Ethical disposal of waste water nutrient solutions?

This is a great question, and it shows that people who grow weed can be conciencsous, which is good for all of us. However, I don't think it's fair to any of us to play into the morality of putting nutrients back into Earth's soil. It's often a tactic of law enforcement to claim that growers put harmful chemicals into the soil to make it seem like they are worse than they really are. You know, like a PR/media tactic.

I do the same thing, bro! Err.. Sister! (my bad!) I water the grass with my leftover nutes, and it's thriving! Unfortunately, this means that the grass is lush and green in a few areas, and looks like hell everywhere else.

I don't feel bad, or unethical about pouring nutrient solution into the ground. It all came from the earth, and we humans have extracted it and combined it into a formula designed to go back into the earth for our plants to use. When I'm done with it, that's where I put it. You can also dump it straight down your drain. Regardless of what you do with it, all those chemicals will recombine with the Earth eventually, and the water will vaporize into clouds.

 

^ i assure you many simple household cleaning chemicals are MUCH worse than the nutrients we give to our plants that our plants drink........and those go down the drain all the time

also, where in colorado do they not filter the water before sending it out to houses?

 

Colorado Safe Drinking Water Program

Sewage treatment - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

i'm not sure how else to help you....



they do clean the water, even in your very own state of colorado, before sending it to your house



"The Colorado Safe Drinking Water Program makes sure that Public Water Systems always provide safe drinking water. "

 

Fertilizer runoff on the california coast from the agriculture here has had a marked effect on algae blooms off the coast. These blooms contain a specific kind of algae that produces a toxic compound (dioxin or something like that). This toxin builds up in sea creatures like muscles which the local sea life feeds on. There is an epidemic starting in the local sea lion, harp seal, and elephant seal populations here. The poison creates holes in the animals brains and causes seizures until they finally die a gruesomely painful death.

There are serious, SERIOUS, consequences to flushing fertilizers down the drain. You may think "I'm not a sea lion" or "but I use so little fertilizer compared to commercial farms." This toxin builds up in all sea life. Imagine one day your loved one, maybe a child or a family member, is exposed to food with a high level of the poison. It seems far fetched now but if every person fails to do their small part these algae blooms could reach devastating levels. The ocean and our water ways are not some magic system where we can dump whatever we want into it without consequence.

I think applying your waste nutrients to another garden is the most ethical thing to do. Not over feeding plants, especially nitrates and phosphates, is the best way to minimize our impact on the environment. Imagine what a difference it could make of no one ever overfed their plants, probably 25% less wasted minerals pumped prematurely back into the system. How the waste is treated is definitely important and before just pouring it down the drain, find out where the drain leads.

 

I wouldn't trust any public drinking water and you shouldn't either.

Health officials link brain-eating amoeba deaths to tap water | Fox News

 

Fox news isn't the only source.

Drink up if you dare, just don't inhale it.

(makes you think about that bong water huh?)

http://www.usnews.com/science/articles/2011/01/31/amoebas-in-drinking-water-a-double-threat

Amoebae-resisting bacteria in drinking wat... [Water Sci Technol. 2008] - PubMed - NCBI

http://articles.latimes.com/2012/aug/23/news/la-heb-brain-eating-amoeba-neti-pot-20120823

 

Hey heatherlongleg read up on this http://forum.grasscity.com/advanced...43-anyone-have-any-experience-aquaponics.html personally I wood nvr eat the fish....but tats one way to get rid of pouring ferts in the drain...dnt kno if tat helps u out???

 

This guy didn't think it was funny:

Rare amoeba threatens fire captain's life :: The Valley News

He walked into a construction site and inhaled it.

 

hmmm...

"a climate-sensitive amoeba found in warm freshwater lakes and rivers"



...................looks like you can get that from a LOT more than just public city tap water..........................so, that's like saying,

"don't go outside because there's smog in some places of the world!!!!!!!!!!!!"

c'mon man...

 

Dillute it with some water and feed it to your outdoor garden.

If the nutes that you are using are so harmful for the environment, why are you using them to grow? You're smoking that stuff and/or selling it to your fellow friends/patients?

 

Drink it and pee in the grass that's what I would do at@12:61 am of August 32ND is there an ethical way just do what you do and nobody can judge you

 

Hey Heatherlonglee

I also use dry chemicals for my nutes that recirculate to a reservoir that I empty and refill weekly. The discarded solutions go on different plants in my yard and my wife is ecstatic with the results she is seeing. Trial and error teaches how much to dilute them before use and which plants thrive and which don't.

On another note....I'm interested in which chem's u use and how u use them as you are the only other grower I have seen in this forum that does so.
Love ur pics btw..any newer ones?