Sprouting question...

[pinenut]

What kind of water would be best for growing sprouts: tap, distilled, spring?

I ask because the water in Cayman is not the best in the world. The tap water is de-salinated, but the de-salination plant was destory by Ivan last year and it has worked properly since was rebuilt and the water have a slighly salty-minerally taste to it. It actually makes me slightly nausious to drink in and therefore have distilled water delivered to my house.

So, I'm wondering...do the sprouts absorb the water and retain waterever solid particles are in the water? Should I be using my distilled water instead?

The water hasn't harmed any of the plants I have, but I'm not eating the plants, so I don't know what affect the water really has on them.

[sport]

I use tap water because I feel that they need a good rinse and it would be very wastefull. My distiller would never keep up. I do not know how bad the water would have to be to effect the plant but I am assuming that they do act as a natural filter. It would just not be practical to do it any other way.
I do use distilled or filtered water for the soaking because less is needed and more is absorbed.

[Shivananda]

This may not sound like a controversial topic, but it actually is.

Although distilled water is very pure, it is also much more active chemically than spring water or tap water because it is demineralized, therefore many experts say it should not be used for drinking or cooking or sprouting, or if used of necessity (such as due to parasites in the water), it should be used as sparingly as possible. Distilled water can leach minerals from your teeth, for instance, and weaken them, and you will probably need supplementation of your mineral balance And they do the same with seeds and sprouts. You wind up throwing more of the nutrients down the drain when you use distilled water.

Natural mineral spring water is best when you can get it fresh (not bottled foreva in plastic jugs). Where spring water is not readily available, personal demineralizing units, such as ion exchange filtration, or even just cartridge filters will remove unpleasant tastes, and excess and unwanted minerals such as salt from your tap water.

If you have no choice but to use distilled, I'd at least add a small amount of organic kelp fertilizer to the soak water to offset the mineral leaching action of the plain distilled water.

[virginia]

Many people use pure water as soaking water (and maybe for the final rinse) an tap water for good rinses in between.

[pinenut]

Sheesh! I never heard of the distilled water being bad for you. Unfortunately, I have no choice down here. I can buy bottled spring water, but it's about $3-$4 a gallon and of course it is shipped in. I used to use a jug water filter, but the tap water here is too contaminated for that to work and since I rent my apartment I can't do the faucet filter thing...the landlord is weird about having anything changed or added to the apartment... Plus they're really expensive (over $100 to install and $40-$50 for replacment filters).

Darn, now I don't know what to do...

[juliebove]

I am new to sprouting. Am just enjoying my first batch now. I used tap water. When I was a kid, my mom made tons of alfalfa and mung bean sprouts. She too used tap water. But then, our tap water here is safe to drink.

When I lived in MA, our water was very much a controversy. There was a known pollution plume that affected our water and it was contaminated with Chlordane and other chemicals. Of course the folks on the military base where I lived insisted that it was safe, most of the time. But there were times when it came out really red and we couldn't wash clothes in it then and if I washed my blonde hair in it then, it turned red. Most of the people I know felt that it was NOT safe to drink so we all bought bottled water that we used for cooking and drinking. We didn't used certified pure Spring water. This was back in the days before purified tap water was available as it is now.

I do not personally think distilled water is what you should be drinking. At least not on an every day basis. I used to have a room mate who drank nothing but that. He also ate raw eggs and did other things that I didn't think were particularly healthy. He was a body builder and claimed he needed to do these things to enhance his body.

I am very fortunate in that there is a natural spring near where I live. The water is very pure and it's free. There is always a line of people there getting water. I could get it if I wanted to. But I never do. I do buy bottled spring water in smaller sized bottles because it is portable. But I also have no problems using the tap water.

[Shivananda]

Unfortunately, I have no choice down here. .... I can buy bottled spring water, but it's about $3-$4 a gallon and of course it is shipped in. Darn, now I don't know what to do...

OK, now that I get the whole picture, I can think of a few things... simplest and most expedient, temper the distilled water with some spring water, so it isn't totally stripped of minerals.

Second, look for high mineral supplements to add to your distilled water so it is not so chemically active. I don't use them personally, so I can't make any recommendations, but I know they are available in the supplements world, usually as a liquid solution that you add drops of to your water.

Third, look for standalone water filter units. Here in the States, we have things like Brita and Pur water pitchers and bottles that have built in filters. You fill the unit with water, and in a few minutes the pitcher or drinking bottle or whatever is full of filtered water. Not as good as the permanent units, certainly, but better than nothing.

[pinenut]

Very good suggestion, Shivananda, thank you. We do have a GNC down here, so I might be able to get some liquid minerals from them to add to my distilled water. However, the Britta and Pur systems don't work on the tap water here because of the high salt content. But I can do a mix of spring and distilled water also.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

[rawpriestess]

we are on a lake, and have an artesian well, so this is how we do it.

we soak in lake water, good organic, micorbes, etc, and we do final rinse in our tap water, artesian well.

however, I would never use any kind of salt water for plants, they don't like it,

you might try rain catch, or a few of the other suggestions.

I would vote for rain catch on the island, we are moving to an island soon, and will have a huge rain catch facility on our island, for our gardens and our selves.

[pinenut]

we are on a lake, and have an artesian well, so this is how we do it.

we soak in lake water, good organic, micorbes, etc, and we do final rinse in our tap water, artesian well.

however, I would never use any kind of salt water for plants, they don't like it,

you might try rain catch, or a few of the other suggestions.

I would vote for rain catch on the island, we are moving to an island soon, and will have a huge rain catch facility on our island, for our gardens and our selves.

A lot of the farmers out in East End district do a rain catch for their small crops. That's a pretty good idea in that our rain is pretty clean down here since we are sooooo very far away from any sort of industrial countries and air polution...other then the diesel fuel from the cruise ships!

BTW, what island are you moving to?

[rawpriestess]

Fiji. we are buying our own island.