hobbssamuelj wrote:
my wife and i make our own laundry detergent with ivory soap, borax, and washing soda. would this clog the soil the same as commercial detergents?
Kudos for making your own, certainly cheaper. As for greywater use, I dunno about the ivory soap, but borax is toxic to plants. I don't think Borax is necessary in your detergent unless the clothes are really that dirty. Washing soda is Sodium carbonate and I would expect it to salt the soil in the long term. Maybe if you use only modest amounts of washing soda the microbes can somehow break it down so it doesn't build up? I don't know, but it is wise to be wary with these things. Once soil is salted, good luck unsalting it.
Almost all commercial soaps are wholy unappropriate for greywater use on plants. So if you're using Tide or Gain or whatever and using the greywater to water your plums, tomatoes, etc., that soil WILL get salted with continual application. Good intentions no doubt but not good chemistry.
I think the real solution is to use organic soaps instead of the conventional, inorganic soaps (washing soda). For instance Dr. Bronners soaps are made entirely from various plant oils. It cleans very well and can be used for just about everything from degreasing an engine to washing your clothes to shampoo. I would expect such vegetable-oil-based soaps to be ok for greywater usage indefinitely. Their bar soaps use sodium hydroxide to saponify the vegetable oils, the liquid soaps use potassium hydroxide. Given that choice I'd go with the liquid because plants like potassium more than sodium.
I'm certainly no chemist or biochemist, just my $.02