Borates and Poolside Plants

[sbcpool]

Boron can be toxic for plants, so I was wondering if anybody using borates had experienced any issues with poolside plants.

Sorry if I don't respond right away, the board software refuses to send emails to my domain so I don't get notifications when replies are received.

 

[Divin Dave]

HI spcpool,
welcome to TFP! I cant answer your question, but maybe someone will be along shortly that can.

 

[chem geek]

If your splash-out is limited and you are regularly watering your poolside plants with regular irrigation, then they should be OK due to the dilution of the splashed-out boron. If you were to water exclusively with the pool water, then that would be a problem for plants. See Pool water for house plants, BBB toxic to grass, and this document.

 

[JasonLion]

Your mail server is bounding the messages back to us. For example:

<[email protected]>: host mail0.XYZZYpuppy.com[50.17.NNN.NNN]
said: 550 5.1.1 <[email protected]>: Recipient address
rejected: User unknown in virtual mailbox table (in reply to RCPT TO
command)
[Some substitutions made to hide details.]

The same thing happens if I send the mail manually.

 

[sbcpool]

Unfortunately, I live in that arid environment and my landscaping is exclusively drought-tolerant plants that receive little to no irrigation at all. Sounds like boron would be a problem near the pool.

 

[chem geek]

Yes, you would be taking a risk. It might be OK, but it might not and we really can't tell you for sure either way. Do you really get that much splash-out? It all depends on the height and design of your coping. In our pool, we get hardly any splash-out at all. We have an overflow vault that has water go to the sewer but that's because we have an automatic electric safety cover. Then again, we don't have kids in the pool who could splash a lot and even intentionally push water out of the pool.