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Living reservoir plants

 
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Plants like aloe vera can be grown on mass with very little work they store water in the dry season. You can dice such plants and feed them to trees or whatever you want to help through the dry season. Putting them in a mulch pit is a good way to put their water content into the soil. You may want to do it before the wet season ends so they can rot a bit. Rotting may cause some adverse effects especially if the roots come into direct contact with the rotting material. It will work well for some plants not so good for others. Dirt should be put on top and then less saturated mulch on top of that.
 
Jeff Hodgins
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My plan is to use c3 plants like jade and aloe and also some c 4 plants that tend to hold water a bit later in the year. So first you use the dicon radishes, acanthus and the cana Lillie's then toword the end of the dry season you use you long-term water storage plants like aloe, jade and other c3 plants. You can also collect wet mulch after a heavy dew and impregnate the soil with it covering to seal the moisture in. I guess that would be called dew water catchment.
 
Jeff Hodgins
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I learned that aloe can be reproduced more rapidly by cutting the large tops and planting them again. The new plants that were underneath will have more light and room to grow quickly. We have the large red flowered kind of aloe one plant can weigh 50 lb that's about 40lb of pure water. You. Can take all the large leaves off and leave only the center to regrow. Aloe leavescan also be peeled and eaten at any stage of maturety. I put them in macaroni and cheese. The flavour is mild so you can add it to almost any recipe from cookies to soup.
Organic Solid Water Irrigation Fertilization is an idea for growing crops in arid enviroments.
 
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