Thanks, Goodground. A little bit of humor is a good way to start the morning.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

LOL

What do you mean? A respected forum poster in another site was saying it's bad. Do you agree? I was serious about it.
I don't like the labor of hauling the water around so I've only been applying it to my blueberries because of my hard well water that has pH over 7. This question is also linked to my "blueberry leaf problem" thread. When you stand next to the water, you can see the fish and the ground. So is it ok to use? Thanks

Goodground:

Did that respected forum poster tell you why lake water might be bad? For most plants, water is water, and the water in your lake was at one time rain. If you are concerned about the Ph when you use lake water on specific plants like blueberries, test the Ph to see. Other than high/low Ph, what could possibly be in lake water that would make it harmful?

Sorry, I really thought you were pulling our leg.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

I can imagine all kinds of things that could be wrong with lake water but none of them would find me swimming in or eating fish from the lake but not putting the water on my plants.

Maybe PH on specific plants.

Are they concerned about E. coli? Lake water can definitely contain E. coli, especially if there are cows, pigs, waterfowl, etc. in the area.

However, if you're careful, and avoid splashing the fruit with the water, I'm sure it's not an issue.

Unless it's Great Salt Lake it's hard to imagine any problem to the plants, except as alluded to by another maybe alkaline water (for instance, a limestone bottomed lake) as the main source of water to say blueberries.

I wouldn't spray highly polluted water on fruit I was going to eat without washing withing a few weeks, or on leafy or root vegetables at all, but water to the soil almost can't be too polluted for fruit plants from any but a notorious water body and not even from most of them. That is, don't irrigate from toxic-soup Love Canal, but most biological pollution (bacteria, viruses) certainly are not going to pass into roots and then through the plant. A few toxic metals could, but they are not common at all in lakes.

To me, it needs the same care and common sense that using manure as fertilizer would or having livestock or pets in the planting.

So is it safe to assume that Mississippi River water here on the WI/MN/IA border area is indeed on the acidic side? We have a big marsh area here that i know would be ok. I might at some point come up short on rain water (i can only store up to about 100 gallons so far... I could easily get to the river (within walking distance) and grab 20 gallons or so, if needed. I don't dare use my super duper hard well water on my blueberries.

You can get PH strips for a few dollars.

Goodground, if you are the slightest bit concerned about contamination from the lake harming your plants or making the food from them unsafe you certainly shouldn't be swimming in the water or eating fish from it.

Just about anything that could harm you indirectly from irrigated plants would be much more dangerous via direct contact/ingestion or accumulation up the food chain into the fish.

I wouldn't hesitate to use lake water if it were legal and convenient unless I knew of some specific cause for alarm. I would then investigate that particular cause.