Kitchen Garden Forum

The water trough from which I draw water from on my allotment site has about 2 inches of mud on the bottom of it where other site-holders have been washing off their vegetables,not allowed under the site rules,prior to taking them home.
A question arose as to whether or not this mud would be incubating any soil-borne disease,virus or fungal infection which would be spread around by watering your patch,and,if the mud is dug out where is the best place to dispose of it?Mostly it was agreed that the water is disease etc free and if dug out O.K.to recycle on your patch.
What are your views on this question,Forumites??

Grow some pond weed to keep the watwr "sweet".

I guess the issue I'd be concerned about, especially for anybody trying to grow organically, would be residues of herbicides or insecticides being washed off into the water. Could the water be disposed of on the boundaries of the allotment side where it's less likely to seep into allotments? The other option would be to put one of those large plastic containers with handles next to the water trough and fill it with water so that plotholders have somewhere separate to wash the mud off their vegetables. That would still end up with water that might be tainted with something, but at least the main water trough would be kept clean for anybody concerned about such issues.

Primrose, more s**t will come in on the air when local farmers spray than can be washed off someone's carrots. Ditto for fellow plotholders spraying.

We have the problem with veggie washing in the troughs and I do about 2 or 3 times a year empty the one near me and take the silt out of the bottom. It usually gets tipped on my compost heap which is nearby. Don't think I have suffered in any way.

What rankles more is the selfish ones that put a hose on without filling the bin first and don't bother to refill it when they have finished. My pet rankle at the moment with the 'no rain' situation at the moment.

Beryl.