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Renewable Energy for the Home

How do you to keep rain catchment sanitary?

19 years ago

We've been warned that the water can get really funky if not used often. Has anyone had this experience or know of a way to sanitize the water? Our barrels will not be easely accessed.

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Comments (13)

Brewbeer
19 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Is this drinking water we are talking about?
bluerem
Original Author
19 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
We're planning to use if for watering lawn and plants.
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How often do you water with no rain?
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I don't water on a schedule of any sort. I just water the plants when they look dry. We have all kinds of soil on our property and some of it retains water much longer than the soil in other areas, so that some of it needs water more often and other areas need water much less often. The age of the plants has a lot to do with how often a plant needs water too. Plants that have been in the ground for three full years or longer are generally much more well-established than younger plants and go a lot longer in between waterings. In the veggie garden, every raised bed drains differently because the soil at one end of the garden has more sand and drains more quickly, while soil at the other end has a lot more clay and drains more slowly. So, I just watch the beds and water the plants in any given bed when they look like they need it. I keep my beds heavily mulched and only water with a hand held hose, soaker hoses or drip irrigation. I don't like using overhead irrigation via sprinklers because of the evaporation rate, and because wet foliage is prone to diseases. At the lower end of the garden, for example, tomato plants transplanted into a raised bed in early April are very well established in soil that is well amended but still has a heavy clay content. They also are very heavily-mulched. They get deep watering once every 5 to 7 days when no rain is falling at this time of year. By contrast, at the upper end of the garden, I just put in a row of melons, a row of okra and two rows of bush lima beans (all from transplants) when I dug potatoes this weekend. They are in a bed with a lot more sand mixed in with the clay, so right now they are getting watered every day until they have established and are putting out new growth. After that, as they grow and become more well-established, I'll be able to water less often, especially after they're tall enough that I can pile up heaps of mulch which, right now, would bury the small plants. All our trees and shrubs are well-established, so they and the lawn get watered once every couple of weeks. Back when I first planted them years ago, I probably watered them about once or twice a week depending on how dry it was. The bermuda grass lawn gets water only if it gets it "accidentally" when I am watering the shrub and tree beds or the perennial beds. I hate the bermuda grass and deliberately withhold water from it hoping it will die. So far it hasn't. If grass fires start happening in our neighborhood and I've let the bermda grass go dormant and turn brown (which is occurring right now), I'll start watering it again to green it up. We have soaker hoses on the ground around our foundation and water the foundation area religiously to avoid having the dense red clay soil crack and make the foundation crack along with it. I'd rather have a higher water bill every month than have to pay for expensive foundation repair. May was very nice. We had almost 6" of rain and hardly had to water at all. Our water bill was like a mid-winter water bill. June is a completely different story. Like Carol, I have to water containers every day, so I planted a lot fewer containers this year than usual because I was expecting drought and didn't want to have to water containers endlessly. Right now the container-grown tomatoes are happy with once-a-day watering, but if it gets much hotter, they'll be needing it twice a day. If this heat wave doesn't break soon, I'm going to start putting shadecloth up over the tomatoes. It sure seems early to do that, but it is so hot here. If you look at the Mesonet soil moisture levels, our county looks great, but I think the moisture sensors must be malfunctioning. I dug potatoes all weekend, so I dug down about 6 to 8 inches below grade level in those beds, and the soil was dry, dry, dry. From looking at the mesonet soil moisture charts, you'd think the soil was nice and moist, which it absolutely is not. I spent minimal time in the garden early this morning, planting a row of red sunflowers and watering the news transplants, and pulling a few weeds. Then, I ran errands, cleaned house and waited for the internet service company service reps to come check our wireless antenna. (They replaced a wire and I'm hoping that will put a halt to our recent internet service issues.) It is so hot that today seemed like a good day to be doing "inside chores". Tomorrow I hope to get outside early and spend two or three hours harvesting, weeding and adding another layer of mulch to some of the beds. Because we had good rainfall in May, I haven't had to water a whole lot yet, but as the soil dries up and our rain chances seem very slim, I expect I'll be watering more and more. In hot, dry summers I am very careful to avoid over-feeding and over-watering because the last thing I want is plants with tons of lush growth that demand lots and lots of water to keep them looking good. A lot of the gardeners here in Love County stop watering at the end of June amd just let their veggie gardens die. It is an economic decision where they compare what they're spending watering versus what they are harvesting and decide whether they are harvesting enough to make the watering worthwhile. I have done that during years with Extreme or Exceptional dought,but if we're only Abnormally Dry or in Moderate Drought, I tend to get good enough production that the watering is worthwhile to me. Dawn
