Newbie Question on watering

Sun May 31, 2009 11:29 pm

Can you use black or grey water on vegetable gardens and does it affect the vegetables

Sun May 31, 2009 11:44 pm

I would say it greatly depends what made it black or grey. Do you know?

Mon Jun 01, 2009 12:33 am

I agree: how "used" and with what is the water?

The answer is also affected by whether or not the grey/black (?) water will be used on edible plants or on ornamentals only.

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9

Mon Jun 01, 2009 12:51 am

dish water primarily

Mon Jun 01, 2009 1:13 am

I think you're ok on dishwater and washing machine water with most detergents.

I know it's legal in most inland waters for me to run my sink drains on my boat straight into the water. It is not legal to run the water from my toilet into any waters [fresh or salt] within 3 miles of the U.S. coast unless its's been treated in an approved treatment system and sometimes not even then. For boats and RVs, grey water is sinks. black is toilet.

What's your situation? We're in the country and the washing machine has drained into the yard for 50 years with no ill effects. It doesn't drain straight into the garden but iy's not too far away.