Grey (washing machine) water harvest for plants?

[A Life Less Simple]

I am trying to work out if I can use the water from my washing machine on my garden plants as everything is so dry at the moment.

I use homemade laundry 'gloop' instead of washing powder which is soda crystals, plain unscented soup and water and my washing machine uses approx 49liters of water per load without a pre-wash with a tea (one of those little cups, not a mug) cup of gloop.

I didn't want to use it on seedlings but thought it might be ok for bigger squash and potatoes once they are growing, anyone have any thoughts about it?

[Nicos]

We've been thinking about this for when we re-do our main kitchen

Have a look at some of these sites...

Watering Gardens with Gray Water: Use Recycled Household Water for Environmental Benefits | Suite101.com

NB- this bit....If you must use gray water on food plants, apply the water only to the soil, and apply to plants such as corn, tomatoes, broccoli, or other vegetables whose fruit grow above ground. Do not apply gray water to root crops such as potatoes, or leafy vegetables.


actually- there's tons of into if you do a bit of googling!

[A Life Less Simple]

Thank you Nicos!

Sounds like it might be ok for squash plants then, and beans I guess, which will be handy

[Two_Sheds]

I use homemade laundry 'gloop' ...which is soda crystals, plain unscented soup

lol


I use gray (bath) water on my flower beds, but not on the edibles. Gray water is going to have bacteria in it and you don't want to get that on any leafy veg that you'd eat. Having said that, there are mice & birds and things pooping all over the lotty every day

I guess it going to the roots of fruiting plants wouldn't give you a problem though (it'd surely kill the plant before it killed you?)