Question on Water quality Illinois

[cbloveday]

I was wondering if someone can help me determine if tap water in Batavia Illinois is ok for my plants. I do have a water softner. It is the large blocks that are put into the softner unit. I am trying to avoid the cost of
purchasing drinking water as it is becoming expensive, yet I do not want to harm the plants.

Any help would be appreciated.

[billc]

I don't know about your water quality, but you should avoid softened water for your plants, you'll get mineral & salt build ups rather quickly. If you can tap into the water before it goes thru the softener, you should do that to get the water for your plants. Your water dept. should be able to tell you about the municipal supply quality. You'll want to know the TDS(total disolved salts?) number. If you only have a few plants, it's probably easier to collect rain water from the roof or buy distilled water.
If you go to FirstRays web site, you can find out more than you'll ever want to know.

Bill

[billc]

Here's a link to First Rays
Welcome to First Rays Orchids

[camille1585]

As Bill says, softened water is really not good for the plants. In fact, it's toxic. To remove calcium and magnesium in the water, the softener adds sodium. Sodium, as it builds up in the medium, is toxic for plants.
So unless you can get water before the unit, you'll need to find an alternate source of water for the plants!
Bill gave you the link to Ray's site, have a lot at the section 'free information'. There's lots of good stuff there. To save you some searching here's the link directly to the page on Water Supplies

[cbloveday]

So what does everyone buy at the store?

Rainwater is not an option.
Reverse osmossis, while seems the way to go the amount of water generated is too high.

So what is recommended to buy to puify the water for my plants or what water are you peps buying?

[cbloveday]

I found a spicket prior to the softner. I will use it.