Grey water

[LLK]

Hi all,
Here in Canberra, as in many other parts of the country, we are having to watch the water we use on our bonsai. People with water tanks have seen them run dry and we have to be economical with tap water. As yet there are no water restrictions here, but they may not be long coming, and anyway under the present conditions we can't afford to squander any.
Some people have started using grey water, and the question is: what effect does this have on plants, and especially on our bonsai? Will our domestic use of soap and detergents render the water too alkaline? It would be interesting to know what effects the users of grey water have observed.

Lisa

[shibui]

Washing products used to use phosphorus a a cleaning agent which also acted as a fertiliser but that caused too many problems in the rivers so now most detergents are low P.
I believe Sodium is one of the issues with laundry water. It can change the structure of garden soils but I'm not aware if it affects potting mix.
I was not aware that grey water changed pH. Sometimes it is the actual tap water that is causing high pH. Treated water is pH adjusted to neutral or slightly alkaline so it does not dissolve the pipes and plumbing. It is interesting to read the test results of your water authority. Their results should be in the annual reports available somewhere on their website.

[LLK]

Thanks, Neil. Those are useful things to know, as is everything you post here. No interest among the other members. It mat show that we aren't all that worried about where our next drop of water will be coming from.

Lisa

[nathan987]

We’ve been showering standing in our child’s baby bath and using that partially to water the lawn, general garden beds and veggie patches. Between the three of us, this saves about 50-60 litres of water per day (we fill two 9L watering cans per person).

The bonsai continue to get nice tap water at this stage.

Whilst we are still allowed to use the tap and a watering can for our garden beds (not the lawn), we felt wasteful letting it all go down the drain and using the tap for our plants.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Watto]

Hi Lisa,
Where I live we had experience with using only grey water for the watering of bonsai (and other parts of the garden) for a couple of years in the last big drought. Good on the local council who have taken steps to ensure our water now but it was very difficult for a while.
Anyway, there are products (washing liquid) that state that they are "grey water safe" and we moved to those during that period and I could see no adverse impact on the bonsai from using grey water. However, I may have been working on the theory that grey water is better than no water. I have no evidence, just my observations but they lived and that was the important part.
On another note, the soapy water did appear to keep the aphids away, but maybe it was just too dry for them to live.

[LLK]

Thanks, Nathan and Watto. I admire your dedication to water economy, Nathan. I'm not going to say, "if there were more people like you..." because I'm sure there are lots more people like you. But enough...?
Watto, If it's OK with you, I'll fwd your post to Tony, President of the CBS, for mention to members at Saturday's first club meeting of the year.

Lisa