Are there any do’s and don’ts for rain water harvesting for sprayer use
- Thread starter John
- Start date
- Location
- Cirencester
Why would you need that?? Rain water is "soft" certainly compared to tap water around here, you'd scale up a new kettle within weeks. A decent filter would be essential although I don't have one on my system, just a sump tank that then feeds into the other 10,000ltr ones, just have a simple mesh filter on the inlet. Spray at 100lts/ha and not had any issues in the 10 or so years I've had the system.
Spencer
Member
- Location
- North West
As above, simple mesh filter is all we have. Zero issues here, clean sprayer filter regular anyway.
- Location
- Somerset UK
I have an outlet filter with cam locks that goes on the male camlock tank outlet, then connect the sprayer filler pipe, I also use it on the liquid fertiliser tank to filter that. I started off with a single 10,000 lt tank then added another 2 x 20,000 lt tanks. I don’t bother filtering the rainwater inlet, there's probably a layer of gunk in the bottom of the tanks, but not much gets caught in the filter.
AsBrisel says, no need for a water conditioner at all, it is part of the benefit in terms of saving money . We have supplied quite a few systems and nobody feels the need to add conditioner any more, a fair bit of money saved over the course of a season.
ollie989898
Member
As above, rain water will be superior to virtually any tap water you could source and no need to add anything specifically to condition the water.
Having a big tank of rain water on site could be handy for the fire brigade in the event of a fire, God forbid.
Having a big tank of rain water on site could be handy for the fire brigade in the event of a fire, God forbid.
ollie989898
Member
Absolutely. Just because you are using rainwater doesn't mean you can ignore all adjuvants completely.
- Location
- Cirencester
I have never bothered and not noticed anything untoward, rightly or wrongly.
The only adjuvants you need to use will be what you need to get the spray into or onto the target better e.g. wetters, spreaders, drift reducers or surfactants
Edited to add: many of the water conditioners have adjuvants built into them. Usually wetters/humectants.
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Spencer
Member
- Location
- North West
no
- Location
- Lincolnshire
I have no filter on the pipe, its set at 50 cm from the bottom of the tank, the sprayer intake filter sorts anything out that might be floating when its gets to that level.
- Location
- Boroughbridge, North Yorkshire
A few round here that have bought a rainwater harvesting system with a grant have told me that even with the grant, it will take years to get the money back. They would not do it again. Plus it does not normally rain enough when you are spraying to get enough water, so they end up reverting back to mains.
I’ve just brought 3 used 10000lt tanks 100lts/ha 700ac
Spencer
Member
- Location
- North West
We just have tank setup to harvest rainwater but also has mains supply with ballcock valve to fill when needed. It’s 20,000 litres, but main supply is private supply from spring which helps.. both soft water so no conditioner used here.
ollie989898
Member
Agree with this.
I wouldn't go adding water conditioning products into the tank for the sole purpose of water conditioning.
- Location
- Lincolnshire
Mine is 6000 gallon ex diesel tank, buried under a concrete pad, some years rain kept up with spraying, others I would need 4 tanks.