Shower thoughts

[Anihiel1]

Here's an interesting thought: I also garden. Has anyone ever used skimmate as fertilizer? It seems to me that given it's nature, it would be a fantastic nutrient source, and we are throwing it away. Better to put it to use. However, I think any salt content would be extremely detrimental to plant growth.
So, how to..?

 

[adromero]

I like to garden as well. Maybe that smelly stuff can be put to good use.

 

[Anihiel1]

how do we get around the salt content though..? Any ideas?

 

[TriggerFinger]

You could dilute it with fresh water before using?

 

[Anihiel1]

Yes but that doesn't remove the salt. It may reduce the salinity a small amount, but not completely, and any salt whatsoever can kill certain plants. I was thinking more along the lines of a total desalination method. Could we distill it for example, without losing nutrients? Someone has to have tried this before

 

[Crabby48]

I can dump 5 gallons of saltwater in my lawn and it won’t kill the grass but a little cup of skimmate will. Skimmate is some powerful fertilizer

 

[atoll]

Plenty of people use skimmate diluted on their gardens here in the UK and it works well.

 

[Mr Fishface]

I would think diluting it down would be the best method. Putting the salt in a low enough concentration should work unless you plan to work with some extremely sensitive plants. Try an experiment with beans! They grow fast, get lots of seed per pack and they make for great experiments.

I would think that distilling wouldn't work well and would leave most of the nutrients behind in the process.

 

[Rybren]

I use diluted skimmate on my veggies and flowers without issue. My dilution rate is roughly 1 cup of skimmate to 4 gallons of water. I have seen no negative effects on any of the plants.

 

[Anihiel1]

@Rybren thank you! That helps immensely, a proven dilution ratio!
Definitely going to try this.