Took me 3 years to realize I was overwatering my monstera by using tap water instead of letting it sit out overnight

Caught a brown tip on a leaf last month and a guy at the nursery said the chlorine was burning the roots, now I fill a jug and leave it on the counter for 24 hours before watering and the new leaves are actually dark green for once, has anyone else dealt with this or got a better fix?

3 comments

3 Comments

grantw4116d agoMost Upvoted

The distilled water thing is a good call, but @the_brian actually nailed something with the temperature part. Cold water straight from the tap can shock the roots even if you let it sit out for the chlorine to evaporate, so I'd say do both tricks together. One thing though, letting tap water sit doesn't really remove chlorine if your city uses chloramine instead (it doesn't evaporate out), so if you still see brown tips after a month, the distilled or rain water is probably your best bet.

harpercampbell16d ago

Three years of tap water without letting it sit is rough on a monstera. I started doing the same jug trick about six months back and it made a huge difference for mine too... the brown tips stopped showing up on new growth almost right away. Another thing that helped me was switching to distilled water for every other watering, just a gallon from the store for a buck. It flushes out any leftover mineral buildup from the tap. If you really want to go all out, collect rainwater when you can... that's honestly the best stuff for them, it's soft and has none of the chemicals. Just watch out if you live in a city with air quality issues, that rain might be a little dirty too.

the_brian16d ago

That's good stuff from @harpercampbell about the jug trick. Something nobody's brought up yet is the temperature of the water. I used to just fill my watering can straight from the cold tap and dump it on my monstera. The shock from cold water hitting warm roots can cause leaf browning too. Now I let my jug sit out in the kitchen for a full day before I use it, gets it to room temp. Makes a difference especially in winter when the tap water is extra cold. Combined with the sitting trick, it kept my plant from shedding lower leaves.