Waste water for plant hydration?

Careful_with_that_Axe

After 7 years of no garden, I now have a small patch and am venturing back into growing various veg, flowers, shrubs etc.

I am a total scrooge when it comes to waste and I wondered whether I can use any waste water for the plants?

Things I am thinking of are water from cooking veg and washing up water only lightly contaminated with detergent.

I suspect the washing up water is a no, but what do people think about waste cooking water?

Many thanks for any help given.

stumpycat

Washing up water should be ok as long as you dilute it - eg put it in a water butt (though you'd have to use it pretty quick or it will be really pongy.
A tiny bit of detergent will act as plant food 'cos of the phosphate - that's what causes algal blooms. The only problem I could see with cooking water is if there was salt in it.

I did try & use bath water in the garden, but was in danger of breaking my neck carrying buckets of water downstairs! I might invest in a bath-to-water butt bit of plumbing at some point.

sillyvixen

due to flooding we were without mains water for 2 weeks, following the floods we had a nice hot spell (compansation for the floods) i managed to keep my potted veggies alive in the garden by using water left over from cooking, washing up and hand washing essential clothing... i had a fright one morning looking out the window one morning thinking magots had invaded my tomato plants (but then remebered i had watered them with the cooled water for the rice i had cooked the night before and it was grains of rice and not maggots in the pots!!) i also had not greenfly problems that year!!

ixwood

The water from cooking will have loads of vitamins and minerals in it, so it's good not to waste it.

You could also use it in a soup.

ixwood

It'll probably easier to get a rain butt though. No hassle collecting or storing the water then.

Careful_with_that_Axe

ixwood wrote: »

The water from cooking will have loads of vitamins and minerals in it, so it's good not to waste it.

You could also use it in a soup.

Once I'm more settled, I'll get back to cooking with the veg I'm growing, but I only moved in two weeks ago! At the moment, the garden is the priority over cooking

Thanks for all the replies - my gut feeling was that the cooking water would be OK, so it's nice to know that washing up water can be used with caution too. Water in this part of the country is hellish expensive, so I like to think none of it is wasted in this household.

Suzy_M

During the drought and hosepipe bans of 1976 we used all the waste water produced by a household of five adults on the garden. This included water from baths, washing-up and the washing machine (a good reason for not permanently plumbing in the waste pipe). The only water that wasn't used was the oily hand-washing water from the 'mechanics' in the family.

It was one of the best years for fruit and vegetable yield and also the various chemicals in the water seemed to keep the bugs at bay.

We only had two problems that year. -
One was losing teaspoons in the bottom of the water butt until the end of the summer - so a sieve on top of the butt is an essential.
The other was a neighbour reporting us to the water board for having a hosepipe connected to our first floor bathroom. This resulted in a visit from some water board official who having inspected the siphon setup almost fell down the stairs he was laughing so much!

The only main concern with using waste water is to water the soil around the plants and not the plants themselves. Though a little soapy water does help to deter greenfly etc.

Lotus-eater

ixwood wrote: »

The water from cooking will have loads of vitamins and minerals in it, so it's good not to waste it.

You could also use it in a soup.

Absolutely spot on. In one of my Bob Flowerdew books, he advises using this water as a fertiliser for plants. I have done for years.
I never put salt in with cooking veggies btw.

Le-y

i use the cooking water from veg also use my washing up water i have a bucket by the sink and i use the colander to strain out any "bits" that may have accumulated in the bowl.

My fruit and veg are whopping and taste yummy so presumably it works lol!

Have asked my dh to save the bath water next time as he doesnt use bubbles or anything

I was getting really paranoid about the amount of water we were using so decided to take measures against it glad i did now.