How to Distill Water for Plants: The Foolproof Method

How to distill water for plants is a helpful procedure to learn because distilled water is a form of purified water for plants, and thus ensures their longevity and good health. The reason distilled water is claimed to be the best choice by many gardening experts is due to the absence of salts and minerals, which are available in the alternatives that tap water or filtered water.

There is always the quicker option of simply buying a bottle or can of distilled water from your nearest grocery store and just using that; however, making your own distilled water is not too difficult, and it might even save you some money. In the following article, we are going to discuss all the steps required when going through the process of distilling water for your indoor or outdoor plants!

How Can I Distill Water for My Plants? Most Efficient Ways

You can distill your plants by adding water to the baking rack, placing it in a steel pot, and putting a glass bowl on top. Then you invert the lid and put some ice cubes. Finally, boil the water, let it cool, and it is ready.

1. Preparing Yourself

When you decide to create your own distilled water at home, it would be a great idea to recall everything you can about how the water cycle works. Most people will have studied basic science and thus should be well aware of the properties and stages of water, vapors, and condensation.

Still, regardless of what you think you remember, it would be ideal to research the water cycle and its properties. Once you are confident about the work you will be handling, you may gather the appropriate tools and ingredients and begin working on distilled water for your plants.

2.  Adding Water to the Baking Rack

When you begin distilling water for your plants at home, you will first require a baking rack. You may purchase one at your nearest gardening store or through online browsing. Once you have your rack, you will need another utensil to begin distilling, a large pot of stainless steel. Ensure beforehand that this pot can handle large amounts of liquid with ease.

You may use a pot of any size, but large sizes are easier to work with, so keep that in mind. After your hands are on the adequate tools, you must put your baking rack into the steel pot right at the bottom. Then, you need to fill the pot with tap water, and it would be ideal to aim for the halfway point.

3. Placing the Bowl on Top

Apart from a stainless steel pot and a good baking rack, you will also require a clean glass bowl for the successful execution of the distilling process. Once you have your hands on the bowl, you have to take it and put it into the steel pot you previously acquired. Now that you have filled it with sufficient water, you shall find that the bowl will easily float on the water.

Another thing you should mind is that there should not be any contact between the surface of the pot and the bowl. This will be ensured by the baking rack that has already been placed in the middle of both objects.

Finally, remember that there must be enough air circulating along the sides of the bowl and the top of it. Therefore, ensure that the bowl is significantly smaller than the steel pot.

4. Putting the Inverted Lid on the Pot

The next thing you will need to do is take the pot’s lid and then invert it. You can do this easily by ensuring that the pot’s lid appears concave when you look at it from the bottom. If that is so, you can quickly invert it and place it right on the top of your steel pot, ensuring it fits well.

Once that is done, you need to get a tray of ice cubes. This can be obtained easily by purchasing them from your nearest store, or you may freeze water overnight in your ice tray. Now you have to place the ice cubes into the inverted lid on top of your pot.

Putting ice on the lid is immensely helpful when making distilled water because they allow increased condensation of water vapor on the underside of the pot lid. As the condensation collects and forms water droplets, they will begin to fall into the bowl you placed inside the pot earlier.

5. Boiling the Water

You can also boil the water if you want to distill water for your plants. To start up, take your burner and set it to medium heat. You can also set your burner to medium-high heat. Most importantly, the pot’s water could start to shimmer.

However, you must ensure the pot is not so hot that the water inside begins to boil. After that, you can occasionally keep checking on your water. If you notice that the ice on the pot’s lid has melted, it is best to throw it into the sink. After that, you can replace the top with fresh ice.

Ensure to use oven mints since the pot’s lid will still be hot. The oven mitts will help to protect you from any injury. It will take almost forty-five minutes to one full hour for the tap water to be turned into distilled water.

6. Cooling the Prepared Water

Once you have made sure that the water in the pot has evaporated. After that, the water needs to be condensed entirely. Then, you will have to put the distilled water into any of your preferred bowls. The bowl should be manageable; otherwise, it will not be able to hold in all the liquid and could cause overflow.

However, it will only be helpful if the huge bowl is empty, as most of the space will be empty. It is best to use a medium-sized bowl that will handle all the distilled water. The procedure will be completed when all of these steps have taken place. Moving on, you will have to cool the water down.

It is essential to let the distilled water cool down before you use it. If you do not cool your water, it could damage your plants and the bottles or any other container you use to store the water. Make sure that the water is not hot at all when you are about to use it. Hot water, will “kill” your plants just as it can damage the grass.

7. Storing the Water

When storing distilled water, you should use any glass container to keep the water safe and clean. The container that you pick should be bought from the store, and it should be a completely new one. If you take a used container from the store, it could be inaccurate and have a chance of being used for less time. Moreover, new containers are the best to use since they have an extended warranty of more than five years.

Once you have poured the water into the container, you have to locate it in a cool place where it will not receive direct sunlight at any cost. When you open your containers for storing distilled water, you can use them for around an entire year. However, when it comes to using distilled one as regular drinking water, they may finish in around a week or so.

Conclusion

The procedure you must go through when you want to distill water for your indoor plants is not exceedingly complicated, but you would have already learned that by reading our elaborate article above. If there is anything you might not remember about how to undertake the process, don’t worry, as we have listed down all the most essential points of the guide in the following summary:

• To distill water at home, add water to the baking rack.
• After this, you must place it in a steel pot and put a glass bowl on top of the rack.
• Then you need to invert the lid and put some ice cubes on it to collect condensation.
• Bring the water to a boil, allow it to cool down, and then your distilled water should be ready.

While some might claim that it is easier just to purchase a commercially prepared bottle of distilled water, it can be rather cheap when you attempt to do it at home, following the proper instructions. Once you know the precise directions to follow and the right tools you need, you will find that distilling water is a much easier process than you expected and beneficial for your plants as well!