chlorine in my water

by Ken Miller
(1020 East 8th The Dalles, Or. 97058)

I have decided to keep my yard all organic, I buy organic fertilizer made from alpha meal and use no chemicals at all, I bought a new pull behind yard sprayer to spray my compost tea and I understand about the microorganisms. My question is when I water my yard with city water am I going to kill all the microbes that I just introduced?

Doug says that if you're using chlorinated water to produce compost tea then yes, the chlorine is likely killing off most of the bacteria. If you're worried about using it in the garden, it isn't "great" but it does outgas and the chlorine usually disappears quickly. This assumes your city or municipality isn't using chloramine - a more stable form of chlorine used in some systems. You'd have to check on both whether it's being used and what the outgas timing is on it - that's beyond my basic chemistry or need to know.

Many readers will suggest you set up a rainwater collection system to keep your garden watered and given you live in Oregon, you might very well be able to survive nicely on this.