Use tepid water and mist in the morning so that the leaves have a chance to dry out during the day. Mist on the top and undersides of the leaves; they should look as if there has been a light dew. Keep humidity-loving plants away from drafts, windows, doors and heating and air-conditioning ducts.
You don't need to use distilled water. Believe it or not, tap water is HEALTHIER for your plants. It contains safe levels of healthy minerals. Dangerous chemicals and heavy metals are removed.
It's best to use filtered water if it is available. If you do not have filtered water available. Let the water sit in the mister for about 24 hours prior to misting. This will help the chlorine evaporate from the water over time.
Tips for Misting
To mitigate this, be sure to use rainwater or distilled water when you mist your plants. Avoid filtered water, as the salts in many water filters can be damaging to plant roots and leaves. It's also important to regularly dust and clean your leaves.
While watering your yard plants with bottled water may be impractical, using bottled spring water for your indoor plants will make a big difference for them. To give your plants the absolute best, rainwater and bottled spring water are your best options. Any water containing sugar or salt will hurt them!
The National Student Research Center did an experiment with plants watered with tap, salt, and distilled water. The plants that received distilled water had better growth and more leaves. While that sounds promising, many plants don't mind tap water.
Filtered water can remove many impurities, including chlorine, and sediment, but it cannot remove all impurities such as heavy metals bacteria and viruses. Distilled water, on the other hand, produces water that is almost pure, with virtually no impurities.
All water -- no matter if it comes from a natural spring, artesian well, or regular tap -- may have trace but safe amounts of minerals, bacteria, pesticides, and other contaminants. Distilling rids water of all those impurities. It also removes more than 99.9% of the minerals dissolved in water.
Some plants want daily misting; others are OK with two to three times a week.
Letting the leaves get too wet and / or allowing them to stay excessively wet for a prolonged period of time can encourage mold growth on the leaf surface, so it's always important to ensure you don't ever allow puddles of water to form on your plants' leaves - this applies when watering as well as when misting.
Run your sink into a watering can, cup, or bucket, and let it sit for a good 24 hours. This will allow chemicals like chlorine and fluoride the time to evaporate from the water. We like to have a full watering can ready to go with still water so that if our soil seems dry, we can water our plant without waiting a day.
Alternative Forms of Water
Your plants can survive on RO water, but the water lacks all nutrients, even more so than distilled water. If watering on an RO system, we recommend adding a well-balanced fertilizer to your plant's feeding schedule. The best water for your plants is rainwater. It's clean and chemical-free.
Misting is highly recommended at least once a month, and more often with species that enjoy it (see full list below). Be sure to spray the top and underside of your leaves, and if using for cleaning your leaves, wipe the leaves down with a cloth after misting to remove dust.
Using distilled water for indoor plants provides a safe and impurity-free source of irrigation that can prevent any toxicity from chemical or mineral buildup. It's also free of contaminants like bacteria.
Therefore, while some bottled water products have been distilled, this does not make them distilled water because they are not 100% pure.
You will find the distilled water in the grocery section of Walmart on aisle A27 and baby section on aisle L12. You can check wallmart.com online and choose a store and then search for "distilled water".
Distilled water is water that has been boiled to become steam and then cooled to become water again. It's then free of minerals and salts. Distilled water is used in car batteries and in steam irons. Distilled water prevents the iron from getting clogged up inside from minerals.
Because distilled water has undergone a physical separation from its impurities, it is classed as having been purified. Boiled water is not processed in this way and, therefore, can't be classified as a purified product. Therefore, if you boil water, it does not make it distilled because it does not make it pure.
However, spring water is sourced from natural underground water sources. If you are looking for the best source of water to keep your family hydrated, spring water is the best choice for you. But, if you need water that is mineral-free for appliances or sensitive equipment, distilled water is the way to go.
Results: The rainwater and bottled spring water are great at helping plants grow, but the sugar water and salt water actually hurt growing plants. Tap water and distilled water may not hurt the plants, but you'll notice they don't grow as tall and proud as the plants that were fed rain and spring water.
So if you use distilled water, the nutrient mix does not have optimal mineral balance and/or pH levels. One simple yet highly effective method to counter this is to add Calcium and Magnesium supplements, popularly called Cal-Mag to distilled water.