Jarrod Pearson wrote:I had not thought to check the pH of the rain water vs the city water. I live in North Texas and the water is very hard, so that kinda makes sense. I actually have litmus paper at home and will check tonight.
Another thought regarding the chlorine content of the water:
Maybe it's not affecting the plants directly, but indirectly by killing off the myriad little critters that make up the soil
food web.
If tap water has enough chlorine in it to negatively affect fish in a tank if not given enough time to gas off, surely it would hit the microbial life in the soil pretty hard as well.