Has anyone experienced any differences watering your garden herbs, fruits and vegetables with non-chlorinated water? Is chlorine an inhibitor? I can generate 50 galllons a day of chlorine free water for a small amount of money. Is it worth even that?
Paul
there isnt just chlorine, some places have chloramine. if you are concerned, then get some sodium thiosulfate that is used for ponds with fish. put that into a fertilizer sprayer and run your water thru it. that will neutralize it. that being said, the purpose of chlorine is to kill bacteria by attacking organic molecules so the dirt will also inactivate chlorine. I remember them suggesting leaving water to "outgas" chlorine for watering indoor plants.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Somewhere between zone 5 and 6 tucked along the shore of Lake Michigan on the council grounds of the Fox, Mascouten, Potawatomi, and Winnebago
Have a look:
Johnson et al. 1957. Comparative chlorine requirements of different plant species. Plant and Soil 8:337-353.
ABSTRACT:
Recognition of chlorine as a plant micronutrient has been extended to include ten species. Acute chlorine deficiencies or decreased yields were produced with lettuce, tomato, cabbage, carrot, sugar beet, barley, alfalfa, buckwheat, corn, and beans. Squash plants showed neither loss in yield nor other deficiency symptoms when cultured at the same time and under the same conditions as the aforementioned species. All plants acquired more chlorine during their growth than can be accounted for from seeds, inorganic salts, or water used in the experiments. Plant species least susceptible to injury when cultured upon low chlorine salt solutions were also the ones most capable of acquiring extrinsic chlorine. Of the species studied, lettuce was the most sensitive to ldquominus chlorinerdquo culture solutions and squash, the least sensitive. However, the concentration of chlorine in all of the species cultured under limited chlorine supply was not greatly different. It is inferred that plants such as corn, beans, and squash survived the ldquominus chlorinerdquo cultures by reason of greater accretion of extrinsic chlorine from the atmosphere. The form of the atmospherically borne chlorine is not known.
***END ABSTRACT***Not sure why you would want to limit chlorine. I'd be a lot more worried about lead and cadmium.
Chris
PS:
Paper (or at least the Abstract) is available at:
PPS:
As to chloramine, I found one Abstract (totally paywalled and available only through my faculty access at my college library) that said even a one-hour exposure to chloramine (in the form of hypochlorous acid) significantly reduced lettuce yields. Now, I don't know if NY City adds chloramine to my water, but I water my lettuce with tap water and am satisfied. If you know your area adds chloramine to your water, you may want to treat it, as described by another poster.
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.