Well Water for irrigation question

[MJCM]

Hi,

 

question please. We have a well (45m deep) and we want to use this water for watering our trees and plants, but the problem is that the water from the well is very hard.

 

Someone advised us to first pump that well water into our pond and then you can use that water to water the plants.

 

What do you think?

 

The well water is ONLY used for the garden!!

 

Thanks in advance for any pointers/idea's

[IsaanAussie]

What does pumping into a pond first do to lower the salt content of the water?

[MJCM]

8 hours ago, IsaanAussie said:

What does pumping into a pond first do to lower the salt content of the water?

 

Afaik as I know it's NOT salty but just HARD water. (So it contains a lot of minerals)

 

And I have no idea, this is what I have been told to do and that's why I am asking here for advice

[khwaibah]

2 hours ago, MJCM said:

 

Afaik as I know it's NOT salty but just HARD water. (So it contains a lot of minerals)

 

And I have no idea, this is what I have been told to do and that's why I am asking here for advice

 

Our well water is also hard ( NO salt) and it is used for irrigation with no side effects. The water is not pump into the pond,

Edited June 28, 2020 by khwaibah

[Mama Noodle]

Hard water wont harm your plants. Im not at all seeing what the problem is. 

 

If your water is killing your plants and you know for sure its the water doing the killing, then you have a whole hell of a bigger problem than the water being 'hard'

 

The only way forward is to send your water to a lab for testing to see exactly WHAT the problem is, and then when you KNOW what it is, you can work out a solution. 

 

Otherwise you are shooting in the dark. 

[MJCM]

1 minute ago, Mama Noodle said:

Hard water wont harm your plants. Im not at all seeing what the problem is. 

 

If your water is killing your plants and you know for sure its the water doing the killing, then you have a whole hell of a bigger problem than the water being 'hard'

 

The only way forward is to send your water to a lab for testing to see exactly WHAT the problem is, and then when you KNOW what it is, you can work out a solution. 

 

Otherwise you are shooting in the dark. 

Thx.

 

Our Pond is almost out of water, we normally use that to water the plants, but because it's running dry and we DON'T have mains water and we still want to water the plants we thought of using the Well water, but someone (as I said in the OP) has advised us to first PUMP the well water in the Pond and then from there use it to water the plants.

 

I have no Idea if the WELL water will kill the the plants, because we HAVE NOT USED the WELL water YET.

 

That is the reason why I came here and ask before doing that.

[MJCM]

40 minutes ago, khwaibah said:

 

Our well water is also hard ( NO salt) and it is used for irrigation with no side effects. The water is not pump into the pond,

Thx.

 

We tasted it and it's definitely NOT salty

 

No idea what the reason for  the advice of pumping it first in the POND and then use it, so that's why I came here to look for advice.

 

Edited June 29, 2020 by MJCM

[Mama Noodle]

1 minute ago, MJCM said:

but someone (as I said in the OP) has advised us to first PUMP the well water in the Pond and then from there use it to water the plants.

 

Try it on some plants first just to be sure, then go nuts. Nothing will happen because the water is 'hard'. 

 

And sometimes its best to ignore what people say and just carry on. 

[Mama Noodle]

3 minutes ago, MJCM said:

I have no Idea if the WELL water will kill the the plants, because we HAVE NOT USED the WELL water YET.

 

I have hard water full of calcium from my well and water the hell out of everything with it and no issues. Only time anything dies in my garden is when I take a whiz on the grass and kill a patch. 

 

My buddy has a plant shop and waters everything from the filthy mosquito infested ditch water by the side of the road and everything is still perfectly green. 

[MJCM]

6 minutes ago, Mama Noodle said:

 

Try it on some plants first just to be sure, then go nuts. Nothing will happen because the water is 'hard'. 

 

 

 

Thx for the confirmation, I didn't know that and will try it on some.

[Mama Noodle]

4 minutes ago, MJCM said:

Thx for the confirmation, I didn't know that and will try it on some.

 

No problem. Its obvious whoever is giving you advice wants that dry pond to be filled up. 

[MJCM]

6 minutes ago, Mama Noodle said:

 

No problem. Its obvious whoever is giving you advice wants that dry pond to be filled up. 

