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Fri, Mar 15, 13 at 23:06
| I normally have irrigation water to water my garden with, but I starting gardening early this year and I need another water source as irrigation water is about 1 month out. Our tap is from a small "community" well. It is not filtered or chlorinated, but it is very hard. The question is: is it acceptable to use hard water (unchlorinated) in my garden for 1 month until the irrigation water is available? |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| Hard water generally has calcium carbonate and also magnesium carbonate, and both calcium and magnesium are plant nutrients. If you are trying to maintain an acidic soil pH, then hard water will raise the pH, making the garden soil alkaline. We use hard water in our garden with no problem. Our soil is on the alkaline side of the pH scale, around 7.6. |
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| Eric, I appreciate sharing your experience with using hard water. Tom |
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| Many of us on the east side of Lake Michigan use unchlorinated well water to water our gardens and have for many years and we do not appear to have problems associated with that. Many people that live in the towns and cities that have municipal water service use chlorinated water to water their gardens and they do not appear to have any real problems from doing that, either. I am told by some that the well water we have, which is quite "hard" will clog my arteries and I should be drinking that much more expensive bottled water which most likely is just as hard since the source of much is the same as mine, Muskegon River headwaters by Evert, city of Detroit municipal water, city of Indianapolis municipla water. |
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- Posted by michael357 5b, KS (My Page) on Sun, Mar 17, 13 at 19:27
| Gardennut, good question for sure. I too am in a small community that supplies extremely hard water that is also pretty high in bicarbonates. If that isn't bad enough , the soil is about pH 7.2 and high in lime. What that all translates to is a soil that wants to tie up micro nutrients and a source of irrigation water that wants exacerbates the problem in the soil. I've elected to take a 3-pronged approach to dealing with the situation 1) amend the soil with ag. sulfur to neutralize some of the lime and 2) inject vinegar into my irrigation water. 3) fertilize with acid forming fertilizer sources, namely, ammonium sulfate. The link should help to understand the bicarbonates in irrigation water issue. By treating the water with acid correctly, the Ca becomes free and can be effectively moved out of the root zone or taken up by plants. The rest of the bicarbonate molecule is lost as water and CO2 if I remember correctly. |
Here is a link that might be useful: UF bulletin on irrigation water & bicarbonates
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- Posted by toxcrusadr 5 (My Page) on Mon, Mar 18, 13 at 13:49
| I doubt that one month of watering in spring with hard water is going to change the soil pH significantly for a significant time afterwards. One could do some calculations, but I'm betting the amount of lime is small compared to the tons of soil in the top 6" of your garden. Just my 2 cents. The idea that hard water will clog up the arteries is a new one! Hilarious. |
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- Posted by michael357 5b, KS (My Page) on Tue, Mar 19, 13 at 22:05
| Tox: nug's situation may not be as pronounced as mine, but, believe me, you don't want to exacerbate the headaches that are associated with calcareous soils with bicarbonate-filled water like mine. It isn't difficult to create problem zones like near a drip tape with seems like not much irrigation, especially when growing sensitive crops. Nug, you might want to have a lime (calcium bicarbonate) test done on your soil and bicarbonate test on your irrigation water. |
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