[permaculture] reed beds

Robyn Francis erda at nor.com.au
Fri Feb 8 16:28:32 EST 2008


Depends on what plant you're using and what uses it has. Most rushes, sedges
and reeds have uses as fibre plants for weaving, phragmites for thatch
(you'd need a LOT of it to thatch anything, so not a realistic yield from a
treatment system). All can be used as mulch - best used for trees rather
than annual veg gardens.
Typha (Cattail/Bullrush) is a great weaving & mulch plant - while it has
edible uses it is generally a precautionary principle not to use plants from
waste treatment systems for human consumption.
Robyn


On 8/2/08 11:49 PM, "Christoph Redwitz" <Latuerlich at gmx.de> wrote:

> How do you run the reed beds now?
> With using the reeds i meant, if you can use the plant outcome or if its just
> purification. I think you can use phragmites as mulch and maybe constucting
> material (roofs maybe)?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -------- Original-Nachricht --------
>> Datum: Fri, 08 Feb 2008 08:59:05 +1100
>> Von: Robyn Francis <erda at nor.com.au>
>> An: permaculture <permaculture at eslists.ibiblio.org>
>> Betreff: Re: [permaculture] reed beds
> 
>> 
>> I have reed bed systems here in sub-tropic Australia. Yes, we do have
>> water
>> loss through evapo-transpiration which varies with the seasons, depending
>> on
>> temperature and weather. When it's very hot and dry the reeds tend to use
>> most of the waste water and there's little comes out the other end, but
>> most
>> of the year there is some water coming through for re-use.
>> 
>> There are a lot of rushes and sedges suitable for purification. Phragmites
>> spp tend to have aggressive root systems which grow into pipes and block
>> them, so while one if the best performers re treatment, they create a lot
>> of
>> maintenance. The prefered species here are Juncus, Scirpus and Typha. I
>> also
>> have a greywater reed bed planted with Cyerus papyrus (which looks
>> stunning)
>> and Yellow Flag Iris.
>> What did you mean by using the reeds properly?
>> 
>> Ciao
>> Robyn
>> 
>> 
>> On 8/2/08 1:00 AM, "Christoph Redwitz" <latuerlich at gmx.de> wrote:
>> 
>>> It not yet a concret plan. It's more a dream: moving to a warmer place.
>>> Evapotranspiration is here in Germany no problem. The reed beds a
>>> working very well. But i in hot climat, one says: reed beds are a good
>>> option, because you can recycle your greywater in that way, and other
>>> say, you can use reed beds but u wont get water back. But actually i
>>> have these statements out of literatur. Thats why i am asking now here
>> :)
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Lawrence F. London, Jr. schrieb:
>>>> Christoph Redwitz wrote:
>>>> 
>>>>   
>>>>> Hi!
>>>>> Does anybody have some experience with read bed purification in dry
>>>>> areas? I'v read about it, that it is not practical there, because of
>> the
>>>>> high evapotranspiration loss of water. But on the other hand i heard
>> of
>>>>> many people that they use it. Do you get water back from that system?
>>>>> And can you use the reed propperly?
>>>>> Are there more effectiv plants to use on that kind of pourification?
>>>>>     
>>>> 
>>>> Reedbed greywater purification systems are widely used in the UK.
>>>> Is evapotranspiration a problem unique to using reeds in beds?
>>>> If so maybe erecting some kind of greenhouse over the bed would reduce
>> that
>>>> water loss
>>>> and infuse the system with clean condensed water from the inside
>> surfaces of
>>>> the greenhouse.
>>>> Left partly open in hot weather for ventilation and closed in cold this
>>>> structure could
>>>> be left in place year round. Where are you thinking of using this
>> system?
>>>> Europe?
>>>> 
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