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Jay......Rain Rain.....Are You Doing A Rain Dance?
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Comments (17)
Game bird, This is the first year any of us have tried Candy Apple Red since it is the first year Dixondale has offered them, so I am curious to see how they do. Mine are about the same size as yours, but I haven't harvested yet, so they might get a bit larger. Of course, nothing in my garden is a good indicator this year because the 12" of rain that fell in one day at the end of April absolutely halted all apparent growth for 4 weeks or longer, so my entire garden is stunted compared to last year. Still, as long they they taste good, that's what matters. I intend to try them again next year and will hope for a more typical spring growing season so I'll know how they perform under "average" conditions. When Ruth Stout was trying to interest people in mulch gardening, she was sort of out there on her own. I sort of thought of her as "a lone voice crying in the wilderness". Now, of course, she looks positively phophetic During her time, the gardening fad was all the chemicals developed after WWII---chemical pesticides, chemical fertilizers, etc. She persevered and stuck to her guns about soil improvement and mulching, and she was right. I think Jay must have fantastic soil too, plus he works very, very hard. I cannot imagine trying to grow everything he grows in his semi-desert conditions. We are in our 11th year here and the areas that I've been improving and mulching for that time frame do not even look like the soil I started with, and that is despite repeated droughts that have baked the ground to a concrete-hard consistency over and over and over again. Except for the first 2 or 3 years when I amended heavily, all I've done is mulch, mulch, mulch. The difference in the soil is amazing. The formerly red clay that was so hard and sticky that you couldn't even break it up with a fork or mattock is now a milk chocolate brown colored sandy loam and has improved beyond my wildest dreams. Even in the pathways where I routinely mulch, the soil is so different from what we started with. Nowadays, I only improve soil by adding amendments the first year that I break up new ground. After that, it is all just stuff that's layered on top of the ground as mulch and time, Mother Nature and the earthworms do the rest. When we moved here, we had a tremendous issue with Cotton Root Rot, a soil-borne disease that affects thousands of different plants and folks who live here told me I'd never be able to overcome it and grow what I wanted to grow. After the first three years of soil amending, though, the CRR has never reared its ugly head again and I plant what I want in that soil, including many plants that you "cannot" grow if you have CRR. So, I think well-amended and well-enriched soil can overcome almost anything. Like you with the wood chips, I find that no matter how much mulch I put out, pile up and spread around, it is never enough and I always want more. We have to remember that "heat eats compost" and here in OK, it gobbles it up and breaks it down almost more quickly than we can add it. So, mulching is just a great way to keep replenishing what is being used up, and it keeps the soil so much cooler underneath the mulch which helps the plants too. Wheelbarrow time will build muscles and help give you a tan! Of course, the front end loaded was a mulch more efficient way to do it. Jay, I can relate! When the drought of 2005-2006 finally broke and we had a simply luscious summertime late afternoon thunderstorm, Tim and I sat out on the covered patio for 2 or 3 hours and watching it rain and listened to the thunder and watching the lightning. We also watched the frogs come out of "hiding" and play all over the yard and in the puddles. Later on, we spoke to several different neighbors and discovered they all were doing pretty much the same thing....watching the rain and the frogs. We all joked that it doesn't take much to entertain us here in Love County, but I'm telling you, we were so starved for rain at that point that nothing was more important than seeing that rain fall. I hope you get to enjoy every minute of the rain and hope it is falling at your mom's place too. I'm looking forward to hearing about your onion results. Except for being too dry, you've probably had the most "typical" or "average" weather of all of us. I don't know what the rain has done to everyone else's onions, but it almost killed mine. I was just looking at the garden earlier this week and marveling at how good it looks, considering that I thought the flooding rains might kill everything in it. I hope you're out playing or working in the rain, or at least spent some time sitting on the porch with a cup of coffee enjoying that strange phenomenon of liquid falling from the sky! Dawn
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Nancy in Mich
19 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
My rainbarrel has an unpleasant smell after a week or two of no rain, so I am very interested in this, too. Anybody have info?
Cheannbal
19 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I haven't noticed any odour from my rain barrel. I've covered the screen on the catchment tray with landscaping cloth -- mostly to prevent mosquitos from procreating (I live in West Nile country). I have found that the landscaping cloth also prevents all the flotsam from the roof from entering and, eventually I guess, decaying in the water. Perhaps this is keeping the odour down?

