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Post by gianna on May 30, 2023 21:30:54 GMT -5
Sounds like compost tea - apparently a smelly liquid of decomposing organic matter. I also collect rain, but don't screen it when collecting it. I don't have too many leaves, but some. Perhaps because of the long drought, I'm not that picky if my rain water gets a bit tainted, but I've never noticed 'smelly'. The roof is over 30 yrs old so little or no leaching, there is little industry nor traffic exhaust here. The dirt on the roof is bird poop (aka fertilizer), dust, and if a fire year, ash. And some leaves. The rainwater is not used in the house or for human use. It's only used in the garden, and not on anything soon to be harvested and eaten raw. My basic theory is if it's wet, I'll use it on plants.
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Post by gb98 on Jun 4, 2023 10:06:26 GMT -5
gianna, Compost tea has a nice earthy smell. My rain barrel water does not - it has that funky anaerobic smell which I've read can kill plants.
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Post by gardendmpls on Jun 4, 2023 17:22:38 GMT -5
Did some research. All sources said the anaerobic water would not hurt plants, even though it is often described as smelling like sulfer. They did recommend watering at the base of the plants and keeping the water off of vegetable leaves that you might eat. Basic solutions: keep using the water regularly so it doesn't sit for too long; add vinegar to the water; place tubing with an aerator attached to a cheap aquarium pump to the water in the barrel; empty the tank and scrub it down with vinegar. One mentioned adding a small amount of bleach (we used to use 15 drops of bleach per gallon to treat our tap water in Spain in the 70s. Otherwise we would have had dysentery as the untreated water came from a polluted river).
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Post by pepperhead212 on Jun 4, 2023 19:30:00 GMT -5
I was going to suggest the airstone - something used for compost tea, and something I use in my hydroponics. I never use any of that in my rain barrel, but never had any anaerobic problems. I always wondered how that Kratky Method would work in the hydroponics, as it has plants growing in water with no circulation or aeration at all. Somehow it works, though I don't try it.
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Post by gianna on Jun 5, 2023 11:11:40 GMT -5
Compost tea has a nice earthy smell. That would be the ideal. Though that likely would depend on the compost it was made from, and probably far from reality for most people. My rain barrel water does not - it has that funky anaerobic smell which I've read can kill plants. Anaerobic conditions (poor drainage), can certainly kill plants. What matters is how comfortable you are using this water. If developing these conditions in your rain containers is common, as others have suggested, aerate it periodically with a pump if you are not going to use it right away. This past week I emptied some 'old rain', and sadly a dead lizard, that was left in an open 100 gallon stock tank. It was quite funky near the bottom, and did smell. Water being dear here, I did not want to waste it. I had two areas I wanted to water - a new pepper bed with small plants, and my blueberries in pots, now with ripe fruit. Without hesitation, I used a sump pump and irrigated the new peppers, and then tipped out the shallow layer of sludge from the bottom, and the rinse water, onto a bed that is in prep stage. There is no way, however, I would have used that 'overly mature' water on the blueberries since I consider it unfit for human consumption. The blues got water fresh from the tap. And later I ate some.
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Post by gardendmpls on Jun 5, 2023 18:29:14 GMT -5
Anaerobic conditions (poor drainage), can certainly kill plants. If the water in the container is anaerobic, but poured on plants that are well drained, it will be aerated as it soaks down and will not harm the plants. If fresh, sweet smelling water is poured on an area with very poor drainage the roots will be surrounded by anaerobic conditions and may die from lack of oxygen. It's not the water, its the permeability of the soil that determines the results.
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Post by gb98 on Jun 6, 2023 17:59:31 GMT -5
gardendmpls , Interesting. Poor drainage is not a problem around here. Just the opposite with our sandy soil! The problem with using rain barrel water right away is......well, after a huge rain storm that fills the barrel, the plants don't need to be watered for awhile!
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