Watering your plants with cooking water

Are you looking for a new way to hydrate your plants? Are you wondering if your cooking water could be used for something else when you throw it away?

We've tested many eco-friendly gardening tips and know exactly how to help you.

Cooking water is a powerful natural fertilizer that would be a shame to throw away. Whether you're cooking pasta, rice, or vegetables, your water contains many nutrients, vitamins, and minerals essential for plant growth. Warm and salty, cooking water can also be an excellent organic weedkiller.

This article will teach you:

• Why your kitchen water is a good fertilizer,
• Which foods produce the richest water,
• How to reuse this water without damaging your plants,
• How to turn your cooking water into a natural weedkiller?

The nutrients and vitamins contained in each water will no longer hold any secrets for you. You'll have learned a new eco-friendly tip to use starting today!

Enough talk, let's find out together now.

1. Cooking water: an economical fertilizer?

Before explaining how to proceed, it is important to understand the benefits of each cooking water and the nutrients they provide.

Let's take a look at the most common foods that could give your plants a boost!

A) The benefits of cooking water for your plants.

Recycling your drinking water is an excellent way to supplement your plants at a lower cost.

In concrete terms, when you boil your pasta, vegetables, or eggs, a large portion of the micronutrients they contain end up in the water. This is rather unfortunate for you, as you won't be able to benefit from them by eating them, but they are not lost. This is therefore rich water, unlike our article on watering with demineralized water .

We are talking here in particular about phosphorus , nitrogen and calcium , which are the main minerals that you will find in your traditional fertilizers. That is to say, by using this method regularly, you will no longer need to fertilize your favorite plants with less natural products.

This method is also very accessible and requires no special installation. Whether you live in a small apartment in the city center or a villa in the countryside, it will be very simple to set up. This is not the case, however, for composting or rainwater irrigation, which require storage space and access to the gutter network. First of all, it is much easier to set up than composting.

B) Pasta and rice cooking water as fertilizer

As with potatoes, cooked pasta releases starch into the water . This starchy water stimulates the release of nutrients into the soil.

Rice water is rich in B vitamins, potassium, magnesium, iron and zinc . It is also very good water for your plant.

However, be sure to salt and season your pasta and rice only after they're on your plate. Sodium is one of the minerals that hinders plant growth. If you've salted your water, head over to our third part on cooking water-based weedkillers!

C) Egg water

Egg boiling water is an excellent source of calcium . This mineral is essential for plant growth, and you can use boiled egg water without worry.

D) Vegetable water: steamed or in a pan

Steaming or boiling water have different effects on the micronutrients in your vegetables.

Boiled water naturally releases a lot of minerals and vitamins from plant cells . This water is therefore very rich and very interesting for your plants.

Steaming is nutritionally better for us because it leaves more of these minerals and vitamins in the vegetables. Therefore, it is less rich and beneficial for your plants.

Here are the vegetables whose cooking water you can use to water:

• Artichoke cooking water,
• Cooking water from green beans,
• Lentil cooking water from the garden,
• Asparagus,
• Potato,
• Chickpea,
• Beets.

If you eat your vegetables raw, boil their peels and inedible bits before throwing them away or composting them . The resulting broth will be excellent for your plants.

E) Water that we do not recommend you reuse.

Sugar water:

Sugar does not act as a fertilizer for plants . Too much sugar can cause mold. Naturally sweetened sweet potato cooking water wouldn't be a problem, but water you've sweetened yourself should be discarded.

The juice from your preserves:

When we talked about vegetable water, we weren't talking about the water in your cans. As its name suggests, this water is used to preserve food, preventing spoilage with additives. Based on the assumption that canned juice must be full of sodium, we decided to exclude it from our tests.

2. How to water with your cooking water without damaging your plants?

We now have a clearer picture of the different benefits each food provides. Now let's discover how to harvest this water and use it to get the most out of what it contains.

It is important to do this correctly, so as not to lose nutritional quality or risk damaging the roots of your plant.

If this is your first time trying this technique, we recommend not overdoing it. Test with the water in your daily meal and don't adjust your diet based on the nutrients you might be providing to your plant. That said, it's a win-win: the richer your food is in minerals and micronutrients , the more your plant and you will benefit. So you'll no longer have an excuse to cook pasta for every meal ;)

• But how to proceed?

Once your cooking is finished, you can carefully pour the excess water from your pan into a container such as a bowl. Be careful, of course, not to pour your meal with it. Alternatively, you can place your colander in a salad bowl and pour the entire contents of your pot inside. Then, simply lift the salad bowl to drain your food .

Then let your water sit for at least an hour, allowing it to cool. As you may have guessed, boiling water will immediately burn your roots.

You should not pour the contents of your bowl directly onto your plant. We recommend diluting it by including it in your next watering cycles. So, fill your homemade fertilizer into a watering can.

We strongly recommend using a long-spout watering can , as this will allow you to achieve the correct dosage. A long-spout watering can allows you to reach the base of the plant precisely and directly hydrate the root system . Furthermore, pouring from a bowl or salad bowl is not very easy and you risk getting it everywhere.

3. Cooking water: a natural weedkiller?

Finally, let's answer another frequently asked question: Can my pasta water be used as a natural weedkiller?

Our goal is to reduce the number of chemicals in your cupboards, and we're not done yet! Let's take a closer look.

• How to weed your garden with pasta cooking water?

Trust us, the combination of salt and boiling water is excellent for killing weeds. This natural weedkiller is another way to recycle your cooking water. We recommend this eco-friendly trick when you've salted your pasta water and can no longer use it as fertilizer.

We recommend using only a small amount to avoid killing all the insects in the soil. Be especially careful not to splash boiling water on your feet when weeding your garden using this method!

Grab your Watering Can and Take Action!

As you've seen, reusing your drinking water isn't very complicated. It would still be a shame not to benefit from a free source of fertilizer for your houseplant.

However, what about your watering itself? Are you using a suitable watering can?

Much more than a simple gardening tool, this timeless accessory transforms into a true decorative object. Its long spout and handle make it a handy and precise accessory, which transforms careful watering into successful watering! Combined with the water for your next meal, this one will wreak havoc!

Discover them now by clicking on the image below!