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| Salt damage to guava from saline or salty water in the overhead irrigation (water applied to the leaves) |
Q.
I’d like to soften the water in our house, or at least get some of the minerals
out of the pipes. Culligan-type water softeners are supposed to release a lot
of salt into the ground, which I think is harmful for the plants. You can
separate your softened water from your water for the plants but I’ve heard that
is not cheap. There are other so-called softeners which use calcium or
potassium chloride or something else besides salt in the Culligan-type units
but it’s more expensive. What should I do?
I am not going to talk about the pros and cons of water softened with sodium
chloride versus potassium chloride for personal use. This is not my area of
expertise but I can speak the subject of watering plants with softened water
and your irrigation system.
after the water from the street has been tapped for your irrigation system. If
this is done, it should not be a problem for you. It most likely would be a
problem if you have tapped an irrigation system from a hose bib coming from the
walls of your house. Many houses have their water softener conditioning water
going to every water outlet in the entire inside of the house.
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| Salt applied to the ground from saline water applied through drip emitters |
is delivered to both hot and cold faucets as well as the hose bibs you use for
hoses outside the house. So if you have a water softener and you have some sort
of irrigation system attached to a hose bib, then you are most likely watering
outside plants with softened or saline water.
a faucet coming from the walls of your house, then it will be carrying softened
water. If you are watering houseplants from an inside faucet and you have
softened water, then you are most likely watering them with softened water.
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| Salt damage to rose leaves from soil salts, not applied to the leaves through overhead irrigation but salt in the soil |
Is softened water bad? Yes, it can
be. If you are using inexpensive water softening salts then this is most likely
sodium chloride or common table salt. Sodium is very toxic to plants and can
destroy the structure of soils. Chlorides are essential to plants but in high
amounts it can also be toxic.
potassium chloride is an alternative water softening salt to regular water
softening salt but it is more expensive. In fact, it can be double the price or
more. Potassium is a mineral contained in fertilizers and used by plants in
fairly high quantities. So potassium chloride would be a better alternative for
plants than common water softening salt.
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| Pitting of the sidewalk from water runoff from the lawn of water containing salts |
system, I put hose bibs in the landscape that were fed by the pressurized main
line of the irrigation system. This way when I watered with a hose I was not
using softened water. I avoided using water from hose bibs coming from the
house.
distilled or RO water instead of water from the faucets. I mixed a very small
amount of houseplant fertilizer in the water so that it had some good minerals
in it. This avoided the use of softened water on houseplants which can be very
toxic to most of them.