Watering with rainwater: some questions

[Dusty Ol' Man]

Originally Posted by isurus79

We have 40,000 gallon catchment for our house and a 2,500 gallon catchment for my plants. The pollen and catkins falling off the oaks always stains the water this time of year here in central Texas, so my guess would be something similar for Louisiana. Consider it as free plant fertilizer!

Thanks Stephen. I hadn't considered the pollen. It has been quite dry here the last few weeks. I'm sure there was an abundance of pollen on the roof. Thankfully the rain last night should have replenished my barrel, as it was down to about half full yesterday.

[PlumCrazy]

Glad this thread got bumped up. My city sells rain barrels at a discount and it's on my list to buy one next week. I plan on still purchasing ~3 gallons per week of distilled water for the sensitive minatures in my orchidarium, but switching over to rain water from tap water for the rest of my orchids (mostly big box store phals).

[Dimples]

Originally Posted by estación seca

The great majority of water in California is allowed to run to the sea or used for agriculture, not city water systems.

Agriculture and river flow are both included in the state water allocation. Municipal water is only one part of it.

---------- Post added at 10:36 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:28 PM ----------

We do catch buckets in our kitchen sink too. Heavy use days generate a surprising amount of grey water.

Direct application of grey water is typically legal but storage is not because of health and safety concerns. The sump tank on the grey water system at my old work got nasty and it was emptied immediately.