Any gardeners on here?

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4x4

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What would you think about using the water left after soaking hay to water the garden? What makes the water brown and would this be harmful to the plants/soil?
Thanks guys.
 
I would have thought it would be good being full of sugar - extra nutriants for the plants. Not a professional gardener but why don't you test it on a bit of the garden that isn't too precious just in case.
 
Be careful about watering foliage with it - water into the ground or upturned cut bottles, if it's veg. The higher concentration of sugars and minerals will increase the chances of scorch,l even if you water at night. Otherwise it's a great idea, if practical for you!
 
We've run out of haylage so are using hay, which has to be soaked. To keep it out of the reach of the horses the dustbins are on the garden path. Where I've yanked the soaked nets out and left them to drain on the grass, the growth is spectacular. As others have said, I wouldn't water onto the foliage of your plants though, just onto the soil. What a good way of using something up!
 
Well rosefolly, we are on a domestic water meter here and with the price of everything spiralling I have to keep an eye on water use, we are going all out to grow as much veg as possible this year to keep the cost of (our) living down - all those healthy salads - but in the current drought am having to water, plus, now the grass is sweeter I am soaking the hay - partly for slight COPD in one but also to increase the palatability of it, and was just thinking, 'ooh what could I do with this water' so will give it a go - we are the King and Queen of Heath Robinson's rig ups here!
 
nostromo70 said:
It will be fine, you just need to be careful that it's not full of seeds that have come out of the hay.
Click to expand...

The old fashened reason was to soak nettles, borage and Comfry.
The reason was the deep root structure would bring up elements deep in the ground into the plant and these you would soak out in a soup.
Grass has no deep roots so whats the point except to save cost of disposal.
Sugars componds in grass, so? Plants will not take these up Osmosis or deosmosis could have a long term detriment?
But i do not think so.
 
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