Greywater with Peat Moss to water Avocado tree

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My husband and I are very novice gardeners in Southern California (Hardiness Zone 10b). We’ve recently been working on one section of our (hillside) garden and realized that there was a greywater pipe already going into our soil from the two upstairs bathrooms of our house (done by previous onwers). Right now we believe it’s just a single pipe opening under the soil, but we figured we could hopefully utilize this to water a couple of trees - one a mature Pitis Porum and ideally a second new tree - preferably a Haas Avocado. The new Avocado would be in a separate part of the garden, around 12 feet downhill from the Pitius Porum.

My initial quesiton is this: We were advised by a local greywater enthusiast that we could easily water the two trees in the following way:

1. dig a 4 foot deep hole just uphill from each tree.
2. Fill it with Peat Moss
3. Place the pipe around 6” below the surface, emptying out into the Peat moss.
4. (A Y-pipe would divert the water, half to the upper slope Pitis, the other half down to the new avocado tree).

Thus our bathroom greywater would in theory water these two trees, with the Peat moss providing a steady (natural) reservoir, without having to go into complex greywater distribution/irrigation systems.

Any thoughts, advice or tips?

Many thanks,

Christine
 

Logan

Logan
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Hello @Chris T and welcome to the forums
It all depends on what's in the water, what washing products that you use. The moss is used for a filter?
I wouldn't use it all the time or delute it.the plants might not like it all the time.
 
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I think your bigger problem any be with building codes. I don't know anywhere that it's legal to run untreated grey water directly into the ground. So before you exacerbate the problem, you should check with you local planning department or at least consult a professional plumber. It makes you wonder if the previous owner did the sewage plumbing correctly too.
 
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Hello @Chris T and welcome to the forums
It all depends on what's in the water, what washing products that you use. The moss is used for a filter?
I wouldn't use it all the time or delute it.the plants might not like it all the time.

Thanks Logan. There's a pre-existing Graywater pipe already coming out of our house (water coming from 2 showers, washing machine and a few sinks). We use regular soaps (shower) and Eco-friendly washing detergent.

We were told that the peat moss is an excellent water absorber / releaser and hence would act as a natural reservoir. We didn't discuss filtration with him at all...
 

Logan

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I tried using grey water for the garden and used eco friendly washing powder and washing up liquid and the plants didn't like it very much.
 

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