 

Doubt it because he has never been here, but he was very adamant about it, 1st pump well water in pond and then pump from pond to water the plants and NOT direct.

 

Any clue what hard water does with growing rice? Maybe that is the reason why he said about first in pond and then from there to the plants?

 

But I am just guessing here.

[Mama Noodle]

5 minutes ago, MJCM said:

Any clue what hard water does with growing rice? Maybe that is the reason why he said about first in pond and then from there to the plants?

 

I feel confident that the rice paddy gets its water from the pond, correct? And the guy saying to fill the pond first has concerns that the water going directly to the plants is no good, better to fill the pond first (where the rice gets its water) to make it clean for your plants. 

 

Im an extreme cynic but thats what I see. 

[khwaibah]

39 minutes ago, MJCM said:

Any clue what hard water does with growing rice? Maybe that is the reason why he said about first in pond and then from there to the plants?

 

Jack all nothing. Our wells are in the same water table as our ponds at 4 meters and the wife has a major contract backed by the DOA and TOPS market selling her produce. Locals are blowing smoke.

 

 

[khwaibah]

Hard water..????

 

[kickstart]

3 hours ago, Mama Noodle said:

 

I feel confident that the rice paddy gets its water from the pond, correct? And the guy saying to fill the pond first has concerns that the water going directly to the plants is no good, better to fill the pond first (where the rice gets its water) to make it clean for your plants. 

 

Im an extreme cynic but thats what I see. 

I would say with most rice fields being short of organic matter, and most most plant  minerals ,a bit of calcium from the hard water would not do anything any harm.

Our garden has a lot of fruit trees ,we  normally use our pond and pump water out ,but the pond is dry ,so the wife uses our mains water ,that come from the end of our Soi, from a water tower pumped up from underground ,same as a well ,but a bit deeper,it has no effects at all on the plants and trees,and our water is hard .

We have plastic bowls and containers about the place ,and the calcium deposits stick to the plastic like the proverbial to a blanket ,and our shower heads are always getting blocked up. 

[Grumpy John]

On 6/29/2020 at 11:13 AM, kickstart said:

I would say with most rice fields being short of organic matter, and most most plant  minerals ,a bit of calcium from the hard water would not do anything any harm.

Our garden has a lot of fruit trees ,we  normally use our pond and pump water out ,but the pond is dry ,so the wife uses our mains water ,that come from the end of our Soi, from a water tower pumped up from underground ,same as a well ,but a bit deeper,it has no effects at all on the plants and trees,and our water is hard .

We have plastic bowls and containers about the place ,and the calcium deposits stick to the plastic like the proverbial to a blanket ,and our shower heads are always getting blocked up. 

Having lived in Mt Gambier for several years I am familiar with the problem of calcium buildup.  When I moved there the house I bought had a water filter on the supply line.  Great I thought.  But no-one told me I had to test the water every 6 months and replace the filter salt. So that fancy Russel Hobbs electric  kettle we got as a wedding present was krapped out within a year!  You live and learn!  

[khwaibah]

A gentleman a few km up the road put together a nice place about 8 years back. Has a fishing pond about the size of ours 50mx50mx10m. His pond was low on H2O so he put in a 6 inch bore with a 4 inch deep submergible pump. Two issues hit him in the a-r-s-e. The 6 inch bore was about 100 foot from his house where he had a 2 inch bore after about 1 week of 24/7 pumping no water for his house. He shut down and took a few days for the table to recover. BUT the big A-R-S-E ripper was his PEA bill for the month 15K. I can't repeat what he said AND the pond only went up about 2 inches.????

[kickstart]

This is near me, the  guy used his tractor ,this  crop is cassava he drilled the boar 4 years ago ,the crop then was cane first year ,and it was a dry year, again , then he had a little Hino on the pump ,going most days 7am-7pm ,on a drip tape system , for almost 2 months ,bar the odd day when had some rain ,we worked it out fuel costs 250/day,(that is what we used with our little Hino watering maize a few years ago ), that is 7500 baht month. 

I would  say the belt drive set up no more than  10000 baht, the gear box is the same as a grass topper .