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using a water softener
jakecassie
Posts: 3
We live in a hard water area and have had to have a water softener fitted. We still have access to hard water but our hose pipe is soft water( softened by block salt). Is it possible to use the hosepipe for watering the garden? At present I am using stored rainwater and watering cans of hard water when necessary but life would be much easier if I could use the hosepipe. Can you help please? Thanks
0
Posts
can you get a tap fitted somewhere on the pipe before it goes through the water softener?
In the sticks near Peterborough
It would be difficult due to restricted space.
Yes you can use soft water for most plants. Although the softener uses salt, the water shouldn't be salty if it's set up properly (taste it to check
). I had this debate with a landscape architect once who wanted me to design a drip irrigation system for his plants and it had teeny tiny drip holes so he said it had to use soft water to stop the holes blocking up. I checked some of the literature and it does seem to be common practice in commercial use.
However
The main reason it's not often done domestically is the cost - you're paying for the treatment of the water, the plants don't need it, so why spend that money on them?
So actually you should maybe get a hose pump to sit in your rainwater store instead? Small ones cost about £50. Not huge pressure/flow but if your garden isn't massive it would probably be enough.
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
dear raisingirl, thanks for the reply. It has put my mind at rest as I didn't want to kill off a new batch of plants before they had got going! I will look into the pump as well.
Yours, John
I am planning to add a water softener to my home since we have hard water problems. I plan to also run a separate line off the softener so I can use for my garden area.
I am also planning on buying a electromagnetic water softener which my plumber recommends. This will allow it to be run through the entire house and be also useful in gardening.
Have any of you had any experience with this kind of softener instead of the typical salt based systems.
Thanks!
I have a tablet-salt water softener.
They work by making water molecules swap their (hard) calcium ions for (soft) sodium ions. So softened water does contain sodium (salt). How much sodium depends on how hard your water is. The harder your water the more sodium in the softened water.
My water is very hard and I wouldn't use softened water on my garden, but I've never tried.
I have had one of the electro-magnetic softeners for about 20yrs - they do absolutely nothing.
Last edited: 20 April 2017 08:34:36
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
Actually they do seem to help in recirculating systems (a central heating system, for example) because they seem to stop the big lumps of scale swishing about. Don't know exactly how they do that - it's a rather empirical observation and not scientific. I don't think they'll make much difference to cold water to the tap.
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”