Charli Wilson

I have a 12 year old black mulberry tree. It has never fruited. I've mostly just ignored it- but this year I'm interested!

I'm thinking its a male tree? Photos of the 'blossoms' attached. It doesn't clearly look like any of the google pictures, but I think it looks more like the male flowers.. and 12 years with no fruit signifies something!

Thanks,
Charli

I only fill and empty the ibc from the top access.

The leak must be really low down as it does entirely empty. The bottom valve was both closed, and had an extra screw-cap fitted closed before I buried the ibc!

I can't dig it up- there's a huge greenhouse and massive raised beds built on top of it! I'd have to destroy and the rebuild the greenhouse!

Put putting clay in the bottom... genius! That I could completely do. Not sure I can really pack it down as I can only fit my arm through the access hatch- but I can certainly add clay, poke it a lot with a tamping tool and hope it settles in a waterproof manner. I have plenty of clay from when we dug out the greenhouse heat sink!

Other ideas from outside of the forum have been a 'pillow tank'- ie a 500L top-access only flexible water tank, put inside the ibc. But these are rather costly.

danielle gao wrote:Charli,
Did you ever try this? I am also looking at what to put in some hanging baskets.

I did try but was never hugely successful- just not enough space in a hanging basket for much plant nutrition. I still do hanging baskets, but propagate my own plants for them and do new ones every year. Usually heuchera and fuschia- they survive overwinter in the greenhouse and can be replanted.

Ideas on.. how to seal a leaking ibc. The hard part being- said ibc is underground!

It is a 1000 litre plastic ibc container, underground as part of a rainwater collection system. It has sprung a leak somewhere and the water slowly leaks away. I only have access through the top-opening (15cm diameter circle). Because the ibc has raised beds and a greenhouse built over it I can only access about 50cm square of the top.

What could I try to enable me to still use the container? Or to still use the space for rainwater collection?

I did try contacting some companies who supply industrial ibc-liners. But they all have minimum order quantities of 300 or so, and none want to supply me with a sample (it was worth trying!).

I do have an electric chipper, it is a 'Bosch AXT 2000 HP' (in the UK) and it has been awesome. I got it second hand for about £50 and it has had much use over the last decade. I use it for sunflower stalks, raspberry canes, brambles, tree trimmings, and its helped me chop up probably 50 metres worth of conifer over the years. I have recently managed to blow up the electrics in it... and haven't discovered in it is yet salvageable this time. If not I would completely buy another though!

It is no use for anything green! For this (think privet hedge and euonymous shrub trimmings)- I put them on the grass and roll over them with a lawn mower (a cheap £38 own brand lawnmower). You have to empty the mulch bag every few minutes- but it is well worth it!

Bulk land, per acre isn't badly priced, but as always- you need money to make money. I have £80K for a land purchase but can't find anything in that price range (just land- local to my house but not with a house). I doubt I'll ever own land here.

The rented allotment has its upsides- I don't pay to maintain the boundary and it comes with allomenteering neighbours to keep an eye on things (like phone me when my shed roof blew off in the wind!).

The downside of the UK- land is very expensive! I live in an old coal-mining town in Derbyshire, and for a house with a bit of land I'd need more than half a million quid- and thats considered cheap! I shall never be able to stretch to that.. but an allotment only costs me £15 a year to rent, so that is what I'll be sticking with!

Cotton gauze?

This shop sells it as 'garden blanket': https://www.manufactum.co.uk/cotton-gauze-garden-blanket-a89760/
I'm experimenting with this using old cheesecloth fabric I had, no results yet!

I would really like a bike trailer- reckon I could just about get my 10kg mower to the allotment up the big hill! But the crazy big and heavy things you guys are hauling, wow! I could never manage that!

The area I live in is not called the 'peak district' for nothing!

Pi zero W- £10
Sd card - £10 (32GB)
interface- £14 for two buses (if your sensors are all in totally different directions or you want  more than 20 of them, upgrade to a pi3 for £32 for and a 6 bus interface for £33)
Temp sensors- about £2 each for waterproof ones (dependant a bit on lead length, but nothing huge)
Cable- 20m is £12 for outdoor UV protected cable, £5 for a load of rj45 plugs
Connectors- £3 each

Humidity sensors- £30 each
Light sensors- I've never found a 1wire light sensor I'm afraid, so you can have one on the pi itself for £3, but not lots scattered around.

Cameras- you can only have one camera per pi, if you wanted 3 I would recommend a pi zero and camera for each camera setup (which adds to your power load a bit)- then you're looking at £10 for each pi, and £25 per camera.

Total (assuming 20 temp sensors, 6 humidity)
sensor setup: ~£360
cameras: £150

These are all wireless-enabled, but for ease of setup you might want a seperate router. Any old ADSL router will do- we get a new one every year when we switch ISP- so I'd have thought you could get one for free.

You would want to throw in £20 for shipping everything as well perhaps