Storing rainwater for plant watering? any views on this

g'day conor,

best practise, we not only have rainwater for plants but for washing clothes and drinking, have used it in whole of house.

our rain tank is commonly 22.5k/litres in szie and we use drums aswell, a couple of picures on this page of ours:

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There is a huge range of equipment available to suit everything from the small suburban house with very limited room to major irrigation. There seems to be a way of thinking (we see this is design students all the time) that if only we had more and better equipment all will be wonderful in the garden. This point of view comes from those who see their role to make money designing, manufacturing and selling more goods.

What is needed is not more and better gear but more people who are willing to use what is there and who are willing to learn how to use it effectively. This is the point of view of those who want to have better gardens and to use water more efficiently. The two views do have some overlap but in some cases they are directly at odds.

A better result will often come not from buying more hardware but from using the warmware between your ears.

David

Concrete is OK but can have problems with cracking, especially in clay soil. When you have 20 tons in your tank the ground doesn't have to move much before the base is not supported evenly and the concrete cracks under the strain. A polymer tank on the other hand will give a little and survive without leaking.

David

About 50 years worth but the first 20 years were more as a user of such water, but having parents yarping on about it for those 20 years is a good learning curve.

Have you methods in place, and do they work? How

Why don't you do a google and check out rainwater harvesting and useage in countries of the world where the use of rainwater for household use is common? Try Australia or NZ.

g'day billy,

that is great to hear, over here and yes all types of construction in tanlks will have some negative, but i stear clear of cement tanks as they use all the fly ash from the power stations to make cement dust, and tha ash can have some not nice residuals. we like to drink the water.

On Fri, 03 Jun 2011 11:56:27 -0700, Billy wrote: snipped

The concrete wasn't just used for cisterns in France. It used to be commonly used for fermenting wine. It would be covered over with a proprietary material called Flint Coat, which is like a spread-on linoleum. Pre-1970, many of the larger jug wine producers in California did the same thing.

No food grade cement in Australia? France wouldn't have that problem, because of their dearth of coal. Hopefully, the tailings from their spent reactor rods won't be incorporated in their cement ;O)

Food security, and water security needs to start at home.

We never know the worth of water till the well is dry. ~Thomas Fuller, Gnomologia, 1732

Here, in the U.S., the federal government says that thirty-six states face water shortages in the next five years.