growing organic and city water?

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

i have been thinking about this the past couple of days and it has me really thinking!

if i am trying to grow plants by organic methods, how do i water them when i have city supplied water? my city puts chemicals in there to offset bacteria and 'help' keep us healthy (fluoride, etc). does city water negate the idea of trying to grow my veggies organically?

should i just try and collect rain water instead if i wanted to do the organic thing?

 

[hoodat]

i have been thinking about this the past couple of days and it has me really thinking!

if i am trying to grow plants by organic methods, how do i water them when i have city supplied water? my city puts chemicals in there to offset bacteria and 'help' keep us healthy (fluoride, etc). does city water negate the idea of trying to grow my veggies organically?

should i just try and collect rain water instead if i wanted to do the organic thing?

If it's fit to drink it's OK for the garden. Most of the chemicals they add don't last long in the soil. Some of them (like chlorine) are even necessary in trace amounts.

 

[obsessed]

I have city water and to be honest I don't think much of it. I can defiantly taste the difference between city water and well water but since city water is all i have then that is all I can use. I don't really want the extra work of trying to take out the chems. It doesn't hurt the garden and I haven't noticed a lack of production. But i am not sure I would notice cause I have always been on city water.

 

[thistlebloom]

I suppose you could always get some 55 gallon food grade barrels and fill them, and then let the water set for a day or two. I know chlorine will evaporate out in about 24 hours. I don't know about the other chemicals.

 

[Greenthumb18]

I agree, city water shouldn't be too much of a problem. Although you could if you want, allow the water to sit and the chlorine and other chemicals will evaporate out in a day.
What about a rain barrel, which collects all the rain off a roof to use in the garden. You won't have to worry about any chemicals since its from the rain.

 

[Ridgerunner]

The purity of rainwater off your roof depends on what kind of roof you have. Some of those have some bad materials. I found this article that very briefly discusses it. It is just one source off the internet so you might want to do some deeper investigating before you depend on one source off the internet, but it is a start. Seems like I remember hearing that some material can leach salts, but that is not specifically mentioned in this source.

http://www.rain-barrel.net/roofing-materials.html

Depending on your type of roof, city water may hold closer to organic principles.

I'm trying to think how top phrase this one. I grew up drinking cistern water, which we collected off our house roof. We used a coal stove in winter. We had to not collect the first rainwater that fell but let the rain rinse the suet off the roof before we directed it into a cistern. Handling that metal downpipe during a thunderstorm added to the excitement!! Otherwise our drinking water was very black for a couple of days. It would eventually settle out. Birds perched up there too. Don't you just love the good old days!!!!

My point is, do you have something in your area producing pollution to the point you would want your roof to be rinsed off before you start collecting the rainwater.

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

we aren't very far away from the highway. but we don't have any kind of smog or acid rain issues in our area. we have lots of trees in our area to help keep a lot of that stuff at bay. right now i could just collect a lot of the remaining snow and fill those buckets and i don't think there would be any contamination from chemicals.

i was just curious if people were trying to grown things organic and if they ever thought about where their water came from to keep that just as pure and chemical free! we also have a brook that runs behind our property that i could probably collect water from but that would be a lot of work and it isn't on our property-belongs to the city.

i've been using my chicken manure to help fertilize my soil so i know that is not considered an approved organic method to fertilize. i want to try growing things as close to nature without the added chemicals, so as i have been buying seeds that are organic i became curious about how to keep them that way!

 

[hoodat]

I have city water and to be honest I don't think much of it. I can defiantly taste the difference between city water and well water but since city water is all i have then that is all I can use. I don't really want the extra work of trying to take out the chems. It doesn't hurt the garden and I haven't noticed a lack of production. But i am not sure I would notice cause I have always been on city water.

One problem with well water is that it is usually very low in oxygen. If you use well water it's better to use sprinklers that allow it to pick up oxygen from the air than a drip system.

 

[momofdrew]

Chickie

We got 2 rain barrels last year from the city...they might be selling them again this year...it would save on the water/sewer bill

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

thanks Mom! i will have to check with them this year! i forgot there was a local program last year that was also selling the locally made barrels for something like $40 too!