Pool water for house plants

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iSmile

iSmile

0
LifeTime Supporter
Jun 24, 2012
84
Indiana
Pool Size
18700
Surface
Vinyl
Chlorine
Liquid Chlorine
Any botanists in the house? I don't mind being a pool ignoramus, so why not show my true colors? LOL! The reason I wonder about this is I try very hard to conserve water at our house. Anytime someone leaves a portion of drinking water unused, for example, I throw it on a potted plant, rather than down the drain. And now that I am testing pool water each day, I find myself debating what to do with the excess pool water I carried in. House plants can obviously handle some chlorine, as those on city water have no choice, but how much? Or could the CYA be harmful? My pool water runs about 3-6 ppm chlorine, and the bleach, stabilizer, and muratic acid are the only things I've added. Would it hurt my plants? By the way, all of my house plants, should this post alone not tell you, are in the hard-to-kill category. ;) and yes, I know I could walk myself back out there and dump it back in the pool, but I'm lazy!


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You can easily dechlorinate the water with a reducing agent, but that's not the main problem with pool water as far as plants are concerned. The biggest problem is the salt level as not all plants are salt tolerant. Also, if you have used 50 ppm Borates in our pool, that's not good for many plants either (the same is true for most other algaecides -- remember that green algae is a single-celled or colonial-celled type of plant). If you mix (dilute) the pool water with other water to get the salt (and Borates) levels lower, then plants will be able to tolerate more. Some people do this when they backwash into a garden by running sprinklers or a tap water hose after doing so.
 
I don't think the Borates would pose a problem. Isn't Solubor an agricultural product? Gramps used to mix a tablespoon of borax for every 2 gallons of water for his plants during dry spells. Claimed it helped the plants tolerate drought conditions. Never did it more than a couple times a month.
 
Awe bummer tlwilson :( any chance it was the salt or borates? I have neither in my pool, so I'm hoping I haven't already poisoned my subject. Two days is fast!


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Hardly any LOL, maybe half cup? So we are not talking about a full diet of pool water. It is would be similar to the "sips" I give them from leftover water bottles and drinking glasses.


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How many plants? Only 1? Maybe too much pool water every day. 100? Work it around the whole group, they get 1/2 cup every 100 days. Not much in the scheme of things.

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Heavens, no! :) I have 3 that have stuck it out with me for years and one little guy that gets killed off and replaced regularly... And most likely to receive random doses of pool water because of location.

Again, this idea popped in my head out of my shear laziness. If any additional process or even thought must be involved, I'll continue pouring it down the drain.

But that is just me. Some other TFPer might want to search this topic one day, so if there is an answer out there...


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ismile, I had a bit pot full of petunias close to the pool, so I dipped a bucket into the pool and poured in a bunch of water. The petunias were not very forgiving of my laziness! :hammer: I'm not on a SWG and I haven't added borates.
 
iSmile -

I think you need more plants! :lol:

I have only 1 philodendron, it lives in my kitchen window and am very happy to announce that it
has survived my care for at least 6 months! This is quite the milestone for me . . . I can kill cactus.
Yep, deader than a door nail! :roll:
 
yeggim said:
I don't think the Borates would pose a problem. Isn't Solubor an agricultural product? Gramps used to mix a tablespoon of borax for every 2 gallons of water for his plants during dry spells. Claimed it helped the plants tolerate drought conditions. Never did it more than a couple times a month.
Click to expand...
It's all about concentration. Borax is added at a rate of around 1 pound per acre. See this link that noted the following:

A 10 mg boron/litre solution produced optimum cell division and elongation of the root tip; however, 50 mg boron/litre caused a reduction in mitosis within 24 h.
:
At 10.0 mg boron/litre, a slight yellowing of the tips of the needles developed, followed by browning and drying at 20.0 mg/litre, until all plants died at 40.0 mg/litre. Ludbrook (1942) concluded that the optimum growth range for Monterey pine was 0.05-5.0 mg boron/litre.
:
Shopova et al. (1981) found that concentrations of 16, 24, and 32 mg boron/kg soil resulted in a decline in plant development, yellowing of leaves, late flowering, reduction of mitotic frequency in root tip cells, and abnormalities during meiosis in the poppy (Papaver somniferum).
Click to expand...
With chemicals, concentration means everything. One time doses that later get diluted with additional watering are probably not a problem, but regular watering using 50 ppm Borate water from pools could be a problem.
 
Taterfink said:
iSmile -

I think you need more plants! :lol:

I have only 1 philodendron, it lives in my kitchen window and am very happy to announce that it
has survived my care for at least 6 months! This is quite the milestone for me . . . I can kill cactus.
Yep, deader than a door nail! :roll:
Click to expand...


That's a running joke at our house! (I killed a cactus!) I am much better at outdoor plants, that nature helps me water!
 
chem geek said:
With chemicals, concentration means everything.
Click to expand...

It was with this very thought in mind that I was hoping to find out how much chlorine a typical houseplant can regularly tolerate. 3ppm? 5?

Is the CYA presence a factor to consider?


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The CYA will just slow down the rate of reactions of chlorine, but in terms of impact it's the FC that matters. However, the chlorine will readily react with chemicals in the soil so would not get into plants directly and the chlorinated compounds from soil shouldn't be a problem for plants. Basically, you don't have to worry about the chlorine. What you need to worry about is the salt level as not all plants are salt tolerant and the salt level in pools is much higher than tap water (and of course much higher than rain water).
 
chem geek said:
What you need to worry about is the salt level as not all plants are salt tolerant and the salt level in pools is much higher than tap water (and of course much higher than rain water).
Click to expand...

Is this because salt is a byproduct of something going on in the pool? Not all of us have specifically added any, and petunias have died!


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