Help! Swimming pool water in soil!

[lunaviker]

My father-in-law accidentally left our swimming pool tap on and our pool overflowed a couple weeks ago. For a few hours the overflow gushed all over the area where my container vegetables/fruit were sitting, including two tomatoes in geo pots and six other plants (melons and winter squashes) in 5-gallon plastic pots. The soil in the geo pots appeared to be saturated with pool water up about 4" from the bottom; I couldn't tell how far the chlorinated water went up the plastic pots.

I'm wondering if having the chlorine in the bottom of each pot will harm the plants eventually. Should I repot all the plants? They're really starting to get established and I'd hate to lose them. Thanks for any advice anyone can give.

[valley]

Hi, The pots didn't stand in the water? Unless they got a good gulp of very chlorinated water. I think you're good.

Richard

[!potatoes!]

if they haven't reacted badly yet, you're probably fine. any chlorine from a couple weeks ago is likely long evaporated.

[Lindsaylew82]

Even in LOTS of water, chlorine dissipates to near zero after 24 hours.

[lunaviker]

Thanks for the insight, everyone! Good to know about the quick evaporation rate of chlorine. The pots did stand in a couple inches of water for those few hours; the overflow was so great that it created a swirling pool of water, which saturated the pots from the ground up.

The good news is all the plants seem to be behaving normally, and there is fruit forming on my squash.

On a related note, the other question I forgot to post was that the chlorinated water also saturated a few inches up a 2 cubic foot bag of soil and some paper boxes of bone meal. Based on the quick dissipation rate, I'm assuming that it's still safe to use these for planting other container veggies?

[applestar]

I think chlorine would have killed soil microorganisms and possibly worms though they may just have skidaddled. So going forward, if you are trying to stay organic, I would try to repopulate by adding a layer of good quality compost and mulching the general area with organic mulch to invite the worms back.

[lunaviker]

Thanks for the suggestion! Much appreciated.