Why You Should Save Cooking Water for Your Houseplants
I usually don’t know how to take care of indoor plants. I currently have three houseplants, all of them “live” but not quite thriving. Maybe it’s because of the low light levels in the Pacific Northwest (I’ve heard there are lamps for that) or because of my sporadic watering schedule. Or maybe my plants aren’t getting the nutrients they need to live best on my windowsill.
According to Kara Neswig of The Kitchn , who originally found this tip at East River Daycare, some cooking water might be just what my leafy kids need. Chilled, blanched, or boiled liquid contains nutrients that are leached out of your food during the cooking process, and depending on what you eat for dinner, you can end up supplying your plants with valuable phosphorus, nitrogen, and calcium:
When you boil foods such as pasta, vegetables, eggs, or potatoes, many trace elements such as phosphorus, nitrogen, and calcium evaporate into the water. This way, after you let the water cool, you will not only provide your plants with a pleasant drink, but also get some of the necessary fertilizer from the nutrients contained in the water.
Even if you’re not extracting the level of plant-based nitrogen from what you’ve cooked for dinner, every little bit helps, and repurposing your cooking water this way cuts down on waste and saves you some money. (Depending on how many plants you have, this could be an average amount of money.)
Just remember to completely cool the water before watering the plants. You’ve probably seen what boiling water can do to spinach, so imagine what it will do to your begonia.