Is stored water safe for leafed crops

 


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.




--
joggerman

 

@gardenbanter.co.uk says...

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.

 




    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.
--
the Balvenieman
USDA zone 9b, peninsular FL, USA
"You know what they say: Once you kill a cow,
You gotta make a burger" --Lady Gaga

 

balvenieman@invalid.net says...

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.

 



 Of possible interest.

http://www.harvesth2o.com/rainwaterstorage.shtml

--
Bill  S. Jersey USA zone 5 shade garden
     What use one more wake up call?