Managed to save 2 trashcans full from our recent welcome rains.
Plan to use them for potted plants, indoor & out. They are SO much happier with clean sky water! You folks that get rain don't realize how precious this is.
Water may last quite a while. Should I chlorinate it to avoid --what? Haven't seen any mosquitoes breeding over last [censored] years...but...
If yes, how much bleach per 32 gal trash can?
TIA
HB
Why go to the trouble of collecting clean water, that you claim is better for your plants, to then pollute it? What do you imagine might grow in it that would harm your plants? To repel mossies hang socks around the rim of the tubs.
Keep the cans covered. If they develop mosquito larvae anyway, spread about 1/4 cup (or less) of cooking oil over the surface. The oil should create a film thin enough that it will be harmless to your potted plants, but it should spread enough to cover the entire surface of the water. When you dip out the water for your plants, be careful to avoid getting all the oil at once.
Don't use motor oil or household lubricating oil. In contact with soil, cooking oil will eventually decompose; the others might not.
Exactly, coating the surface of stagnant water with plain veggie oil will sufficate mosquito larva.
No need to do so.
:-)) I once saw a question in a newsgroup from someone who asked whether he could drink rainwater. You can imagine how that made me roll around laughing.
None. It is not necessary.
If you ever have a need to disinfect rainwater for some reason, then don't use bleach. Use hydrogen peroxide instead. It will be just as effective, and as it decomposes to water and oxygen, will not be harmful.
Thanks to all for input. I should have made it clear that my concern was whether chlorinating the cans of rain water -- even a little -- would hurt the plants. Not really concerned about mosquitoes, so may have been misleading.
Re: hydrogen peroxide, I have long used it as a minor wound disinfectant and a dental rinse (my dentist says OK). Didn't think of it for water. Very interesting. Looked it up:
Suggestions for proportion of HOOH to 32 gal H2O?
TIA
HB
It would depend on what purpose you had in mind and what contaminants might be in the can. As the original question was put there is no need.
Fran Farmer wrote: ...
consider yourself very blessed that you live someplace where it may be safe enough to do so.
songbird
Sure there are risks involved in anything that you ingest but these articles are not balanced. There seems to be an unstated assumption in relation to modern public health (often from the USA) that anything that is not sterile is a serious risk. We see this in 100 ways, where you can't eat this or touch that, your kitchen benches MUST be cleaned with some handy dandy steriliser and you will drop dead if any human hand has touched the food before you put it in your mouth.
This is a relflection of ignorance, stupid officials covering their arses, commercial interest in selling 'remedies' and the consequences of (what seems to outsiders) of endemic poor commercial food handling practices that result in mass poisoning by strains of E Coli in supermarket salad veges. This is of course intertwinned with a big dose of "yuuuuuuccckkkkk how could you possibly (eat, touch, drink) that" from people who have no idea where food or drink come from nor the trillions of microorganisms to be found in every part of your house. This view conveniently ignores the fact that your environment is never sterile and never will be. You will always need the defences of your body to keep out foreign organisms.
It is as if a whole generation have compromised immune systems are will drop like flies of not kept in an airtight bubble.
In country Australia 90% of domestic water is collected from roofs and aside from gross fitering to keep out solids and insects it is untreated. It is fine water and there is no pattern of ill health because of it and no attempt by authorities to regulate it or to insist on treatment. Such water is never hard and is never over-chlorinated (because it isn't chlorinated) and you never get transmission of diseases to millions such as happens from time to time with reticulated water. I am thinking things like Giardia and Cryptosporidium that have been found in major city (eg Sydney) water supplies. There is city (eg Adelaide) water that is so hard that people buy bottled water to wash their hair.
The last time I was on town water it tasted terrible and every time I ran the shower I got a coughing fit from the chlorine. To me the health risks from those things were far worse than the possibility of the yuk factor from a bit of bird poo. As if city water supplies never get bird poo or dead animals in them, the difference is you don't see it. Sure the water is treated but mostly this is chlorine and as the articles say some bugs are resistant to it.
I am reminded of a very large dinner party where I served dessert and forgot the garnish of sliced guava. I brought out the dish of garnish and asked who wanted any. Some said yes others no. One said he would have some if I used a spoon to serve. So I got a spoon and served and he had some and ate it with relish. I later explained that I had to touch the fruit to peel and slice it and in fact every dish that he had eaten through the night had been touched by those same paws and consequently if I was infected death would be quick and nasty. He sheepishly admitted that he knew that there was no real risk but he just couldn't WATCH me use my fingers and then eat the food I had touched.
So the upshot of it is there are risks to living and you should not imagine that those risks are eliminated in town water or necessarily greater in roof water.
But we drift OT as HB never said anything about drinking it. What is your opinion on treating rainwater for the garden?
Mine, if containers were clean, and when water filled kept covered, there is no need to chlorinate it if just used to water plants. Trash cans should have been washed with maybe a little bleach before catching the water.
No water problem here. I'm on a well but believe those on municipal water are paying about $60/month. Can't begin to imagine what it costs in areas like So. Cal. and can't imagine having to ration it.
That is not the intent or implication of *any* of these articles. You seem to have read that into them all by yourself, then conflated it into the rant you posted while sliding down an awfully slippery slope, Mr. StrawMan.
Stick to the specific topic.
Boron
David Hare-Scott wrote: ...
there are decent (low tech even) systems which reject the first amount of runoff from a rooftop collection system which avoids most of the "gunk".
songbird
Ok then what do the articles actually mean and what point do you intend to make? Say it in your own words so I don't have to guess. Or are we going down the path of the microwave cooking thread where you refuse to do so?
I think the authors of those articles need to get out more.
We drink the rainwater we collect from our various roof surfaces as do all of our rural neighbours. There is no way known that we would ever install those 'first flush' diverters. It wastes too much water from what might be a brief passing rain event.
Even in most of our cities people are now choosing to install rain water tanks (cisterns in USian).
...
if i were in that dire of a situation (where i couldn't afford 1 bucket to be diverted to a garden) i'd be looking at a filtering system, enclosed greenhouses and other water vapor preserving methods.
songbird
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.