Water Butt?

[broadway]

Both my butts are now full! I was gonna decant it into 2 black bins but my feeling is they will be full again by the end of the month. I suppose you gather as much as you can?

[piskieinboots]

I'm picking two of these up later today - thanks for the tip Danny, they look ideal

[TonyF]

Bestest thing ever is water butts. Obviously I can't buy from Wilcos etc but atm, I have 2,200 litres of water stored in various places round the garden and use a small submersible pump to move it from the collection points - gutters and downpipes - to the reserve 'stations' round the garden as I need to.

[piskieinboots]

being new to butts - how often (and how) do you clean them out?

[jackie j]

Never thought about cleaning mine out, I have recently emptied mine and moved it to the lottie. It has had the lid on and we hadnt connected it to anything and it was full up. We will be linking it to the shed to collect the water.

Just checked home delivery out of stock 5 left in Exeter guildhall store for this area.

[piskieinboots]

We discussed water last week at College and Teach says 'you should clean it out, even if it is lidded' - so I just wondered who does, how often and what to use

[rana]

If water is left in the butt for more than a few months unchanged it is likely to start to smell as bacteria multiply. Eventually the water will stink of rotten eggs. It is a particularly revolting smell....

I clean my butts every 6-8 weeks by rinsing and brushing with a weak solution of bleach. Seems to do the trick and the plants haven't complained.

[jackie j]

I dont use that much water especially at the moment. Mine has never smelt and it was there for ages more than a year. I never use it on seeds or seedlings.