Plants and water softener in your home

The calcium and magnesium that cause hard water are beneficial to plants. Water softeners work by eliminating these minerals from the water. Since these materials are replaced with sodium that is flushed out into the drain, plants and water softener systems that use sodium don't mix. It doesn't happen overnight, but if you continue to water your plants and grass with sodium-treated water they will eventually become overtaken by the sodium.

If you use water softened with sodium, at first it will appear that your plants do well with together with the water softener equipment. Then, you would notice unusual growth. This growth would continue, but within six months the leaves will start browning and the plants would stop growing and eventually die. If you did not research the problems associated with plants and your water softener you might think that some other problem is causing your plants to die.

You don’t have to feel like you have to give up soft water or plants. You can actually have both. Potassium chloride is an alternative water softening additive that is actually beneficial to plant life. The only problem with potassium chloride is when it accumulates to extreme levels such as in potting soil. You can avoid the high concentration by discharging the potassium from the plants.

Since potassium chloride and sodium are compatible, you could easily substitute the sodium with potassium chloride. You should contact a representative from your water softener system to make sure you can substitute the sodium pellets that you currently use in your brine tank with potassium chloride pellets. The only disadvantage of using potassium chloride instead of sodium is the cost. You can expect to pay almost double for potassium chloride crystals for what you pay for sodium crystals.

To avoid this problem that can affect your plants altogether you could water your plants with bottled water. You just need to make sure that the bottled water hasn't been softened with sodium. You could also use water from a faucet that has been set up to bypass the water softener process.

The problem with the plants is associated with a specific type of water softener. There are a number of alternative systems available on the market now that have proven effective in softening water without some of the disadvantages of traditional water softeners. Magnetic water softeners, for example, do not involve adding any chemicals and should not affect the water supply for plants.
 



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