Disposing of water full of metal from sharpening on waterstones

Someday, it'll all be over....

Keith, Your roses will love it.

TeamCasa thus spake:

Gardenias are often iron deprived as well. Yellowing leaves in an otherwise healthy plant are a sign.

Greg G.

Actually, your flower beds might be very interested in having them. Even plants need those trace elements and a fair amount of iron in their systems. One of the prettiest yards I've ever seen, the guy applied the dust from a brake lathe every so often.

Easy, drop a magnet in the bucket and slosh it around, wait until the next day and pour the water on the ground, take out the magnet and give it a few rubs with a stiff brush to get the filings off of it over a garbage can.

Bert

Hmmmmm, sounds like a description of - dirt.

Come to think, that's where it started, too.

Come on folks, these are iron filings, not iron ions. Unless my chemistry is getting rusty (pun intended!) I think this is a big wive's tale.

Trace elements, such as in fertilizer, break into ions (Nitrogen, etc). That's what the plants can absorb.

They tell you to stick a nail in the pot with African Violets so there must be something to adding iron. Perhaps the environment breaks iron into ion when the "R"ust comes out.

Here's one more - the ionization state of iron makes a difference!

How much metal are we talking about? I dump mine on the grass or flowerbeds, and I've got a very nice lawn and gardens. Some iron (or other metals) is actually very good for plants. Don't dump it all in one spot, I usually toss the dirty water 30 feet.

Most rose bushes & hardy shrubs love rusty water, stir it up & pour a small circle about six inches around the roots area.

On 21 Dec 2003 07:45:33 -0800, snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com (Larry Bud) brought forth from the murky depths:

A lady friend tossed an old sack of nails under my favorite rose bush in Vista about 15 years ago and it started producing larger, prettier roses about a year later, and it stayed in bloom longer in those years. I disbelieved the tales until then.

Manmade iron parts DO break down into usable elements for plants.

========================================================== I drank WHAT? +

You should see the weeds growing in the out door scrap pile. Must be good for plants.

How long do you think a "filing" will remain intact when subjected to weather?

Starting to get way off topic, but here's the formula for when iron rusts: (source:

You'll note that there are NO free iron ions. The iron combines with the oxygen. Nothing beside rust (2Fe2O3) is given off.

Which explains why a piece of iron gains mass as it rusts...

djb

But not what happens in the presence of other compounds.

Even better, turn a small plastic bag (Glad bag) wrong side out and put the magnet in it. When it picks up the filings just grab the top of the bag and lift the magnet out, seal the bag and throw it away. That way you don't end up with a magnet with a slurry of metal on it.