I have two 1000 litre storage tanks which collect water from the roof, and I then use to water our vegatable garden.
Obviously these are used and topped up on a continual basis, so the water is both recent and old.
The water will contain whatever is washed off the roof, including bird droppings etc.
I am not worried about using this water on root crops, but what is the risk to health from using this water on leafed vegetables ?
Of course we wash all leaves, lettuce etc, before consumption.
If you're comfortable with using captured water for root crops, then you should have no problem with using it for leaf vegetables -- but water the soil and not the leaves.
We view captured water as preferable to using tap water and tap water that's had time to offgas the chlorine as preferable to watering directly from the tap. ...never had a problem with aged water or even fermented aged water. -- In fact we like captured water so much that I intend to put a 1500 gallon or better, cistern underground ASAP and augment that with rain barrels... or vice versa ...not to get too ahead of myself.
We have a cedar shake roof, btw so there are no appreciable sediment problems.
A neighbour of ours built a stepped settling system of buckets for his rain catchment. By the time the water got to the last step, it was clear.
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In my enthusiasm I missed the volume of your tanks and didn't ask if you have a bird-roosting problem on the roof.
You don't, by chance, have details or a link to photos do you? I'm considering such a tiered settling system myself for use with a roof catchment and above-ground storage.
g'day joggerman,
seems to be a bit of hype around about roof water usage, the major contributor will be the sort of cladding you have on your roof, most have clay tiles or metal so be no problems with that water even for drinking.
as for what is in the rain well that can be another story, might be some factors in nearness to industry belching out pollution or major thoroughfares with their pollution.
i cannot see any problem using rain water collected for vegetables for one whatever is in rain water for the main settles to the bottom of teh tank out of harms way, and is any of it realy in a solluable for to be taken up by plants through the mycorzoria or worms actions?
anoteh with the watering process with vegetables we only ever water the root zones of plants not over the foliage as wetting the foliage can cause other issues like encuraging mildews etc.,. also root zone watering is the most efficient use of water along with mulch to keep that water from evaporating.
we use rain water some for drinking our tank 22.5k/litre size as sedimanet in the bottom as did our tanks on our our previous property we don't routinely get sick.
i would suggest as their may be pollutant matter falling onto you garden anyway again depending on your proximity to a polluting factor, that for above ground leaf and fruit crops you simply wash them before eating them raw. my sugestion also would be anything that may be left on those above ground crops from your watering would be washed away with the next shower of rain.
snipped
Anybody ???????
Does anyone use this type of stored water?
If you are worried about it, throw some chlorine bleach in the water first (1/8 c per 5 gal). That's what our water company does to keep the dead birds in our water reservoirs from killing us :o(
It will be fine for the garden unless you live in a *highly* polluted area with much chemicals, smog etc in the air or if you have reguilar dust storms. But then you are breathing it all anyway so eating it off your veges will only shorten your life marginally. The solution would be to move rather than stop gardening with roof water.
At my place this is what we drink, that is all my household water is collected from the roof. This applies to thousands of homes in rural Australia. Generally this water is better than reticulated city water unless you don't care for your tanks.
David
Thanks to all, for the replies and advice.
we do and as mentiojned in my earlier post have done for a long tme now.
On Wed, 12 May 2010 14:25:47 -0400, joggerman wrote: snipped
LOL. You've just described the collection system for the water that I have been drinking for 5 decades. Much of the world drinks water collected straight from a roof and with no filtration or treatment.
A huge number of people in the world. In rural Australia, then anyone who is not in a place with a town water supply drinks such water. And even if there is a town water suply, it's sometimes safer to drink one's own water collected off the roof than from the town supply.
Of possible interest.
Was going over draft postings and found this.
Afraid Walt's long gone and so is the system...
It harvested the water from his garage.
It was a pretty simple 2x4 somewhat overbuilt structure supporting 2 banks of 4 or 5 salvaged food grade 5 gallon buckets with each bank stairstepping down from 2 downspouts toward the middle at about 8 inches a step.
--Except for the catchment each bucket had a 2 inch plastic pipe set into it below the lip which poured into the next bucket. The pipe may have been sealed in place with silicone sealant.
What I felt was missing was some way of excluding insects and critters.
I'd guess that there's an optimum bucket size and number to allow settling and not retain too much water in the system.
What I have in mind is cascading 55-60 gal (U.S.) polyethelene barrels delivering into an inexpensive above-ground pool installed partly below ground. Although that represents significant residual water, I can't imagine 5-gal buckets providing enough buffering to allow junk to settle. I'll most likely cobble together a support system of stacked 4x4s. Time to dig through TMEN for the reader-built trash excluder that requires a minimum volume _and_ rate-of-flow before diverting runoff into the storage unit. The water is for gardening and flushing. Over the years, I've had good success controlling mosquitos using mosquito "dunks" (Bt) and "mosquito fish" (a mixed blessing)
AWA occasional blasts of natural pyrethrin thermal fog. I don't seem to have done too much damage to the dragonflies and frogs that cohabit the ponds in my charge so I'm hoping for similar results in my new "pond".
It seemed to work well enough. The last step produced no gravel or leaves and the first, lots.
Have you thought of installing drains in the barrels so you can let out the sediment and/or the water without having to work too hard?
Only if I discover that simply siphoning doesn't work or is more difficult that I anticipate. My biggest source of debris is three deciduous trees; of course there are always the twigs, etc. as well as care packages from thoughtful birds.
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