Cheryl
leeshu
19 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
The Texas Water Development Board published a great article/brochure about rain water harvesting. It has ALL information you would need to know, INCLUDING detailed instructions on how to sanitize the water. Here is a link!

Here is a link that might be useful: Rain Water Harvesting Brochure
rainwater1
19 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
What is your storage tank made of? What is your roof made of? My husband and I use rainwater for everything including drinking water. We have a 2800 gal. collection tank which gravity feeds to a 2800 gal. supply tank. We now live here year round but when we were moving seasonally this water would sit for months on end. Not only did it never smell but it was tested by the National Park Service water people and was found to be incredibly pure and safe! These samples were taken from our kitchen and bathroom faucets. Friends had their collection supply tested (no filters, no treatments at all) and these tests too showed the water to be of amazingly good quality. We use dark green plastic tanks which don't encourage growth of algae, etc. We also have it set up so the first 5 gals. or so from each rain don't go into the collection tank providing a rinse. Metal roofs also minimize what impurities may collect on a roof.
bluerem
Original Author
19 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
rainwater1--I don't know what the storage tanks are made of but they look like plastic. I think they are probably standard. Three are black and one is blue. I wanted a metal roof but got out-voted so now it's cedar shake. We plan to use water for plants and not drinking water. I've been hearing about recycling water from the dishwasher and the clothers washer for watering as well. Have you heard about this by any chance?
gina_j
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I'm interested, too. We're about to put in a rain barrel and want to make sure our yard doesn't turn stinky!
grainlady_ks
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
After 3 years using our system (1,000-gallons in 9 containers of various sizes and styles), the only problems we encountered with "stinky" rain barrel water was from the white/opaque containers we installed, but there wasn't any problem using it for yard/garden/plants. What happens in white barrels - algae growth from exposure to light. This can also happen in "open" containers if sunlight can filter into the containers through the opening on the top. Turn-over of the water will also help keep it clean - you need to use from the containers so each rain it's replaced with fresh water.

The first year we went through the algae challenge we put barley bales in the white containers. Barley bails (a burlap "pillow" filled with barley straw) are often used in horse tanks or ponds to control the algae growth, and it worked fairly well. We bought them at a farm supply store. The next year we painted the barrels and eliminated the problem. We purchased a special paint and primer from Sherwin Williams especially for use on plastic containers, in a color that matches our house color. Make sure you scuff the surface of the smooth plastic so the paint sticks better.

Our first container was purchased from a farm supply store (210-gallons). The large container is designed for use in the back of pick-up trucks, but we painted the elliptical-shaped container into a giant lady bug using cans of spray paint made for plastic - so have fun decorating your barrels.

BTW - don't purchase containers you can't easily handle because you need to be able to clean them. Farm supply stores have a good assortment of containers and you can get more bang-for-your-buck if you choose containers larger than the typical 50-gallon containers. We link two (or more) 50-gallon barrels together to be fed from one downspout, where there is a large run of gutter to support multiple barrels. It takes about 1/4-inch of rain to fill a 50-gallon barrel at our house. But it doesn't take very long to empty it....(LOL)

We remove our containers from the concrete blocks they are placed on and power wash them each fall, give them a soda-water bath and a good rinse after we disconnect them for the winter.

Our containers are "closed". This prevents loosing the water through evaporation and helps keep them fairly clean and "wildlife" out.

The link below shows the type of downspout diverter we use in order to have closed containers.

If you are new to rain barrels, don't forget the higher off the ground you place them, the more pressure you will get from gravity feed. If you plan to use soaker hoses for lawn or garden watering, place the containers up above grade on at least one or two coarses of concrete blocks or a platform. If you use a system where there is an overflow hose on the container, make sure it ejects AWAY from your house foundation.

I also have a solar pump I use to feed rain barrel water to the drip irrigation in my vegetable/herb garden and our landscape plants. Saves having to hand-water, although I keep a watering can at every barrel.

-Grainlady

Here is a link that might be useful: Gardener's Supply - downspout diverter
nhurrelbrinck_gmail_com
13 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I realize this is an old thread, but I just became the proud owner of 6 translucent 275-gallon tanks, and I'm thinking about painting them to minimize algae growth. It sounds like a lot of work. Grainlady, is your paint job holding up? Did you use spray paint? Any idea whether a low-VOC acrylic latex spray paint would work?

Thanks a lot!
Nancy
higgins
13 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Hasn't been a problem. Installed a 1,200 gallon underground tank (septic Tank) and use a shallow well pump to pump water out to my five water stations!

We use septic field drop boxes to collect junk! Haven't washed out tank as yet!
User
13 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I have a question:

For free, I got two 55 gallon white/opaque plastic barrels from the local car wash. They used to hold the soap solution. I've cleaned them out a few times, but they still have a lingering scent of soap.

Since I plan on only using them to water plants, will the soap be harmful?
robertsolar
13 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I store my barrels (6m3) in the dark cellar. No smell without any treatment.

Here is a link that might be useful: barrels

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