[torossia1171]

If there was a river near you that wasn't advised to drink raw, just like most rivers on earth, could you build a farm next to a river and have a successful harvest of food and weed? Isn't this how the ancient sumerians and ancient Egyptians grew their crops and poppy plants?

 

[RJ2019]

If that's a risk you want to take, yes. In all honesty I would (have used questionable water to grow food before) but you probably don't want to use it for plants you eat raw as greens, they have higher risks of contamination.

 

[torossia1171]

If that's a risk you want to take, yes. In all honesty I would (have used questionable water to grow food before) but you probably don't want to use it for plants you eat raw as greens, they have higher risks of contamination.

What if I boiled the river water first and then poured to the plants soil?

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[Littlebits]

If there was a river near you that wasn't advised to drink raw, just like most rivers on earth, could you build a farm next to a river and have a successful harvest of food and weed? Isn't this how the ancient sumerians and ancient Egyptians grew their crops and poppy plants?

well wouldn't call em rivers over here , but lets call em streams (glorified rivers) they overflow every winter... they fertilize the land and when they retreat the soil is richer than before and the hay grows better (usually only used to grow hay and/or for grazing) so they are autofertilizing... you could "overflow" your land in the winter and drain it in the summer to artificially do the same on your land... one benefit of the auto overflowing land is that in very dry summers, they are the best producing places for hay and grass for grazing... but some summers it's still too wet to drive on with machinery so what you can do changes from year to year... unless you manually mow the hay with a scythe and carry it away to dry it on drying racks (yes that still happens too some places) these places also produce WAY better in drought summers than the normal places do in normal summers, it's like double up on the hay compared to each other. (same size area)

but again... how big a river? how polluted? what is up stream? have you checked that?

 

[torossia1171]

well wouldn't call em rivers over here , but lets call em streams (glorified rivers) they overflow every winter... they fertilize the land and when they retreat the soil is richer than before and the hay grows better (usually only used to grow hay and/or for grazing) so they are autofertilizing... you could "overflow" your land in the winter and drain it in the summer to artificially do the same on your land... one benefit of the auto overflowing land is that in very dry summers, they are the best producing places for hay and grass for grazing... but some summers it's still too wet to drive on with machinery so what you can do changes from year to year... unless you manually mow the hay with a scythe and carry it away to dry it on drying racks (yes that still happens too some places) these places also produce WAY better in drought summers than the normal places do in normal summers, it's like double up on the hay compared to each other. (same size area)

but again... how big a river? how polluted? what is up stream? have you checked that?

How about a river the size of the Potomac and its only polluted with animals and their **** and viruses and pathogens that can be easily killed with boiling the water.

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[Littlebits]

How about a river the size of the Potomac and its only polluted with animals and their **** and viruses and pathogens that can be easily killed with boiling the water.

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well can you funnel some of it on to your property so it can flow slowly and let the sediments drop every winter? and then let it dry off in the spring so you can grow on it?

 

[torossia1171]

well can you funnel some of it on to your property so it can flow slowly and let the sediments drop every winter? and then let it dry off in the spring so you can grow on it?

Hold up, even if there's viruses or bacteria in the river, using that river water wouldn't harm the plants?

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[Littlebits]

Hold up, even if there's viruses or bacteria in the river, using that river water wouldn't harm the plants?

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show me one natural place on earth which doesn't have vira and bacterias ;-) soil is like the most bacteria rich environment on earth

 

[US RIFLE M1A]

If I diverted a stream in my area, the environmental cops would have something to say about it.

 

[Offrink]

Using water diverted from streams and rivers is a major agricultural positive. It has literally happened for millennia.

 

[the labyrinth]

"...a successful harvest of food and weed?"

Are you growing food or pot? Might be a difference.

 

[gungatim]

Rivers and streams are diverted into irrigation ditch's all the time. people living close to streams and creeks all had pumps in there to water their lawns and gardens in the neighborhood I grew up.

this is how it has worked forever. if flora and fauna grow on the banks of the river, it's for a reason. Take a drive through Washington farm country, you will see irrigation ditch's everywhere from the mountains, they get first dibs on the water flow until it hits California.

