Allotments 4 All

Hiya,

I'm wondering how you can keep rain water fresh.

I don't have a water butt because i live in a flat, so I normally put a bucket under the hole in the drainpipe to collect enough water to water my orchids and my house plants, which also seem to require rain water otherwise they have adverse effects.

however coming to summer, and hoping it's not like 2007, i need water to last longer....and need it more often.

i've tried looking on google....but can't find anything that's too helpful.

thanks :)

Put a piece of charcoal in the water

oh ok thanks!

do you know how long it will keep it fresh for?

We put a few drops of jeyes fluid in the water butts :)
Debbie

Charcoal in the water?  ???

Could you explain please I would love to know how this works

Charcoal is carbon.  Activated charcoal is charcoal that has been treated with oxygen to open up millions of tiny pores between the carbon atoms.

The use of special manufacturing techniques results in highly porous charcoals that have surface areas of 300-2,000 square metres per gram. These so-called active, or activated, charcoals are widely used to adsorb odorous or coloured substances from gases or liquids.
The word adsorb is important here. When a material adsorbs something, it attaches to it by chemical attraction. The huge surface area of activated charcoal gives it countless bonding sites. When certain chemicals pass next to the carbon surface, they attach to the surface and are trapped.

Activated charcoal is good at trapping other carbon-based impurities ("organic" chemicals), as well as things like chlorine. Many other chemicals are not attracted to carbon at all -- sodium, nitrates, etc. -- so they pass right through. This means that  activated charcoal will remove certain impurities while ignoring others. It also means that, once all of the bonding sites are filled, activated charcoal stops working.

;)

PS you can buy activated charcoal from pet shops as it is used to fish tanks

Activated charcoal when dirty can be encouraged to release the dirt (recharged) by removing it from the water and placing it in a strong salt water solution for a couple of hours

Hi Wahaj, Hi all  :)

Try keeping your bucket shaded and with a tight fitting lid on.

You could pour it into other sealed containers stored in a cool spot

when your bucket is full.

Col