Almost every watering tip you’ve ever read has been about timing. When to water, how often, the finger test, the moisture meter. It’s useful stuff, and most people get there eventually.

But there’s something else going on with tap water that almost nobody talks about, and it’s been quietly causing problems in plant collections for years.

Your tap water has chlorine in it. Or chloramine, more often these days. They’re added to kill bacteria so the water is safe to drink, which is great for us — but chlorine doesn’t discriminate. It also kills the beneficial microbes in your soil, the ones that help your plants take up nutrients properly. For sensitive plants like calatheas and marantas, chlorine can also cause those crispy brown tips you’ve probably been blaming on humidity.

Here’s the bit that catches most people out. You might have heard the old advice to leave tap water sitting in a jug overnight to let the chlorine evaporate off. That used to work. But most water companies now use chloramine instead, and chloramine doesn’t evaporate. You can leave the jug out for a week and it’ll still be there.

There’s a simple fix that takes about two seconds and costs a few pounds. I’ve been doing it for years and it made a noticeable difference to my collection.

I walk through exactly what to use and how, plus the full watering module — including deep watering, bottom watering vs top watering, and the proper way to handle root rot if it ever shows up — inside Houseplant Mastery.

If you’ve been losing the odd plant to mystery root issues, or you keep seeing brown leaf tips you can’t explain, water quality is one of the first things I’d look at. It’s small and it’s not glamorous, but it’s the kind of thing that quietly fixes problems you didn’t know you had.

​Houseplant Mastery is currently 50% off, doors close Sunday night, and there’s a 7-day money-back guarantee. If you get inside and it’s not for you, just tell me and I’ll refund you. No awkwardness.

Rich