Aery Eltibrizi

Thank you everyone for your wonderful replies, ideas and tips.
But I think some of you misunderstood my initial post. I was not looking for ways to keep my plants from dying while I am away on vacation for couple of months, I am on vacation in Africa, arid subtropical desert with low rainfall and am currently in progress of buying a few hectares of land for future farming and living.
I found a potential piece of land that has great groundwater, yet I don't want to abuse groundwater source if I can help it. So I want to use ollas to establish young trees, vegetable garden, herb garden. While terraforming to capture rainwater and slow and soak nearby small seasonal dry river water into the farm.

I am also trying to give water saving tips to family members of my husband( greywater usage for garden, ollas, mulching, shading, windbreaks, etc) and they all have the same problem: SALTWATER.
They used to have freshwater years ago but with urbanization the ground water has become salty.
And they have lost many salt intolorant trees such as mango, lemon, guava, etc..
Big question here is to anyone who knows for a fact, can ollas filter out salt so the plants only suck fresh water out from the ollas?
If yes, would the olla's pores clog up with salt residue eventually thereby needing to dig up the pot and clean it from salts( if even possible?) or would the salt not clog up the porous clay pot from releasing fresh water?

Thank you again for reading!

I am so sorry to bump this up, but in 3 days I am going on a 3 month vacation to africa and I want to use clay pot irrigation to fix my mother in law's struggling garden, if anyone could answer at least one of these questions I would be very grateful and it would help me knowing what I am going to do right or wrong before I get started.

Thank you <3

Greetings!

I have looked on internet and I have not found any info regarding this, also I hope this question is in the right place if not I apologize.

I am very interested in using Clay Pots/Pitchers/Olla's in my dry hot desert garden to irrigate my young trees, vegetables and other plants.

1. But I am very curious if it is possible and if anyone has tried and can confirm that compost/manure/castings Tea's can be added to the clay pitchers for irrigation for nutrients?

2. If possible, could it be done all the time, instead of adding more water to refill the pot, to add every time a nutritious tea( mixed with water ofcourse) instead or would that be too powerful for the plants if thats all the plants drink?
What would be the cooldown period for next tea time ( I will be using big pitchers so refilling them probably once a week )

3. Also I am fairly new to Clay Pitchers ( I have not bought any yet ) and have not found adequate information on the exact way of making the ideal clay pitchers in terms of putting them into fire.
Has anyone made any themselves or know the exact requirements for thickness, and the firing of the pots for the ideal irrigation purpose?

4. Also I have seen that some people make a hole near the bottom of the pot and add a wick/rope to the hole, but I have not seen anyone explain it's precise purpose and how it works, I understand the wick/rope extends the water into the soil further than the pot's reach, but how efficient is it really, does it waste any water this way as in letting too much water seep out of the pot into the soil or do the plants and trees always absorb the water of the wick?

5. Has anyone tried or know if this is more efficient thereby needed less clay pots in vicinity between trees and plants if adding a wick to a pot?

6. Maybe a silly question... By adding Pitcher/s next to establishing young tree or older tree, will it make the roots of the tree lazy and they won't grow deeper into the ground for their own groundwater if they get easy water from clay pitchers?

Thank you for reading!

Hello Permies,
I must admit I never heard this word before today, maybe because most people have other words for this such as biological/natural, etc.
Non the less I am glad I found this website, more like relieved actually..I have been having questions to which google doesn't seem to be helpful, maybe my questions where just too long or unclear, but I hope some of you folks can help me out <3.
Before I start with my story and questions I want to ask for your patience, english is not my first language and I also have ABI disability so if you could explain things more widely I would really really appreciate it!!!

Originally I live in the Netherlands, but later this year I am moving to africa, North-East Sudan to be exact, and well.. I want to chase my long lost dream, farming. Now I am a complete newbie at farming, but this is not something I just wanna do out of a crazy idea, I am serious about this despite my disability, I plan to be doing farming for the rest of my life.
However moving to a different continent with a complex climate is gonna test that new found love for green life.
The city I will be living in is Port Sudan, its on the coast of red sea, has high humidity in air around 60-70%, degrees as high as 35-40c (80-105f) during summer months and slightly lower in winter months. More on Port Sudan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Sudan
We bought a few hectares of land in the city and it's not far from the sea.
Now the golden question, can i grow strawberries/blueberries in a cooled greenhouse and not be called crazy? I really tried doing google research on this before asking...and have been chasing the invisible rabbit for weeks now, never really getting close to a clear answer...
I was thinking of doing it with aquaponics, growing berries in hanging pipes in the greenhouse and adding honeycombed cardboard evaporative pad cooling system to keep the temperatures low. Living near the sea, maybe I could even convert the seawater to fresh water, that I get from my well.
Since I'm a little nuts I want to keep my fish happy too, so I was thinking instead let the poor fish swim in a water tank I would create a cute pond in the garden for them and add pipings and pomps there instead of keeping the fish in the greenhouse, or would Koi need lower temperatures as well like the berries?

So here are my few questions.

- Is it crazy or ok to grow berries in cooled greenhouse in terms of electric bill and long term?
- Is Saltwater converting to freshwater system worth investing in?
- Also I read somewhere that evaporating cooling is not that great in humidity airs, but rather dry air, how much of this is true and is it worth for me to use evaporating cooling with 60-70% humidity?
- Keeping fish outdoors in a cute pond in garden then pumping the water up to my greenhouse flowerbeds, then draining the plant water back to the pond, will that work alright with the eco system?
- Can the fish pond be big or does it have to be small in order for the necessary nutritients from fish waste to keep the plants thriving?
- Does the fish waste dissolve in water or does it collect at the bottom of the pond in which case i could create few deeper areas in the pond for the pipes to pump up the waste from there?
- More tips are welcome! <3
- Would tinting my greenhouse with anti UV films work in terms of keeping the temperatures even lower, or would it be bad for strawberries in terms of not enough sunlight?

I know some of these questions sound really silly, I do apologize, I tried figuring this out on my own, but it only made me more confused due to my disability.
I will appreciate any help, suggestions, ideas, etc.

Thank you for reading! <3