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Can I use the waste water mixed with dish washing liquid from kitchen for watering my garden?

GardenerJ
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Poornima Kumar
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    What sort of dish washing liquid are you using? – Graham Chiu Mar 25 '16 at 08:58
  • *Most* hand-dishwashing soaps are OK. I'd look at the ingredient list of a machine washing detergent **hard** before putting it on my tomatoes. A small scale test on a potted plant such as basil might be a good way to proceed. – Wayfaring Stranger Mar 25 '16 at 15:06

1 Answers1

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Even if you remove all the solids first after washing your dishes as they might attract flies and rodents, you may still have a problem with sodium being added to your soil. So the type of liquid detergent is important.

http://ecologycenter.org/factsheets/greywater-cleaning-products/

  1. Household Cleaners / Dish Soap / All Purpose Liquid Cleaner:

Recommended:

Oasis dishwash/all-purpose cleaner for handwashing dishes, body & shampoo
Ecos: Creamy Cleanser; Parsley Plus; Furniture Polish; Window Kleener; Floor Kleener; Carpet Shampoo

Limit:

Bon Ami (it is biodegradable and has no perfumes, dyes, chlorine, or fragrance, but does contain sodium carbonate)
Ecos: Shower Kleener (sodium gluconate, sodium citrate)
Dr. Bronners: Sal Suds (sodium laurel sulfate)
Citra Dish (sodium chloride)
Ecover Dishwashing Liquid (sodium laureth sulfate, sodium chloride)

Avoid:

Ajax (sodium carbonate, bleach, fragrance, color);
Comet (bleach, +?);
Ajax (?);
Ivory (?);
Palmolive (?);
Joy (?);
Dawn (?)
Graham Chiu
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