Tried a rain barrel in Tucson and my tomatoes hated it
Set up a 55 gallon rain barrel off my gutter last spring thinking I'd save water and my summer garden would love it. Turns out the roof runoff picked up so much grit off my shingles that the water went alkaline, and my tomatoes threw yellow leaves within 2 weeks. I switched back to hose water and they greened up in a few days, so now I just use the barrel for the flower beds. Anyone here filter their rain barrel water before it touches veggies, or am I overthinking this?