Swimming pool water contains chemicals, especially chlorine, that can harm your trees and landscape plants when water drains and floods the area. Too much chlorine can damage tree leaves and other delicate tissues. Too much chlorinated water all at once can even kill trees.
If you plan on using pool water to irrigate your trees, don't add any more chlorine to your pool. After four or five days, test the water. When its chlorine level dips below 0.5 parts per million, the water is safe for most trees.
But did you know there's an easy way to reuse the water that's already in the pool? All you have to do is recycle it! Meet reverse osmosis — the best way to purify your swimming pool water. It works by pushing the existing water through semipermeable membranes that hold off any impurities, particles, and buildup.
A: It's a waste, but fresh pool water is not safe for irrigating plants. It's because the chlorine in pool water is very toxic to plants. If the chlorine level is low enough, it's possible to use it. ... Periodically, pool water is “shocked” or hyper-chlorinated, which raises the chlorine level even higher.
Pool water contains chlorine or bromine, both harmful to plants. You'll see the results — leaves turning yellow or brown (the whole leaf or just around the edges) and extensive leaf drop. If your pool was uncovered all winter but still treated with chlorine, the chlorine levels might be too high to be safe for plants.
Water drained from a pool or spa is safe to use for watering lawns or plants, or for any purpose “gray water” uses would be appropriate. It is environmentally correct to recycle water especially when drought restrictions are in effect.
Chlorine Toxicity in Soil and Compost
Soil and compost piles contain huge amounts of microbes. When the water initially hits, it will kill some microbes, but they quickly repopulate. Any effect that does occur is short lived. “In one study, researchers continuously applied highly chlorinated water to soil for 126 days.
The excess content of chloride compounds in a tree will eventually lead to chlorine poisoning, which is detectable by signs of stress and decline. Not only can chlorine poisoning make tree leaves turn yellow, curl, burn, or drop prematurely, it can also kill a tree in a very short amount of time.
Chlorine is a micronutrient, essential to plant growth. However, too much chlorine can accumulate in leaf tissue, resulting in leaves with a scorched or burned appearance. Trees with scorched leaves have brown or dead tissue on the tips, margins, or between the veins of the leaf.
Depending on its levels of content, the evaporation time for chlorine from tap water can be estimated: 2 ppm of Chlorine will take up to 4 and a half days or around 110 hours to evaporate from 10 gallons of standing water.
Gardeners know that chlorine kills bacteria and fear that chlorinated water will not make the garden happy. In fact, chlorinated water kills microorganisms in garden soil and compost piles, organisms beneficial to plant growth and health. However, because the chlorine level is so low, the damage done is minimal.
Generally, pool water needs to be replaced once every five to seven years. This should be done during mild weather so that your pool surface is not at risk from strong sunlight and heat. Your pool maintenance company can recommend when it is time to drain your pool.
A well-maintained concrete pool should last around 50 years or more. And a well constructed in-ground concrete swimming pool should last a lifetime. But, a pool's liner or finish won't last long. And thus, an in-ground concrete pool will need to be resurfaced every 10 to 15 years.
Sunlight will help to naturally dissipate the chlorine within 10 days. During that time, use a swimming pool test kit to measure chlorine. Chemically dechlorinate the pool water. Chemicals that will quickly remove chlorine are available through pool and spa care vendors.
If an individual empties their pool water on their lawn, will it end up killing the turf? In most cases very little to no damage has been seen in these situations. Turf can endure higher chlorine levels than other landscape plants such as trees, shrubs, and ornamentals.
In most situations, your pool water will have no effect on the grass growing around your swimming pool. Dripping swim trunks and splashes from diving and gameplay aren't going to have a significant enough effect on the grass or soil to make a difference.
Chlorine Deficiency
On other plant species, the most commonly described symptom of Cl deficiency is wilting of leaves, especially at the margins. As the deficiency progresses and becomes more severe, the leaves exhibit curling, bronzing, chlorosis, and necrosis.
Unless you have highly salt-tolerant yard plants, discharging saltwater into the yard may cause extensive damage; the soil retains the salts suspended in the water runoff. It is possible, however, to drain a saltwater pool into the yard using planned draining intervals.
Pool water should never be drained to the street or the storm drain. Storm drains in the Bay Area typically run into local creeks, rivers and the bays.
Pros of Saltwater Pools
There's less chlorine and less of the heavy chemical scent and content. They're gentler on the skin, with less irritation to the eyes, hair and swimsuits. The water has a softer, silkier feel to it compared to chlorine water. They have lower maintenance costs than chlorine pools.
Resale Value
A pool can increase not only your social worth but also the value of your home. However, the increase is probably not as much as you think. According to HouseLogic, there's no real guarantee that you'll make your money back. In fact, adding a swimming pool may only increase your home's value by 7%.
Concrete pools tend to be the strongest of all the inground swimming pools. Since they are rebar and concrete they can't oxidize or corrode. Like every other form of concrete, they get stronger as time passes. They are at the upper echelon of price points and have a higher end product reputation.
Pool Is Losing 1 Inch of Water Per Day
Losing more than ½” of pool water per day indicates you likely have a leak in your pool's structure or your pool pump system. You should call your pool service for a thorough leak inspection. You might not be able to keep up with refilling your pool at this point.