Flush 'n Fill New Meaning

I have tomatoes in my beds and I have tomatoes in self-wicking buckets (all Mel's Mix).  Both have fruit and are growing nicely, but those plants in the buckets all have pretty bad leaf curl, and some Blossom End Rot. I bought a calcium foliar spray for them and used that last night, so hopefully weekly applications will help.  Now the Flush n' Fill part.  It's where you may call me crazy.  That's okay, I've heard it before.    After replacing a faulty pressure relief valve on my water heater, I decided it was a good time to flush it out... the first time in 7 years.  I collected the first 24 gallons of this nasty brown mineralized water and used it to fill the reservoirs in my tomato buckets.  There are some good calcium deposits to use in there right?!?

Other than the obvious iron content, I don't know.  It would depend on the minerals in your water supply. I agree that it's nasty.

Does your tank heat the water that you then get out of the tap directly or did the water you flush out come from a separate system that indirectly heats your potable water by means of coming in close contact (coils and such within the tank) but never mix?
 
The answer is important because if that water that you flushed is the same water that you would drink or bathe in, you might be OK, but if it isn't meant to be potable, there could be all sorts of nasties in it.  I have an indirect system (I don't know if that's the technical term) and I know what's in that water isn't good to drink let alone water my plants with.  It goes down the drain to be treated by the wastewater plant, I won't even let the tech pour it outside because it will find its way into the groundwater.

It sounds like a good idea in theory, but I'd be real wary of what's in anything I water my plants with because it will ultimately get consumed by me. 

HTH

It's just a standard tank heater, so I believe it would be a "direct" system...

Is your water chlorinated? Fairly common, and bad for plants if so.

Yes, chlorinated water.  The in-bed plants get rainfall and harvested rainwater, but the bucket plants are too far for the gravity-fed rain barrels to water.  So, I compromised.  But the main reason for posting was to hopefully get feedback on the potential positives of naturally occuring minerals in hot water... or feedback to say I was ridiculous for doing such a thing   The buckets were an experiment, and so it continues!

mapspringer wrote:Yes, chlorinated water.  The in-bed plants get rainfall and harvested rainwater, but the bucket plants are too far for the gravity-fed rain barrels to water.  So, I compromised.  But the main reason for posting was to hopefully get feedback on the potential positives of naturally occuring minerals in hot water... or feedback to say I was ridiculous for doing such a thing   The buckets were an experiment, and so it continues!

Sounds like an interesting experiment. The minerals in ground water result from the leaching from soil and rock as water moves down to the water table, so I wouldn't expect anything harmful in it, and much that would be beneficial, unless you live in an area where are are ores, such as lead or arsenic.

I would not worry about chlorine. Heating water makes the chlorine offgas, which is why you can smell chlorine much more at the hot water tap than at the cold. At any rate, it's not going to be deposited in the minerals.