Will laundry detergent harm plants in coconut/banana circles

Discussion in 'Planting, growing, nurturing Plants' started by Skywoolf, May 4, 2009.

  1. Skywoolf

    Skywoolf Junior Member

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    I am so glad to find this forum as I am entirely on my own to plan and design multiple permaculture sites in the Philippines so I hop people here like answering questions.

    I am starting with a 5,000 square meter lot on a hilltop where I will have a house built and a 10,000 square meter beach front lot where I will have a beach house.

    I have some books by Bill Mollison and he suggests putting a shower in the center of a coconut/banana circle so I guess soap and shampoo won't hurt the plants. I am thinking of a second circle that would have water etc for laundry but would laundry detergent be a problem for the plants?
     
  2. Michaelangelica

    Michaelangelica Junior Member

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    Re: Will laundry detergent harm plants in coconut/banana circles

    Get a complete list of ingredients of your detergent from the manufacturer.
    Many contain a lot of salt- NaCl2, even ones with nice sounding, green marketing names.
     
  3. Skywoolf

    Skywoolf Junior Member

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    Re: Will laundry detergent harm plants in coconut/banana circles

    Thanks I will check. Is salt the only ingredient I would need to worry about?
     
  4. Michaelangelica

    Michaelangelica Junior Member

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    Re: Will laundry detergent harm plants in coconut/banana circles

    Phosphates are also in detergents; these are highly reactive element/chemicals and some plants-like Australian natives -don't like them.
    There are all sorts of funny ingredients in washing powders like whitening agents etc. Who knows what they do. The effects could be good with some plants!
    Bacteria use detergents that they excrete to eat (we think). So what will be the effect of you tossing detergent on them? Who knows?
    Soil chemistry and especially biology seems a most neglected aspect of science.
    Some Phosphate/soil chemistry
    https://www.extension.umn.edu/distributi ... C6795.html

    An interesting chemistry book that may be in an agricultural schools library
    [​IMG]
    https://books.google.com.au/books?id=gAQ ... ry_s&cad=0
    https://books.google.com.au/books?hl=en& ... GzfaTEMxsI

    These people claim their detergent is safe
    https://products.planetark.org/paproducts/greywater.cfm
    Like most, they trumpet what is not in their product but it is much harder to find a list of ingredients that are in their product on their website
    https://products.planetark.org/paproducts/aware.cfm
    This gentleman does not agree
    https://www.lanfaxlabs.com.au/papers/P42-chem2.pdf.

    This conference article may help you
    https://72.14.235.132/search?q=cache:RaQ ... clnk&gl=au

    I found this old (2002)SMH article interesting
    https://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/06/ ... 03607.html
    i always worry when Big Companies say "perfectly legal".

    these are some proposed 'grey water protocols' that the CSIRO published last year.
    https://72.14.235.132/search?q=cache:XrM ... clnk&gl=au

    While Australia mostly has 'soft' water and therefore does not need the many additives like salt, contained in European and many USA dish-washing and laundry detergents I suspect it is not worth a Multi-National Company's time to change a detergent formulation just for the tiny Australian market. Most are probably made offshore anyway.
     
  5. Skywoolf

    Skywoolf Junior Member

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    Re: Will laundry detergent harm plants in coconut/banana circles

    Wow, So much info. Thank you.

    I will go through this in detail but at first sight it looks like its better to avoid the stuff rather than encourage pouring it over the compost.
     
  6. WolfJag

    WolfJag Junior Member

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    Re: Will laundry detergent harm plants in coconut/banana circles

    We have been watering our house plants with dish washing grey water, without any noticeable counter-effect on the plant's health. I have refrained of using it to water edible plants, though. Would that be OK?
     
  7. Skywoolf

    Skywoolf Junior Member

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    Re: Will laundry detergent harm plants in coconut/banana circles

    Almost everything will be edible so I decided not to take a chance on grey water use. I may still have the house plumbing done so water from showers, washbasins, kitchen sinks, etc can easily be redirected to a grey water filter bed if we have water supply problems in the future.
     
  8. Hamishmac

    Hamishmac Junior Member

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