Allotment Stuff > The Basics

Water in the Water Butt

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Digeroo:
A bit of barley straw stops formation of blue green algae.  You do not need much a few bales is enough for a lake.

woodypecks:
Thanks everyone ...Yes it is rain water in the water butt . I have decided that just in case I will use it up on my non-edible plants , and hopefully we should get some rain on Sunday that will re-fill it  . Cleaning it out is going to be very difficult as it is all connected up to the gutter .
Thanks for all your ideas .  :coffee2: Debbie 

small:
It's never occurred to me to clean out my water butts..... they are a bit mucky-looking at the bottom but not smelly, I certainly don't think the age of the water comes into it. Up till about a month ago I was using water from our drainage ditches, which was always greenish and full of bits, but it didn't hurt any of the veg I used it on. Perhaps I'm not fussy enough.

Vinlander:
Smelly water is usually "eutrophic" - too much dissolved nitrate and/or too little dissolved oxygen gas has damaged its ecosystem. Amphibians are winners in this environment - newts and surface insects can help a lot - just use very common ones.

The quickest way to lose gas from water is to heat it up - all gases are more soluble in cold water (though alkaline water  absorbing carbon dioxide is a different, more powerful effect) so if the tank is in sun the oxygen you want will disappear much faster (so will the chlorine, but frankly UK water hardly ever holds enough long enough to damage anything except bacteria).

If it is nitrates then that's fertiliser (there's more in rain from thunderstorms). All dead stuff is fertiliser. All plants love both, and so do the soil organisms that will rapidly deal with the rotten smell and all its ill effects.

I always use smelly water (including pond- bottom slime) on whatever I want to grow fastest - ie. my veg. But do keep it off any leaves you are planning to eat that week.

Cheers.

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