Gray Water System

I have my gray water piped in several direstions. One line to a 2500 gal tank I bought and one line to the garden buried with access points so I can run drip lines to the plants, and one line out so the water drains past the peach trees, apple trees and the blue berry patch then to the cat fish pond and a line to the stawberry patch.

I use an old 12 volt boat motor to stir up the tank then use the water from the tank to spray the fruit trees for those darn worms that eat the leaves and spray the garden for bugs. I draw that water from the bottom of the tank.

I can use my sprayer pump to irrigate if the weather get too dry. I have a valve installed about 3ft up on the side of the tank to draw water from. The soaps and stuff settles close to the bottom and rain water help cut down the concentration.

Kids doing laundry can mess the whole thing up uising too much soap or bleach.

The house is on a Knoll and everything else is 30 to 100 feet lower in elevation plus I have a freash water supply from a mountian spring.

Be careful what you irrigate.

Vegetables can be polluted with "bugs".

Grey water can make soil alkaline.

I like it for bananas. They like alkaline soil, the fruit doesn't come in contact with the water, so no problem with bugs, they seem able to take as much water as you can give them, but are fairly drought tolerant.

With some plants (fruit trees, bananas, etc) the stray items like fluff, hair, soap etc are no real problem and you can just feed it straight to the trees without signifiacnt screening or filtration. In this case it is a good idea to introduce it underneath mulch.

Good luck with your project.

So far the Soap spray in my dirty water that only comes from the washing machine, sinks, and the rain gutters. I spray the ground after I turn it with a plowand then again like a barrier after knocking it down with a disk. Then one last soapy spray after the crop breaks ground and we have been thru the rows with a tiller.

Beans do great, squash's seem to take a little hit but recover and corn, potatoes, onions and peppers just ignor it. We grow 40 - 300 ft rows of beans. Mostly climbers who run up strings dropped from a wire 5 to 6 ft high. I mount sprinkler heads on the post along the rows and from there I control all sprays after the crops get up high.

Just 10 ac of veggies feed my family and most of our realtives with lots left over.

If I run out of grey water, how to back up with fresh?

If local regs allow, can you introduce fresh water into a pump-pit as (show in this link ) ? Top up (with fresh water) could be float regulated, and independent of zone distribution via individaul valve + timers.

thanks for all the great responce, item 2 is there a valve (anti back flush valve)

explanation= I am going to hook up to an existing sprinkler line, on the far end of the run and put the valve next to the sprinkler auto valve (fresh water and so it does not go in the valve its self) it 3/4 sch 40 PVC

thanks scott