RO water has nothing in it. View it as “empty” water. if your water is truly that hard, blend it with the RO. don’t use RO straight as what it will do is strip out minerals from your bonsai soil and create that aluminum toxicity that you hear Ryan talk about. Water wants things. think of RO water as being very hungry for what is in your soil and your hard water as being full. Hard water has its disadvantages as you get a lot of hard water deposits on your pots and it plugs sprinkler ports. the idea of letting it settle might work if some of it is evaporating and your mineral content is already at saturation at the start so some has to drop out of solution. Otherwise not a good idea in my view. if your water is chlorinated, letting it sit will remove the chlorine. I think a better start for you is to watch some of Ryan’s learning sessions on Apical and possibly get your water tested before you start in with the “witchcraft”. they can help you. also if you are not strong in chemistry, which I suspect, get yourself some reading material on ionic chemistry to better understand water. The best way to kill trees is to jump in and do things without a lot of thought being put into it. For background, I own a laboratory and have access to RO water and don’t use it other than for blending. look at Ryan’s sessions and what Apical has to offer and maybe at least consider some of that before you invest in an RO system. There is no magic in any of this. I even have my own testing capabilities and am considering sending things to apical to see what is going on in my trees as our expertise is not horticultural like Apical.
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