Rain Barrels

[kenny_j]

Hello friends and fellow T'villers. Last year I donated a bunch of plants that I had left over to a local garden club. They were just starting up, building raised beds and donating produce to community share, so I joined and got involved and have been having a great time with new friends- alas my scarcity of posts here. They got a bunch of food grade plastic barrels to use as "rain barrels" mostly filled by hose, not rain. The barrels have lids on them for safety reasons, and some of the folks are worried about anerobic bacterial problems in the water, and want to cut holes in the lids and cover with screen. It doesn't seem to me this would be necessary. Water is taken out by buckets dipped in and poured on the gardens at least a couple times a week, maybe more often. Does anyone have any experience in this area? I don't want to see a bunch of uneccessary work done by volunteers that are hard to come by (me!) Any opinions welcome on this matter.

kj

[Labradors2]

I have some experience in making and using rain barrels and I would have more concerns about water collected from the roof being contaminated with petrochemicals. I only use roof water for my ornamental plants.

Our veggie garden is a long way away from the house, but close to our huge pond. To save me having to fill watering cans from the pond, hubby set up two huge plastic drums (and installed taps on them) close to the garden. He fills them up by pumping pond water through the small filler hole in the top of each barrel and the filler is then replaced to keep out mosquitoes.

My garden has not suffered in any way from this stored pond water which I use all summer, and I think your group is worrying unnecessarily and looking for extra work for you to do!

Cheers,
Linda

[Durgan]

http://www.durgan.org/URL/?SSCLP 22 March 2012 Rainwater barrels connected to downspout.
The four drums connected to the house downspout. There is a total of 200 US gallons of water. The connections are removed in the Fall and the barrels emptied to prevent freezing.

http://www.durgan.org/URL/?SCEIG 17 May 2012 Transporting Water
My yard is large and it is necessary to transport water from my four 45 gallon drums rainwater to the plant area. The rainwater is run into a 45 gallon drum and had dipped by pail into the wheelbarrow. I have four collection barrels two on each side of the house.A milk crate is placed in the wheelbarrow, and this inhibits wave action and spillage, when wheeling to the plant area. The wheelbarrow hold about 90 litres of water. This method is much easier than carrying two 20 litre buckets each trip. The pail used for dispensing is perfect for dumping the water on the roots of bush plants, and the water can be placed in a watering can for more delicate situations. Using this method I find watering a pleasure, quick and not onerous.

http://www.durgan.org/URL/?XRXAU 21 June 2012 Watering Methods.
I seldom water except for very young plants, and extreme dry conditions. I don’t have a sprinkler on the property, and consider them inefficient and not very effective, except for watering grass. I never water grass. To inhibit moisture loss from hot Sun evaporation all areas of the garden are mulched with wood chips.

Usually I utilize my four barrels of rain water. The wheelbarrow is used to transport the rainwater to the garden area, utilizing a milk cartoon carrier(or egg carton carrier)as a baffle to prevent spillage due to wave action when moving the wheelbarrow.

In extreme dry conditions it is necessary to use tap water.The tap water is delivered to the plant root system using a water wand cut off and pushed into the requires area. I call it the Magic Water Wand. In the main garden it is quick to walk along a row and push the wand into the ground every few feet and get the water to roots, where it is required.The foliage is not wetted, and there is little wastage of water.

[Worth1]

I think you need to do it just for the extra work.

Really I can't see the reasoning behind it folks used to drink from wooden barrels.
We store water in our work truck in plastic water jugs to drink out of.
This water is used and refilled about every two weeks.
Just keep the dippers clean or better yet put spigots on them.

Worth

[Doug9345]

First of all they aren't setting for months on end. The water shouldn't contain enough organic material to support much bacteria to start with and most likely the water contains disinfectants.

Between storage tanks, towers and water mains, the water has already spent a great deal of time in anaerobic conditions without harm.

I've also had gallon jugs of tap water, both well and city, for two or three months in the care and it was perfectly drinkable. With all that, I don't see you or rather them needing to be concerned.

In fact I think it very well could make the problem worse as bugs get in to get water and mosquitoes in particular to breed. Rain will wash dirt off the lid into the open barrel. Then there is the person that takes a little bit of coffee with their cream and sugar setting, the cup on the barrel, and it getting tipped over.

[Worth1]

If you saw what settled out in you city water mains you would croak.

Worth

[Doug9345]

Nah. I've seen the result of them either flushing the mains where they stir up the mess, or there is a large fire that puts a large demand on a small system.

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by Doug9345

Nah. I've seen the result of them either flushing the mains where they stir up the mess, or there is a large fire that puts a large demand on a small system.

Well not you but some of the folks that think their city water lines are pristine and pure.

The new plastic/PVC lines are much better at not harboring bacteria than the old steel ones.

I won't post tbe links to the research but you can find it easy enough.

Due to friendly aguments at work on PVC I had to to prove the point.
One of the worst culprits for contamination of water lines is running the gpm past around 5 feet per second.
This will cause the water to scrub out any pipe cuase leaks water hammer and contamination.

Worth