Phil L wrote:
keith ;-) wrote:
[...]
You are wrong saying hardness/softness is of no importance to
plants.Most if not all plants would prefer rain water obviously
to
tap water. The OP was referring to nepanthes & orchids which
definitely prefer rainwater,hard/alkaline water can lock up
important minerals,so the plant would suffer over time.
Keith

Call me an old cynic but water is water! - and I said I doubt if
any
plants could care either way, how can dissolved calcium and
magnesium
be of any detriment to a plant? - it either utilises them or it
doesn't, unless they are active poisons to a plant I can't see how
they would suffer.

Depends how you define poison: on one crude definition, lime _is_
poison to some plants, for the reason keith mentioned.

--
Mike.