-Portabl ... 51a538def5

Dirt cheap!

I probably will buy a water distiller for about $350. For me, that's a lot of money, but I can hardly carry a gallon jug of anything.

well Bill, id like to have one some day also, but wouldnt it be much cheaper to buy a TDS meter first and see if u can use the rainwater u can collect?

If its safe, a 100 l storage vessel and some guttering is way cheaper^^

I used rainwater from buckets that I left outside. Got about a cup of water, but I use a mix of rainwater and distilled water to water my venus flytrap seeds, except that the seeds aren't growing.