 

[sonya1]

Industrial waste chemicals have not flown into rivers in the U.S. in many years except during a few accidents. Most of the pollutants in rivers now are actually FROM agriculture, especially fertilizer so go for it. It will be good for your crops. Most bacteria will die in the sunshine

 

[Vinegar Joe]

If there was a river near you that wasn't advised to drink raw, just like most rivers on earth, could you build a farm next to a river and have a successful harvest of food and weed? Isn't this how the ancient sumerians and ancient Egyptians grew their crops and poppy plants?

Toro,

First, a warm welcome to the Forum. Glad to see you jumping in here.

Now for my late morning scribbling, ...

If you are inherently addressing building a farm for food production, around SHTF aftershock, it depend if Continuity of Government is still in place. If COG is, the answer is No.

The Potomac ?! a waterfront farm ? Even in ideal times, "gentlemen farmers" also had to have $$$.

I learned about SHTF matters and the Chesapeake Bay requirements. A senior official of the Mid-Atlantic asked if his adult son could join my small homestead group. To abbreviate, he told me during a disaster like SHTF with COG in place, no private citizen waterborne craft could enter the Bay. I'm no farmer; once did grow a lima bean in Cob Scouts. I am a net fisherperson. We've got a Zodiac inflatable with nets. Today a file cabinet and additional PC space needed for permits, etc. In a major disaster less permits and no access.

Yes, river access for food production was used in late antiquity. Surely even prior. Some societies of this era did not rely on rivers.About 50 years ago - was not living here then - I learned about this for $35.00 for a book explaining this. At one time $35 had some value. As soon as I finished reading this book, I started on one of the "bibles" on list to read. I could have saver 35 bucks if first I read: "Deuteronomy 11:10. I only read all the holy books for non-"religious" purposes.

 

[Colonel C]

Go to Yuma and see what they did with the Colorado river there.

 

[arleigh]

Best option might be to take several hundred yards of PVC pipe and anchor it up stream a ways and then to a pond above your place and provide a secondary stream to filter that water through, using gravel and sand and activated charcoal With the provision that you can easily replace theses media as they are overwhelmed.
I have done and will do again an aqua phonics garden using fish to provide the nitrogen to the plants , and the dirt the plants grow in filter the water going back to the fish.
the-whole system did well till the wildlife stole it all. Hence the need for the green house.
the reason it is important to get water away from the stream is from time to time they flood and you want to avoid being in that path by all means.
Personally if I lived near a stream I’d be growing fish as well any way. If your filter system is solid designated fish can act as your parakeet in a coal mine.

 

[mtnairkin]

If you live until you die from food grown with natural river water, you will live a very, very long life. Wash your food with pure water.

 

[irv818]

People have been fertilizing crops with manure forever.
Manure is animal poop.
If your river is full of untreated people poop, it would be unwise to
flood your fields or spray that on plants.

 

[Done4theday]

no need to pipe river water to the garden to fertilize but, you could for a water source if needed . there are easier ways to feed the garden.. I take fish from my river and eat them , then take the guts , spine and head and put in a bucket full of water with a lid on it. this sits in the sun for 2 months and rots real well , stir once a week. I then strain a cup or two into a watering can and top off with fresh water . the plants love it and grow very well with this FREE fertilizer . you can buy the same thing for a bit of money at the big box store . look up Fish emulsion . Veggies don't feed on Fertilizer , they feed off of microbes that eat fertilizer . bacteria and fungus is needed for plants to grow .
you can do the same as above using grass and weeds in a bucket of water , the nutrients that were taken up will release into the bucket of water and feed the microbes thus feed your plants.
I don't do this with crops eaten raw such as lettuce , only things I cook.

 

[Mr. Sockpuppet]

Some of the most lush farmland in the world is due to the nutrients brought to it by rivers. Though land erosion and other such problems do also occur.

The "Muddy" Missouri river is one very good example of such.