Watering edible veg with water butt water?

[sandspider]

Hi all

Just been out to water my plants, when I had a thought. I'm watering them with water from my water butt, and it's getting a bit smelly / murky. (Even though it's been topped up regularly with fresh rain). Should I be eating fruit & veg that I water with this water?

I did eat a small quantity of produce I grew with it last year, but I'm growing more this year and wonder if I shouldn't!

I suppose the plants will just take what they need from the water and the rest (including the smelly bits) will run away, but I'd like to be reassured...?

Many thanks.

[taff]

water butts are for watering your veg with!!
it will get smelly/murky, it's not aerated like fishtanks, so algae will grow etc, but that's fine, all extra nutrients for your veg.

[rustylady]

Water butt water is fine for fruit and veg. What you need to avoid is water with chemicals in.

[Pies]

If you have doubts just wash the veg when you prepare to eat it

[Snadger]

*Wonders* Has the recent e coli threat brought about this way of thinking?

[Jardiniere]

you could technically get legionnaire's disease from butt water cos its been standing about and legionnaire's bugs are in most standing water BUT you would have to spray it out and then breathe the spray in....and i'm not aware of any outbreaks relating to gardens....

[taff]

I like that
scare with one hand, soothe with the other

[Zenithtb]

Mine get watered with waste water from the washing machine... And swimming pool water that has chlorine in it... It's all good!

[JamesM]

I water mine with fish tank water and am still holding it all together so far! I read other posts from people on here saying they use bath water etc etc which i wouldn't be sure about with all shampoo/shower gel in it but they seemed to say fairly clearly that it did their bits and pieces no harm

[King Carrot]

Mine get watered with waste water from the washing machine... And swimming pool water that has chlorine in it... It's all good!

I'm not so sure about the chlorine and of course it depends on the concentration but I happen to think it might do quite a bit of damage to the health of your soil.

[sandspider]

Thanks one and all, I'll keep calm and carry on then!

It wasn't the e-coli scare that bought it up, it was the smell of the water when I went to fill the watering can :s

[gojiberry]

You should try smelling my water but with the comfrey in it. Especially a couple of weeks after a plant top up.
I also have another one with chicken pellets in which is just as bad.

Ian

[Maccabee]

^^ And then of course there's manure. Bad smells don't seem to be a problem as far as gardening is concerned (although i quite like the smell of manure). If you bothered about the smell you could buy one of those cleaner things.

edit

FreshaTank Microbial Disc
http://www.waterbuttsdirect.co.uk/other.htm

[Flummery]

I don't use it on seedlings (in case of damping off disease) but anything big enough to look after itself gets water butt water when there is any!

[Zenithtb]

(The chlorine in the swimming pool is low enough that the dogs happily drink it rather than go to their water bowl!)