Rice Water (Chawal Ka Pani) for Plants, and Daal Water: Verdict

Is rice water good for plants? The first rinse of raw chawal, poured on the same day, is a mild, harmless feed for most pots, and daal washing water is much the same. Boiled rice water (maand or pich) and boiled daal water can work too, but only unsalted, cooled and diluted, and not every day, because the starch sours and grows mould. Anything with namak or masala in it should go down the drain, not into a pot.

Why rice water is a mild feed, not a fertilizer

When you wash rice, the cloudy water carries loose starch from the surface of the grains plus tiny amounts of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. A snack, really. Soil microbes eat the starch, and a little of what they release along the way helps the plant, but it will never do the job of compost and it won’t rescue a plant that has been sitting for two years in old, tired, root-packed soil.

The bigger win is the water itself. In a city where tankers and short supply hours decide how much water a house gets, pouring the first rinse on a pot instead of down the drain is a small, sensible habit that costs nothing and takes no extra time.

Three kinds of rice water, three different verdicts

How to use rice water for plants

1. Rinse 1 cup of raw rice in about 2 cups of water, swishing with your fingers for 30 seconds.
2. Pour this first cloudy rinse into a jug. Later rinses are mostly clear water and carry even less.
3. Use it the same day, pouring about 250 ml around the base of a medium pot, on soil that isn’t already soggy.
4. Use it in place of a normal watering once or twice a week, not on top of it.
5. Leftover? Pour it on another pot or down the drain. Don’t keep it.

Boiled rice water (maand) for plants

Maand is the thick starchy water poured off rice cooked by the drain method. More starch. That’s the problem, because poured on a pot often, the starch coats the soil surface, sours in the heat and grows a white or grey fuzz within a few days.

1. Use only maand from rice boiled without salt, oil, ghee or whole spices.
2. Let it cool to room temperature. Hot starch water scalds roots.
3. Dilute 1 cup of maand with 2 cups of plain water.
4. Use it once a week at most, around the base, not on the leaves.

Is dal washed water good for plants?

Yes, on the same terms as rice water. Water from washing or soaking masoor, moong, chana or mash daal carries a little starch, some protein and traces of nutrients. It’s a mild feed, and it’s safe on pots if you use it the same day.

Boiled daal water is different. If you boil daal and pour off the foamy water, or have thin water left before the tadka, it can go on plants only if no salt went into the pot. Haldi on its own is fine in the small amounts used for cooking. Once namak, masala or tadka oil is in, it’s out. Cooked daal water also spoils quickly in heat, so cool it, dilute it 1 to 2 with plain water, and use it within a few hours.

Vegetable peels can be soaked for plants in much the same way, with their own rules; see onion, potato and orange peel water.

Two rice water myths

Myth: fermented rice water is a super fertilizer

Many videos leave rice water in a closed bottle for a few days until it smells sour, then pour it on plants. Fermenting does change it: bacteria eat the starch and the liquid turns sour and slightly fizzy. But there’s no good reason to think the plant gets a big boost from that. What you reliably get is a strong smell, a bottle that can burst if sealed tight, and a soil surface that draws fungus gnats, the tiny black flies that hover over indoor pots.

If you still want to try it on an outdoor bed, dilute it at least 1 part to 5 parts water, use it rarely, and keep the bottle covered so it can’t hold mosquito larvae.

Myth: any kitchen water is good for plants

Salt is the trap. A pot is a small, closed space, so the salt in cooking water stays behind in the soil every single time you pour it, and over a few weeks it builds up until the roots struggle to pull water out of soil that looks perfectly damp. You’ll see brown, crispy leaf edges and a white crust on the pot rim or soil. That’s why pasta water, sabzi water, leftover salan and salted daal water should never go on plants.

Soapy water, detergent water and oily water? Same rule. Drain.

When to stop pouring rice or daal water

• White or grey fuzz on the soil: starch is building up. Scrape off the top 1 cm and switch to plain water for two weeks.
• Sour or rotten smell from the pot: the soil is staying too wet and starchy. Let it dry out between waterings.
• Tiny black flies around the pot: fungus gnats, breeding in damp, rich topsoil. Stop, let the top 2 to 3 cm dry, and they usually fade.
• Brown leaf edges or white crust: possible salt build-up. Flush the pot with plenty of plain water, letting it run through the drainage hole.

Did you know?

• The cloudiness in rice washing water is mostly starch scrubbed off the outside of the grains as they rub together.
• The foam that rises when daal boils comes from natural compounds called saponins, the same family that makes reetha lather.

Rice water has other uses people search for, from hair rinses to weight-loss claims. We’ve looked at those separately: the rice water weight loss verdict and the reetha, shikakai and rice water hair wash. For more ways to put kitchen leftovers to use, see Zero-Waste Kitchen.

Rice water and daal water for plants: your questions