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Decatur, IL

Does anyone have an opinion as to whether or not chlorinated water has a deleterious effect on beneficial soil micro-organisms when watering or when used in making up solutions?
Charlie

1/12/2006 2:31:00 PM

ENGLAND

Charlie
I am about to start brewing 40 Gallons of Anaerobic Tea for soil amendment purposes and will have to use mostly Tap/City/Chlorinated water. I have been informed that if you fill the Barells etc, that you intend to fill with the Tap water, and leave it for about 3 to 5 days the Chlorine will evaporate off. It is a good idea to give the water a stir a few times a day just to get it circulated a little. It will then be safe to add any micro organisms etc to the water.

Thankyou to Andy Wolf for giving me that information a few days ago.

I hope that helps.

Regards
Mike

1/12/2006 4:04:17 PM

Decatur, IL

I know if you're using aerobically made tea, all you have to do is let the pump for about an hour to dissipate the chlorine before you add compost, etc. What I'm talking about, though, is water that's going to be used for watering or making up fertilizer and other solutions immediately.

1/12/2006 4:51:07 PM

ENGLAND

Charlie
For making up solutions & fertilizers etc i guess that if you got several 40 Gallon barells and filled them up a few days previous to using the water that would be a fix to one problem. However, as for general irrigation water i guess you would have to go Nesbit and have a MASSIVE storage tank and dechlorinate the water that way.

Regards
Mike

1/12/2006 5:01:12 PM

San Jose [email protected]

our city water has about 1 ppm chlorine, from what i hear not enough to worry about

1/12/2006 7:29:45 PM

Western NY

1ppm? you can swim in that!

.2- .3 is what they usually are supposed to run around here.

1/12/2006 7:47:58 PM

Garden

Our average is .4
Bottled water or filtration system is a must

1/12/2006 9:00:07 PM

Phoenix, AZ

Don't worry about it. If you are really concerned, buy some pool strips and check your water. I checked mine multiple times and there was less than 1 PPM at all times.

1/12/2006 9:03:39 PM

Omaha, NE (N41-15-42 )

Omaha, NE uses Chloramine in its water. They say that it is safe to drink, but toxic to fish. Unlike Chlorine, as I've been told, this doesn't dissipate. The only thing that will get it out is carbon filtration. I bought a filter that has hose fittings on both ends from Charlie's Greenhouse a couple of years ago, but they no longer carry the product.

1/12/2006 10:42:35 PM

Sioux Falls, SD [email protected]

Bigger cities use chloramine
Chlorine does dissipate
In big cities thats a problem
Its dissipated before suburbs

1/13/2006 1:04:37 AM

Montoursville, PA

"THEY" the horrible face, of influnce and law making, say it kills fish but not you. I wonder what they think it does not kill in your body? Again "THEY" use the least expensive way, to serve their pee-ons. Don't you believe a minute of that crap. Our guys even use rat poison in the water to treat teeth. Yea....real rat poison but just a little. I don't know how, to get that out, at a reasonable cost. The dentist can apply that directly and only, to teeth, in a much safer manor and lower systemic effect, in the body.

I use black light and carbon filters, to treet the drinking and cooking waters, in our house. This may be more important now that reducing water temperature, to save fuel is a common practice.

I use well water which also has some problems but seems to be a better alternative water source, for lawn and garden. It is much less expensive than using city water.

1/13/2006 5:14:06 AM

Southeast

I have used chlroine filters before. This year it broke. I grew my personal best. Dave

1/13/2006 8:15:45 AM

Decatur, IL

Personally, I don't think the little bit of free chlorine residual in my water,probably less the .5 ppm, is enough to hurt anything. I may fill some barrels with water for use when mixing solution, just to be on the safe side. I don't know a whole lot about public water treatment, but I do know a little bit about swimming pool chemistry. When disinfecting swimming pool water, you don't want chloramines to form. When you have chloramines forming, it's a sign that your free chlorine residual is not high enough to oxidize all the organic matter present and the organics combine with the chlorine to form chloramines. Chloramines aren't very effective as a disinfectant. When they are present, you want to superchlorinate or "shock" the pool so that you reach "break-point chlorination". That's the point where all the organic matter is oxidized and pretty much all your chlorine is free chlorine residual, which is the most efficient disinfectant. It seems to me that if city water has chloramines, it would be a sign that it's high in contaminants and there is not enough free chlorine to get rid of the chloramines.

1/13/2006 9:59:01 AM

[email protected]

Hey Dave....Maybe the chloramine helped to supress those dreaded patch pathogens. It's done wonders at reducing typhoid disease & has saved millions of lives for the past 90 years that it's been added to the public drinking water in this country & Europe.

1/13/2006 9:09:31 PM

Garden State Pumpkins

maybe CM can help us out here...I know they have a product in pool supply section that eliminates chlorine called chem-gon or something like that...they use it to burn it off and only needs a couple of teaspoons for a fifty gallon drum...might just be adding more chemicals though...

1/14/2006 8:38:04 AM

Phoenix, AZ

I would worry more about residual sodium in the water caused by the use of bleach (NaOCl) to produce the residual chlorine effect. At least chlorine will dissipate. sodium will build up in you soil.

1/14/2006 7:27:12 PM

Decatur, IL

There are also products that remove chlorine from aquarium water. At least it doesn't hurt the fish. I don't really know enough to say whether or not it will effect plant growth.

There are various chlorine compounds used for disinfecting swimming pools. Two of the most common are liquid chlorine, sodium hypochlorite (same compound as bleach), and dry chlorine, calcium hypochlorite (granular, water soluble product). I dont really know what form of chlorine water treatment plants usually use. If they use sodium hypochlorite, I doubt if there would be enough sodium present to harm the soil.

1/14/2006 8:17:40 PM

Decatur, IL

I looked up some stuff on public water treatment. There are various methods used for disinfection. These include the use of chlorine gas, sodium hypochlorite, calcium hypochlorite, chloramines, chlorine dioxide, and ozone. Chlorine gas is closely regulated by the EPA. It's no longer used very often by swimming pools for this reason. You have to have a trained operator for its use. If you'd happen to have a gas leak, you could wipe out everyone in the vacinity.

1/14/2006 8:41:21 PM