yabbah Posted February 10, 2022 Share Posted February 10, 2022 So i've been trying to charge my Biochar today. Ive added some horse manure, ewc, kelp and some gk ferts. After adding bottled water to the mix and making a good slurry I noticed the bottle said there was 0.25mg of chlorine/chloride in the water. I thought to myself "oh fuck i've ruined the batch, ill have to dump this and start again". I didn't dump it immediately, but went to tesco to try get water without chloride in it. To my surprise there were no bottled waters in the whole of tesco without chloride in them. So if this is the case where do organic living soil growers get their water from? won't the chloride kill the bacteria? or is the 0.25mg negligible? I'd love to get some clarity on this so i can know if my batch of biochar is fucked and if I should start a new one. And also where my water for the grow is going to come from moving forward. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hugh Jass Posted February 10, 2022 Share Posted February 10, 2022 Lots of water falls from the sky, why not try using some of that? The old fella next to me has a barrel at the end of his drain pipe and collects it for use on his garden. There is 16 times more chlorine in my drinking water up to 4mg per litre. Chlorine also evaporates, so you could boil the water for 20 minutes, or just leave a bucket of water out for a couple of days and the chlorine will evaporate off all on it's own. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
QFMAC Posted February 10, 2022 Share Posted February 10, 2022 Neutralise by Ecothrive is organic and gets rid of chlorine and chloramine. Just add 1 or 2 drops per litre and its instantly ready to be used, no waiting. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Newcouch Posted February 10, 2022 Share Posted February 10, 2022 or leave it two days. chlorine will disappear in two days, but many water boards now use chloramine which is more stable, but you van use campden tablets. about 1/3 for 30 litres. organic growing is just someone elses rules. just take care, treat with respect and follow your own rules. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Smith Posted February 10, 2022 Share Posted February 10, 2022 (edited) @yabbah Almost certain the biochar will be ok regarding chlorine/chloride; it just isn't that effective in killing microbes with such low/drinking water/tap water concentrations. Just let the biochar sit with warmth and moisture for a week and let the horse manure etc. do their work. Personally I would be more vary of charging the biochar too strong with nitrogen, especially if the compost is hot. Edited February 10, 2022 by Jon Smith 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ukbudz Posted February 10, 2022 Share Posted February 10, 2022 Don't stress mate I put water straight out the tap on my no till pots and I've still got plenty of fungal blooms and mushrooms popping out. It's another piece of canna bro science. 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catweazle1 Posted February 10, 2022 Share Posted February 10, 2022 (edited) The gemicidal properties of the chlorine is only potent when used at source... it is highly reactive and unstable in air. On its way down to your tap, which is probably many miles of pipe, its ability to react react with stuff will be greatly diminished. Any residual chlorine will easily neutralized by the soil components. It's a non-issue. Edited February 10, 2022 by catweazle1 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MindSoup Posted February 10, 2022 Share Posted February 10, 2022 Don't worry about it,. it's not as big of an issue as people are led to believe. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yabbah Posted February 10, 2022 Author Share Posted February 10, 2022 @Hugh Jass @QFMAC @Newcouch @Jon Smith @ukbudz @catweazle1 @MindSoup thank you all so much for taking the time to comment and resolving this issue literally within minutes of it being posted! You're a solid bunch and it reminds me how amazing this community is. My tin foil hat has been put to one side now that I know chlorine is no longer a threat for my box of bacterial sludge Fantastic to know that the amount in the end product is minimal once its been transported through all the pipes etc. Also very encouraging that Ukbudz is still getting fungal blooms despite using tap water straight in to the bed! I'll definitely be putting a bucket out the back to collect some rain water for this new bed i'm about to make none the less 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MindSoup Posted February 10, 2022 Share Posted February 10, 2022 (edited) Just now, yabbah said: collect some rain water for FYI I have been warned about using rain water as it can harbor Pythium (ot1 talks about it somewhere). I'm not sure how big of a risk it really is, I've used it for decades outdoors, but as we all know not everything translates to indoors. You could treat it to kill any unwanted nasties but.... Edited February 10, 2022 by MindSoup 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheesehunter Posted May 10, 2022 Share Posted May 10, 2022 I hate chlorine , chloramine and flouride . I've been thinking of getting a small ro unit from gromax . But I noticed a new product out call neutralise from ecothrive , its about £20 for 250 ml . 1 drop per litre will dechlorinate your tap water and get rid of chloramine aswell . Has anybody on the site used this product ? Sounds really good to me ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ukbudz Posted May 10, 2022 Share Posted May 10, 2022 I've used it and still have half a bottle sitting there, never noticed a difference with or without it in coco, compost or no till/living soil. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catweazle1 Posted May 10, 2022 Share Posted May 10, 2022 (edited) Chlorine is not an issue for growers, it will react with the first thing it can as it passes through the medium and not matter. Edited May 10, 2022 by catweazle1 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MindSoup Posted May 11, 2022 Share Posted May 11, 2022 @cheesehunter have you read the thread? 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NezA Posted May 11, 2022 Share Posted May 11, 2022 That'd be all that boastful experience on action folks... 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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