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worowa
Professor

Registered: 06/29/07
Posts: 299
Last seen: 8 months, 25 days
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reusing calcium hydroxide soak water
#8013448 - 02/12/08 02:58 PM (15 years, 11 months ago) |
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G'day, I'm looking for ways to reuse the soak water, that is water with quick lime (calcium hydroxide), that has had straw dunked in it for pasteurizing. Adding other chemicals might make the soak water less harmful and more useful. Any suggestions?
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worowa
Professor

Registered: 06/29/07
Posts: 299
Last seen: 8 months, 25 days
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Re: reusing calcium hydroxide soak water [Re: worowa]
#8014178 - 02/12/08 06:02 PM (15 years, 11 months ago) |
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I was thinking of using the soak water to drench some weeds for a compost pile
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Jef
Out-of-work Sex Slave



Registered: 12/02/08
Posts: 764
Loc: near Duncan, BC
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Re: reusing calcium hydroxide soak water [Re: worowa]
#9901494 - 03/03/09 01:58 AM (14 years, 10 months ago) |
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Hi Worowa,
Calcium Oxide is quick lime and is explosive when added to water. Happily, you have calcium hydroxide aka Hydrated lime, which was combined with water during manufacturing (it was steam at the time, and so didn't explode.)
This soak water is excellent to dump on the compost as it neutralizes the acids that are created as the compost breaks down. It will also kep it what old timers used to call "sweet" (basic or alkaline are other names. Your compost will berak down much faster.
In the Pacific North west where I am, the soil gets very acid and we get a lot of moss in lawns etc. Lime helps a bit, but more so dolomite lime. You could use it on bare soil if yours is acidic.
If you leave the bag open, and especially if the weather is damp, it will attract CO2 Carbon dioxide and become lime. It will be solid and a lot heavier afterward, and still be dry. It is then harmless, useless as a pasteurizer, but good as a soil buffer.
This conversion to lime happens even faster in water, so if you're concerned about it being harmful leave it around for a week before dumping it.
Probably way more than you wanted to know, but hope this helps.
-------------------- I am my own lab rat.
Tell me and I will forget. Show me and I will remember. Involve me and I will learn.
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solumvita
Q.B.E.


Registered: 02/12/08
Posts: 2,061
Loc: South Africa
Last seen: 7 months, 19 days
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Re: reusing calcium hydroxide soak water [Re: Jef]
#9903759 - 03/03/09 02:06 PM (14 years, 10 months ago) |
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It would be interesting to see if you use the soak water instead of tap water in a substrate such as pine to see if it may neutralize the acid/oils in the pine and so allow an oyster to grow in pine substrate.
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Jef
Out-of-work Sex Slave



Registered: 12/02/08
Posts: 764
Loc: near Duncan, BC
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Re: reusing calcium hydroxide soak water [Re: solumvita]
#9906038 - 03/03/09 07:34 PM (14 years, 10 months ago) |
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My guess is yes!
Hydroxides are vary powerful detergents. In fact thye are half of a soap molecule, so you should get even better effects for washing volatiles out of conifers with the detergent tek.
I have suspected this for some time, and will try it.
I should add....there's probably no good reason why one should rinse substrate after these teks, as the hydroxides will be neutralised by acid metabolites and the fatty-acid component of the soap should make a good carbohydrate supplement.
The oldest soap recipe was fat and lye.(Potassium and other hydroxides)
-------------------- I am my own lab rat.
Tell me and I will forget. Show me and I will remember. Involve me and I will learn.
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