Woman Tries Distilled Water on Her Plants Thinking It Wouldn't Matter But the Results Surprised Her

While watering the plants, the water dampens the topsoil, moistening the leaves and seeping deep into the thirsty clusters of roots. However, the real drama unfolds behind the scenes where eyes cannot see. It's not just a few droplets of water that the plant drinks; it's a process, the entire journey the water has gone through before it was pumped into the underground house pipes. Different types of water have different influences on plant health. Kristen (@plantsofk93), a gardener from Texas, shared a TikTok video showing the dramatic transformation her houseplants displayed after she switched from hard tap water to softer distilled water.

“I'm not opposed to using regular tap water on my plants, however, I know there are a lot of people who say distilled water is better so after firmly defending tap water for a long time, I decided to give distilled water a chance,” Kristen told the viewers while pouring water some potted plants using a drip dispenser. She filled a plastic watering bottle with tap water and started spraying her plants with water. The woman continued by showing off examples of two different calathea plants she had. The plants were potted in pink-toned planters illustrated with patterns.

Examining the giant green-palette leaves of the first calathea plant, she said, “The first calathea has been with me for years, and I've always just used regular tap water.” She brushed the large leaf featuring a flame-like pattern in shades of purple and green. She described that her experience with watering the plant with tap water wasn’t too great. “It would always get these brown tips and spots on the leaves, but since I've switched to distilled water, I've noticed the new leaves are almost perfect and the colors are much more vibrant as well.” The second calathea, she said, displayed the same brown spots when watered with tap water.

Switching to distilled water came as a wonderful surprise. ”Since switching to distilled water, the leaves are so much healthier, and I've noticed how much more pink they are than the old leaves,” Kristen reported. She told the viewers that even though both tap water and distilled water are good for the plants, switching to distilled water “could be worth trying out” if one is interested in improving their plants’ health. “I feel like the most obvious changes were in my calathea since they tend to be finicky plants,” Kristen captioned the video. In a comment, she shared that she applied the hack on other plants as well, and noticed that although each plant reacted differently to distilled water, the difference was always positive.

Her video received mixed reactions. Some people resonated with Kristen’s “distilled water” method, others argued that tap water is far better. “Tap water is always going to be better because it contains calcium and magnesium and other trace elements,” said @fishfoshcolorado. @lou said, “I use the water from my dehumidifier.” @rubyreadsandgrows offered another suggestion, “Rainwater is also good! Cheaper too!”

Following the episode, Kristen revealed to Newsweek that the results of watering her houseplants with distilled water were totally unexpected for her. "I was surprised by how apparent the results were after using distilled water. I was not expecting the difference to be so dramatic. But especially for houseplants that are known to be 'finicky,' it was obvious they were much happier with the distilled water," she said.

The difference, probably, resulted from the differing properties of distilled versus tap water. Water Smart Systems explains that even though distilled water is perfect for drinking, it lacks salts like sodium, potassium, chloride, and magnesium, which are present in tap water. According to APEC WATER, the tap water is pumped directly from the water treatment plant, but despite the filtration process, it retains its salty ingredients.

You can follow Kristen (@plantsofk93) on TikTok for houseplant care tips.