Warning: I killed 3 string of pearls in 8 months before I figured out my tap water was the problem
I moved to Phoenix back in March and brought my whole plant crew with me, including 3 string of pearls I'd kept alive for 2 years in Seattle. Within 6 weeks of the move the first one went mushy at the base and just collapsed, then the second did the same thing in July, then the third started shrinking a couple weeks ago. I kept blaming the light, moved them around my apartment 4 times, cut back on water to once every 3 weeks, nothing helped. Finally last Tuesday I looked up my city's water report and our tap water here sits around 8.2 pH with a ton of dissolved minerals. Turns out succulents like these hate that, the salts build up over time and rot the roots from the inside, which is why they kept dying no matter what I did. Switched to distilled water 2 weeks ago and my last surviving cutting is finally putting out new leaves. Anyone here dealt with hard water wrecking their succulents, and do you use rain water or just buy gallons?