I was reading on another site that you can let tap water sit out for around 48 hours and then it would be ok to water VFTs with, but still not as good as distilled water. Is that true? It seems a little odd to me.
its not true.
that trick works for aquariums, but not CPs..
the problem with tap water, for CPs, is the "water hardness"..the minerals in the water.
some water is "harder" than others, but most tap water is too hard for most CPs..
when you let the water sit out for 24-48 hours, the only thing that dissipates away is chlorine..(which then makes it safe for aquarium fish) but NONE of the mineral hardness goes anywhere..actually, letting water sit also results in the removal of water itself..in the form of water vapor, evaporation..so technically water that sits out for awhile gets HARDER! because the minerals stay, and the amount of water lessens..so in theory, letting water sit out makes it worse for CPs!
Only
rain water,
distilled water, or
reverse osmosis water for CPs..
nothing else..
no tap, no bottled, no "treated", no brita filter, no ion exchange, no culligan man..none of that helps for CPs..
Oh and another. How exactly do you acclimate VFTs to the outdoors? Wouldn't they just get acclimated to the indoors from the cube, and then have to start the process over again from in to outdoors?
not sure what you mean by "acclimated to indoors"..
you dont
want them acclimated to indoors!
when you get them home, in the cube, remove the clear plastic cube top, throw it away,
stick the pot in a tray of (rain, distilled or RO) water, and stick it out in the sun.
dont worry about acclimation..
you might get some
sun burn, but IMO that is a small price to pay for getting the plants out in the direct sun they need.
Scot