• If you need help identifying a pepper, disease, or plant issue, please post in Identification.

Rain Barrels

DatilDaddy

DatilDaddy

Banned
I have a bud light cooler like the type you see in covenience stores (GF gets 'em for free):

md_125261.jpg


The only difference is it is an open top, like the ones filled with ice you get your 5 o'clock in.

I have been using it to save rain water and it works great, fills right up with a heavy rain. No way to cover it though.

So my question is that if you save rain water, are you supposed to use it in a certain amount of time? Does it go bad, lose its "nutrients" and so on? Of course right after it rains the plants dont need it and it just sits in the sun for a week or two drying up. So should I not even worry about putting it to use if I cant use it soon enough?
 
If you can't cover it and you don't use it right away, you're going to have a wonderful little mosquito farm on your hands. If you don't use it for a long time, you're going to have a container full of rotting leaves and such.

None of which is ever really bad for the plants, but can be unpleasant for the people.
 
Depending on the temperature, rainwater can become pretty foul pretty fast. After it fills cover it and get it out of the sun, it will become less offensive that way.

I have used rain barrels in the past, this year they seem to be just dust barrels. Less than a quarter inch of rain in the last two months here.
 
Ahhh... I seem to have found everyone elses rain.... we got about 34 inches of rain here where I live (last month) and it shows no signs of slowing.... got about an inch today alone.
 
My rain barrel is a big old 180 gallon fish tank. Since I need to change at least 50% of the water monthly whenever I need to water my plants I just siphon out 5 gallons at a time and feed my plants. The amount of beneficial bacteria and natural fertilizer in a fish tank is far better than plain old rain water. Plus have a shoal of red bellies can be entertaining to say the least.
 
Got a 50gal black barrel from a auction a few year's ago ($2.00) use a metal trash can top to cover. Water has set for 5 months at a time and had no problems, watered everything (garden,flowers,bushes)
 
Put a tap at the bottom for easy access, then secure some screen door material to the top. This will keep the mosquitos and leaves out while still allowing it to fill when it rains. Then all you have to worry about is the algae. If you do end up with an algae bloom add a few gallons of tap water after you water your plants. The chlorine will kill off most of the algae before it evaporates.



IMAG1038 by Yemtol, on Flickr



IMAG1037 by Yemtol, on Flickr

Even without actual rain, the barrel can be useful. As dry as it's been this summer, I've filled mine from the hose a couple times. I'm going to have to pay for the tapwater to keep things green anyway. This way i can at least let some of the chemicals gas off before I water the plants, and with my hard water, they get plenty of calcium.
 
Just make sure to get the fiberglass screen instead of the aluminum. It's much easier to work with and much easier on your hands.
 
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Even without actual rain, the barrel can be useful.[/background]
Click to expand...

If you are moderately handy you can divert the A/C drain into your rain barrel and collect 5 or 10 gallons of water per day. Yield will depend on humidity.
 
I set up two 275 gallon totes in different locations collecting water from the roof and i figure it takes a good couple of rain storms to fill them to the max or about 2.5 inches of rain fall.. doesn't matter how much you clean your container if sun light can get in algae will form.
Covering them with black plastic or painting them black takes care of that but then you have water that is a lot warmer.
One thing for sure if you hook up a water hose to a down spout you want your water collector as high as you can get it to give you more water pressure.
I will be redoing both mine with black paint and putting them up higher or maybe buying another two and double stacking them?
 
fishing4fun2 said:
I set up two 275 gallon totes in different locations collecting water from the roof and i figure it takes a good couple of rain storms to fill them to the max or about 2.5 inches of rain fall.. doesn't matter how much you clean your container if sun light can get in algae will form.
Covering them with black plastic or painting them black takes care of that but then you have water that is a lot warmer.
One thing for sure if you hook up a water hose to a down spout you want your water collector as high as you can get it to give you more water pressure.
I will be redoing both mine with black paint and putting them up higher or maybe buying another two and double stacking them?
Click to expand...

I have been throwing this idea around for a couple of years now. An engineer friend of mine did some funky math and decided I needed something like a 6ft elevation drop to get the needed psi for my system, and that was with the tote 100% full, as the tote empties it needed more elevation. I think burying them and getting a small electric pump sounds easier at this point.
 
theghostpepperstore said:
I have been throwing this idea around for a couple of years now. An engineer friend of mine did some funky math and decided I needed something like a 6ft elevation drop to get the needed psi for my system, and that was with the tote 100% full, as the tote empties it needed more elevation. I think burying them and getting a small electric pump sounds easier at this point.
Click to expand...

I got a submersible pump from amazon for like $50, and I use it to be able to use a hose when watering. I just have to be careful and remember to plug/unplug it. I highly recommend it.

For the screen across the top, I used a 9" square flat roof drain from a big box (fit perfectly on the 32 gal. tote I used). It blocks pretty much everything, but some maple seeds get in from time to time. For the mosquitoes I just toss in a dunk from time to time (they're also not a big deal around here).
 
armac said:
Do you need rain to make a rain barrel functional?

If so, I do not need a rain barrel......
Click to expand...

;)

If you properly setup a decent size tank and a small gutter system (just gutter the side you are collecting) it doesn't take much rain at all to fill up a tank.
 
Just last night i had one 275 gallon tote with only a couple inches of water in it & the other 275 gallon tote half full, well it finally rained last night and we got 1.49 inches of water and there completely full now..
No real rain to speak of in the last two months here and now one good rain and the rain barrels are topped offed and i should have enough for the rest of the season even if we didn't get any rain for another 2 months again.
I set up the rain barrels mainly cause i didn't want to use the city water.
There so easy to set up and the investment is cheap.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top