Elizabeth Stepnowski

Gutters are a good idea, I will look into that. It is a pretty big hoop house, but you are right, it probably wouldn't need that much water. I live in Michigan, so it isn't crazy hot, but it does get hot in the hoop in the middle of summer. I do try to keep a layer of mulch on the ground at all times, but I will be more diligent about that this year and see how things go.

My problem is that I want higher flow rate but I can't get high flow with the filter.  I think if I put several filters in a row I would get even lower flow or the same flow as with one filter. My garden is in an unfortunate situation because I have one water source to water the hoop house as well as all the outdoor space, so I can't afford the time it would take to have the water going only to the hoop house for most of the week.

But that is a good point that the water needs to flow slowly through the filter to really be effective. So maybe my situation doesn't allow for chloramine filtration at all? Maybe I just need to try weekly treatments of compost tea and see if that supplements what is killed by the chloramines. I really want to know HOW detrimental chloramines are to the soil biology. Some people say they are tied up by soil organic matter and aren't harmful at all. I will do some testing, though, to see what the chloramine levels are coming out of the filter.

Our city uses chloramines in the tap water, which are more persistent than chlorine and therefore requires a filter to remove. I need to set up a drip irrigation system for my hoop house with that water, but the water flow when it passes through the filter is way too low to water the hoop house efficiently. Without the filter the water flow is 6.5 gallons/minute and with the filter it is less than 2 gallons/minute. With the filter, the water would need to be on for 40 hours a week to water the in the hoop house sufficiently. I was reading online that soil microbe populations bounce back pretty quickly after being watered with chlorine. So people say that it is fine to water with unfiltered tap water. Do you know if that is any different for chloramine? The issue is that in the hoop house the ONLY water it receives is from the tap, vs outside where tap water is only a supplement when there isn't enough rain. So I am wondering if it is even more important to use the chloramine filter for water that is going into the hoop house. The other thing is that my hoop house has had a history of having terrible soil that is pretty hydrophobic, and I am starting to think it is because the biology in the soil hasn't been taken care of. Do you think it would be sufficient to use unfiltered water (so it is containing chloramines, but allowing for larger flow) immediately followed by an application of compost tea? (the tea would be made with filtered water) Or are there filters that do not reduce the flow so dramatically?
This is a link to the filter I currently have: https://www.amazon.com/Garden-Hose-Filter-Chloramines-Pesticides/dp/B007I6MN72