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Will somebody who knows please talk to me about the possible deleterious effects to soil/plants from using chlorinated water (such as from a public water supply) in a garden/landscape irrigation system..
Thanking you in advance for any knowledgeable comments,...Sam.
Rainwater's always better for plants, so if you're up for installing rain barrels, etc to catch it that would be great, but the vast majority of gardeners out there use the public water supply to water their garden and are able to have perfectly beautiful gardens, so I wouldn't worry too much about it.
Unless you have a high ratio of chemicals in your city water supply, then you should see no difference to your lawn, veg or other plants in your garden, however if it is a matter of trying to save using the city / town water, then as Ecrane said, lot of people set up water butt systems that work very well, they are not expensive, easy to fit and rely only on rain fall, in Florida you may not have enough rain water to do all your garden watering, but it is good to have a choice too, some plants like azaleas, gardenias etc prefere rain water and dont do well at all with town / city water, but it all depends how strong the chemicals are within the system as each area will have different tolerances and regulations, you should be able to get precise info from your local gov offices who deal with water supplies to give you full and proper info on this subject that seams very important to you, lots of people are getting more aware of all this and are moving to rain butt's etc.
Good luck. WeeNel.
Thank you, Friendly Folks, for your responses.
To ecrane3: Yes, good advice, and that is the long term plan; to capture rainwater. I intend to build a cistern to hold many gallons of rainwater to have reserve for dry seasons/spells...
To WeeNel: Also, good thoughts, my concerns are environmental sustainability, economy (in deference to my small purse/wallet), and avoiding governmentally mandated chemical additives to the public food and water supplies. You did give me a good chuckle, you wrote, "you should be able to get precise info from your local gov offices who deal with water supplies to give you full and proper info on this subject"; maybe you folks raise a different variety of 'bureaucrat' there in Scotland (maybe my favorite place/people in the whole world) than the ones we seem to have in the U.S.of A... Ours seem to have a ingrained 'modus operandi' of, "CYA and pass-the-buck if you can't intimidate and discourage any questioner"... In case the CYA acronym is unfamiliar to you, it means: Cover Your A**, or, don't ever do, say, or sign anything that you can be held responsible for...
Thanks to all, Sam.
I don't know about Florida, but out here they send something out every year telling you what all is in the water. You might try calling them to ask, I expect even if they don't send the info out they'd probably have to give it to you if you called and asked for it.
Haha I've never seen such a notice as to what's in my water. It's very troubling times laterly near where I live. I'm situated 15 miles from the so-called "cancer cluster" of Loxahatchee/Acreage, FL, where a county report is anxiously awaited to explain why there've been countless reports of brain tumors in a concentrated area. More than likely, it's due to contaminated well-water systems, as they don't have city water out there. If you care, you can read more about it here: http://www.theacreagecancerstudy.com/ .
Sam, there are filters made for irrigation systems that will remove most /all of the chlorine and other additives from the water...chlorine tends to interfere with the plant's ability to produce chlorophyll, leading to yellowing of the leaves, a condition called chlorosis...in severe cases, a product called chealated iron is used when watering. To help prevent the problem, regular applications of a product called Ironite are very helpful. Ironite will not burn plants like high nitrogen fertilizers can and is a slow release product.
