Michael Qulek

Find a local to your area online nursery.  They usually have the same varieties on multiple rootstocks.  I would focus on varieties with the most dwarfing rootstocks for stabilization.  In my own orchard, I usually plant four varieties of each fruit in a 20' square, that I refer to as a "quad".  So, that's four apples, four peaches, four plums, ect in each "quad".  If you select the most dwarfing stocks, then I'd go smaller than 20 X 20' spacing.  For regular ground cover under the trees, maybe some clover for erosion control.

You're in zone 7, which is what I think I am, here on my Sierra foothills homestead, so I really don't think you'll have any success with figs, unless you go with an extensive frost protection strategy.  In have one Hardy Chicago fig in my orchard, and it is barely hanging one, dieing back each winter, and resprouting from the stump.  At my place, animal protection is the single most important priority, so I haven't focused much on winter protection.

I myself have planted some nitrogen-fixing shrubs, like Autumn Olive, and SeaBerry, but I've not really had success with those.  On my own property, chestnuts and European plums have had the most success.

I went the DIY way and saved tens of thousands of dollars on my off-grid system.  Don't skimp on the electronics!  There is a lot of cheap foreign charge controllers and inverters out there.  Focus on the brands that handle large starting surges like compressors and well pumps.  A quality inverter will handle 200% surge for 5-60 SECONDS, not milliseconds.  It's the TIME that is important, not the surge AMOUNT.

Solar panels are the best deals out there now.  Don't order panels online!  The shipping charges for all that glass is built into the high price.  With local purchases and cash and carry pickup, expect to get 5-6W/dollar, depending on your geographic location.  Anything less than 3W/$ isn't worth buying.

If the panels are purchased used, bring a voltmeter and check each panel you load on your vehicle.  Don't buy anything with a Voc >10% less than the documented Voc.  So, if the label says Voc=38.0V, don't buy a panel putting out less than 34.2V when the meter is connected directly to the panel

Batteries are the single most expensive part of the system now.  All battery chemistries have weaknesses.  Traditional lead-acid dies with chronic undercharging. Li batteries don't handle cold well.  A charge while below freezing can destroy an Li battery.  Let your local battery environment dictate what chemistry you buy.

Here is a simple DIY test kit you can buy at Home Depot.

Sorry John, the phrases "small system" and "run a well pump" can NOT be put into the same sentence.  Can you run a well pump solely off of solar, well sure, but it ain't gonna be small.  Take a look at the following chart...

A 3/4hp pump needs 31.4A at 240V for ~500 milliseconds to start.  That works out to be ~7500 starting watts.  Few inverters can handle that.  But they are out there.  I power my own 1hp pump with Schneider's XW+6848 inverter.  Beware of the cheaper Chinese-made inverters.  Although they may claim they can surge to 2X, that surge can only be maintained for at most one AC cycle, or ~ 16 milliseconds.  So, shop for an inverter that is DOCUMENTED to surge for at least five seconds.  Outback's Radian, Schneider's XW6848, and the Conext 4048 can surge that high.  All expensive, but all very much worth the money.

You'll be ahead of the game if you get a meter that can measure starting surge, also called "inrush".  I use and recommend the clamp meter UniT 216C.  You can find one on Ebay for ~90$.  I can also read AC/DC running amperage and AC/DV volts, plus ohms, so that one meter will meet all your solar needs.

I started out with 380Ah of battery at 48V, and I never try to run my pump unless I have at least 2000W of power coming in.  With 4500W of solar panels on rotating array mounts, I can run my pump from 8am till 4pm in summer.  Maybe 8:30am till 2:30pm in weaker November sun.

Have you examined the inside of the chimmey pipe before and after installing the coils?  One concern I would have is that the heat extraction excelerates the condensation of creosote, which potentially could lead to a chimmey fire?

Mariya Bee wrote:P.S. I'm actually fascinated by how the Amish keep their food fresh with jars and without the fridge, I saw a video on the "Swartzentruber Amish". I'd love to learn how to do that myself.

That's quite easy.  With a pressure canner, you can put away just about anything, as long as you follow the standard food safety guidelines.  A canner does NOT have to be expensive.  I picked up more than one for ≤10$ at my local flea market.  Glass canning jars too, at maybe 5-10$ per dozen.  Any pressure cooker that can achive 15psi can be used as a canner.  I make a very good canned chicken soup.

Then of course, there's also drying, and pickling.

You can find books for all of these at your closest public library.  Lots of information online too.  Some great texts I personally use are "Stocking Up", and "Putting Food By".  Another very value text is "The Encyclopedia of Country Living"

Mariya Bee wrote:
I'm just sensitive to overall artificial lights, they increase my anxiety and also electronic devices via touch (hand pain). Sometimes I feel pressure around power lines and power towers as well, so I'd prefer to avoid those too.

It sounds to me that you don't tolerate the flicker of 60Hz flourescent lighting, prevalent in just about every workplace?  Does watching TV and computer screens give you the same effect?  Tell me, how do you feel around the electric lights and stereos inside automobiles?  Everything in a car would be DC.  I have heard about this before, but have never actually met someone with that kind of disorder.  How are you typing out these responses right now, with a AC powered desktop machine, or a DC powered laptop?

I honestly would not recommend anyone give up electricity completely, if nothing else, then just for lighting.  I started out with kerosene in my cabin before installing solar, and I personally feel the fumes are very toxic.  And sometimes you need extra light, even in the middle of summer.  It might be that a small 12V solar system is all you might need to live a fairly modern lifestyle.  I can not even imagine a person without at least a laptop trying to be a writer in today's world.

Hello Mariya, a couple of questions for you.  When you say "electrical sensitivity" do you mean all electricity, or specifically alternating current (AC)?  I'm asking because I was consulting with someone previously that had sort of an allergic reaction to standard AC current.  They could tolerate DC current appliances without a problem.

Your current location is New York City?  How exactly are you doing in a place where you must be totally surrounded by AC current in all directions all the time?

If you are only sensitive to alternating current like this other gentleman was, one viable option you might take is living in an RV, that is not plugged into the grid.  An RV, or a cabin with an RV-style power system might possibly work for you?

Though quite limiting, a 12V DC RV-oriented system would allow you to have lights, TV, and a few 12V appliances.  Couple that with propane heating and propane refrigerator cooling, and you could have a reasonably comfortable 20th century lifestyle.

BTW, I myself am towards the West Coast, in the Sierra Nevada foothills, so I'm just about as far from you as I can get.  My homestead, though off-grid, is also designed around 120/240V AC.

Green veins within yellow leaves is typically a sign of metal deficiencies, most commonly zinc.  For my own chestnut trees with the same symptoms, I made a spray bottle full of 1% zinc sulfate + a drop of detergent to spray on the leaves.  After spraying, the leaves started greening immediately, within 1-2 days.  Amusingly, the greening followed the spray pattern exactly.

If you can't find zinc sulfate, the commercial fertilizer "Ironite" will be a source of zinc.

Supposedly, what some old-timers did for mature trees was to drive a few galvanized nails into the roots of their trees?

John Weiland wrote:Our most concerning power draw is a deep well (220VAC) that would need a cognate inverter for juice.  I recall focussing some years ago on the Magnum brand for such an inverter.  

Hi John, do you have any specifications for your pump?  What's it's horsepower rating?  Do you have any information about the amperage draw, starting/running?  Those numbers would be essential in the design of a solar-based pumping system.

Yes, completely doable via solar, but you need to know your numbers for proper design first before building something out of randum components, and then trying to flip the power switch.

I have a chart of pump power numbers.  If you can tell me something about your pump, we can get the starting/running figures from the chart.