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mikess_gw

My well water & bamboo

mikess
9 years ago

I posted this issue under the thread "Bamboo turning Brown" back in early October and didn't get any follow-ups in that thread so I'm starting a new thread hoping to get someone's experience.

I got my old dug well up and running back in September and started watering lavishly with my "free" water. I noticed an improvement initially in my parched bamboo and other plants and trees - new growth along with the other normal signs of plants finally getting watered after being water-deprived.

But then I noticed some of the bamboo which had been previously green despite the lack of water, was now turning yellow, almost white. I have some big clumps of papyrus, another water-loving plant that also initially responded favorably but then also started turning brown - first the leaf tips progressing inward to the stalk.

Other plants, pineapple guava, magnolia, geraniums, aloe and agave type plant related succulents, black walnut, day liiys & some others seem not to be affected but they just may be reacting more slowly to whatever is causing the problem with the bamboo. I water heavily a few days ago to pump the well down before adding a bunch of chlorine to "shock" the well and gave my large pomegranete tree/bush a lot of water. Three days later I'm noticing the pomegranete leaves are showing a lot of yellow,

My well water has the smell of hydrogen sulfide gas which means it's dissolved to some extent in the water which means I'm spraying hydrosulpheric acid on everything growing in the tard. I'm starting to assume that this is the problem - acidifying the environment. I don't know what my water concentration is of H2S but I've learned that it's produced by bacteria and that shocking the well with a large dose of chlorine will kill this bacteria along with any others that may be contributing to whatever's wrong with my well water.

I haven't had my well water analyzed yet but I've learned from reports on line that my aquifer is high in manganese and iron, both of which are somehow linked to the sulpher reducing bacteria which is causing the H2S. I haven't done anything since I added the chlorine so don't know if I've improved the water yet or not.

Anyone have any experiences with a situation similiar to this and can add to my information? It would sure be a shame if now that I have an almost unlimited source of water, using it does more harm than good.

Comments (10)

  • kevlar68
    9 years ago

    The H2S acid is not very strong, but I THINK if chlorine is added and no oxygen is available you produce a very strong H2SO4 + HCl solution. You should go to your local pool store and get a pH test kit. then you may need to pump into a barrel and neutralize the water before using; with soda ash / lime.

  • mikess
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    I'm also learning that chlorine combines with the sulpher reducing bacteria (the same stuff that causes H2S to form) to create inorganic arsenic. Anybody using well water for drinking really needs to find out what's in it . . . not just bacteria but also dissolved heavy metals that occur naturally in the earth. Also MTBE, the oxidizer they put in gasoline to reduce emissions seems to have done a lot of leaking and is found in almost all the aquifers here in the U.S. Shallow wells like mine can be really dangerous. My bamboo seems to be the canary in the coal mine.

  • littlepepperboy
    9 years ago

    Interesting experience. How deep is your well? I didnt do any treatment on my well water because im only using it for irrigation. Im curious what caused you to add the chlorine shock? Are you using the water for drinking?

    I had a similar experience in that i was testing my new well irrigation on my bamboo and I was pleasantly surprised. Where I live there is a high nitrate level in the shallow groundwater beneath me. I found it interesting that the bamboo reacted by having rapid increased growth, turning much greener and growing more shoots, similar to nitrogen fertilizer reaction.

  • mikess
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    I'm sure I've got high levels of nitrates since early last century the land I live on was dairy farm country. If the water is very high in TDS as mine is, I've learned the water cannot carry nutrients to the roots. I added chlorine to the well *20 foot deep 4.5 foot diameter dug well with 10+ feet of water in it to kill the sulfer-reducing bacteria that reacts with other minerals and vegetative matter to create the H2S and other toxic compounds. My well is only for irrigation.

    I'll probably have to add an iron filter to the irrigation system, along with some type of aeration if I want the water to be more useful to all the plants.

  • zzackey
    9 years ago

    I never watered my bamboo and it grew like crazy at both houses I lived in, in central Florida.

  • analia93
    9 years ago

    The most common way to kill a bamboo plant is to over water it. If the tips of your leaves are turning brown, it's a sign of too much watering. Cease watering your bamboo plant and wait until the leaves start to curl up into themselves before you water again.

    In my country, we did not water bamboo, it grows itself rapidly T.T

    This post was edited by analia93 on Thu, Nov 27, 14 at 23:49

  • qzr2
    9 years ago

    I am a beginner with bamboos but have many years experience with natural gas treating and H2S.

    Just in case you didn't know.

    If you have hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and not another sulfur compound and you install an iron filter, be aware that the resulting iron sulfide is pyrophoric. This means that when it is exposed to air it will heat up until it starts burning. If you dowse it with water it will go out but light again when it dries off. I don't do much water treating but there are non-pyrophoric option for gas treating so there might be some for water treating also.

    Above all be safe and don't put the spent filter media into a combustible area until you know that it will not heat up.

    Good luck.

  • john_31
    9 years ago

    interesting blog well water and bamboo!

  • waterbug_guy
    9 years ago

    mikees, where I grew up everyone had wells. We had 3 wells, one for drinking water, 2 for irrigation (but rarely used). These were hand dug, water level very close to the surface (5 to 20').

    Our well water was pretty darn good. But I knew lots of people who had hydrogen sulfide in their water. To me it was hard to drink it, but they all got used to it. So in my experience hydrogen sulfide was just in the ground water, caused maybe by bacteria a million years ago, but not caused from live bacteria, and so safe to drink.

    I also have experience with ponds too, which produce hydrogen sulfide. It takes a lot of organic matter to produce enough to smell it, unless muck is disturbed. To me that's hard to accomplish in a well unless there's sewage leaking into the well. Septic tank too close?

    If there's no septic tank close by I'd assume hydrogen sulfide was not caused by living bacteria. But of course testing is best. The level of hydrogen sulfide can range from good for plants to kills people. And of course PH and other minerals can tell you more. Testing is cheap, even free. Lots of drinking water filter places will test for free, maybe your health department.

    FWIW, rain water is slightly acidic, like 5 to 5.5 PH, and can be as low as 2 PH. That can make some minerals in soil easier for plants to use. Here in Phoenix we have alkaline soil and water so reducing PH in water makes a big difference for plants. So here acidic water is a good thing. But, as you said, other minerals can cause other interactions too.

  • mikess
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Very informative and interesting replies folks . . . thank you very much for taking the time.

    I haven't had the well water tested but I'll get around to doing that. We have finally gotten some rain here in San Diego so thankfully the bamboo will survive - a lot of it. A lot of it that I never watered at all with the well water is permanently brown and dead. The years of drought finally killed it. I'm waiting to see if the rain we're having will stimulate some of the rhizomes to start sprouting in the areas that appear to now be completely dead. The rain has certainly stimulated a lot of new growth in the areas where the bamboo is still alive.

    I don't have a septic system anywhere near the well, however the aquifer from which the water comes is large and there are countless possible points of contamination. Reading the online reports the water district has published, aquifer testing near its head shows the water to be very high quality. Nearer to me and downstream of the aquifer head the TDS (total dissolved solids) and and suspended solids level is very high and contaminated with compounds of various kinds, especially manganese and various sulfer compounds.

    I haven't used the well since I dumped about ten gallons of bleach in it. The bacteria situation might be much better now, although since the water comes from a large aquifer it may have done nothing at all, long term. As summer approaches I'll put my attention back on the well and get some circulation going and then get the water tested. I'll report back on whatever I learn.

    Thanks for all the great experience and information,

    Mike

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