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I was wondering if air brewed compost tea should not be made with chlorinated water then what effects will watering the lawn with chlorinated city water have on benificial microbial life/good bacteria in the soil?

Ronnie

Regular chlorinated/city water is fine to use for teas so long as you let it sit for 24-48 hours. The chlorine when fresh and depending on the volumn of chemicals in the water, can in fact kill microbes.
It's pretty easy to stick a bucket, garbage can, barrel etc under your eaves and collect rain water Who needs those expensive rain barrels?

Well some of us have gutters and downspouts and need some way to divert water from the downspouts to a collector and back to the downspouts when the collector is full. Rain barrels don't have to be expensive, they can be a do it yourself project if you are handy; but they are very convenient when equipped with mosquito screen, spigot, etc.

But it is an interesting question about what happens when you put (chlorinated) hose water on your lawn/ plants/ soil; is it harmful to all the soil biology we are trying to cultivate? I don't really know the answer to that. I did some googling around and most of what I found seemed to suggest that the amount of chlorine (and fluoride, also a concern) in the tap water is small enough and dissipates quickly enough that it is not a major concern. But I didn't find much hard data one way or the other. If people have more info about this, I would love to see it!

It is why I am moving more and more to watering from the above mentioned rain barrel, just in case...

Have you ever noticed after watering your yard the grass does not grow as fast or look as perky as when mother nature waters it? I do think the chlorine and other chemicles do have an effect on the cycle of life in our soils. When I apply my act's this year I will wait a couple days after I have watered to give the chlorine time to evaporate.

I've been looking and looking, I would have SWORN HG or someone had posted something about chemicals in water....Anybody remember this discussion?
Really though, where I'm at I can taste the chemicals in our water and won't drink it. I bring clean 1 gallon jugs out to a free flowing artesian well and fill them once a week or so. I figure if I can taste the chems it could possibly hurt the microbes too. I'll water with tap water but won't make teas with it until it's sat for a bit.

Not 100 % on this either.

As far as ACT I believe it was "Teaming With Microbes" that stated if you use chlorinated water for teas you can put the aerator in it for an hour or two to de-chlorinate it.

Can't find it now but someone asked about using a siphon gadget to spray diluted ACT with outdoor tap water, and HG said the chlorine would kill the microbes before they hit the ground. OP (I think) posted a link for all-around water filter for an RV, and HG posted a link for (I think) one of those in-line high-volume Chemical reaction (Copper-Zinc alloy) Chlorine filter for garden use. He said you don't want to filter out everything.

applestar wrote:Can't find it now but someone asked about using a siphon gadget to spray diluted ACT with outdoor tap water, and HG said the chlorine would kill the microbes before they hit the ground. OP (I think) posted a link for all-around water filter for an RV, and HG posted a link for (I think) one of those in-line high-volume Chemical reaction (Copper-Zinc alloy) Chlorine filter for garden use. He said you don't want to filter out everything.

That was in my thread and he never posted that, do you have any links to one of those? I tried google but didn't know if I was finding the right things. But anyways after reading "Teaming with Microbes" I noticed they mention in the book that when you use a sprinkler it aerates and gasses of the chlorine before it hits the ground. So I don't even know if I really need the filter for just straight watering purposes.

Thanks for the post on this topic. I ordered "Teaming with microbes" as well as some vericomposting books.


Ronnie

Decado, this is the one I was thinking of:
https://www.cleanairgardening.com/chlorine-filter.html

When spread out over the garden, the chlorinated water is probably safe enough since it will probably dissipate. However, I could see problems arising when it's placed in a bucket and is contained. Probably best to just let it sit.