toxicblue green algae

buildersdaughter

Hello all, I usually hang out on the Old Style board, but have a specific question.

I have a brook at the bottom of my garden, and lower buckets into it to water my deep bed (vegetables, salad stuff etc). This year, fo the first time in memory, there is a toxic algae warning on the water in the brook.
Does anyone know if I could still throw it on my deep bed without risking poisoning us?

Many thanks for considering.

madjackslam

Couple of thoughts...

Who put the warning up? Can you contact them? I wonder whether they've put it up to cover themselves in case there are toxic algae, or whether they have actually found some evidence.

Until you know, I'd be inclined not to use it for salad crops and the like. Might risk it on potatoes/roots though. But it's personal choice. Wikipedia isn't much help, although this sentence is interesting:

Agricultural officials in Utah worried that even crops could become contaminated if irrigated with toxic water, although they admit that they can't measure contamination accurately because of so many variables in farming. They issued warnings to residents, however, out of caution.

buildersdaughter

Yes I do, and yes, it has been measured. Thank you for your thoughts, which echo mine.