Similar to Aqua Globes on larger scale in Desert.

Has anyone tinkered with the idea of the Aqua Globes? Those glass blown water containers that you poke into the soil next to your plants?

Since we are considering moving out to the desert onto some Raw Land I'm not sure if we will have to truck in water. If we do I was considering Fabricating a device similar for trees and such that would hold one of those 5 gallon water jugs and would leak the water into the soil as needed.

Since I am new to gardening period my thought is that if it has a cover that is made from foil or even the car windshield reflector liners it would keep the water from evaporating too much and would keep the soil around the trees nice and moist.

This would also keep me from having to buy and set up a drip irrigation system that would probably have to be fixed/maintained (black plastic tubing) in the desert doesn't seem very logical.

Any ideas or input would be much appreciated.

-Chris

Personally I would do as much as possible with earthworks to store water in the soil.  If you have logs available, you might consider hugelkultur.

rainwater harvesting video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iQ-FBAmvBw

http://www.harvestingrainwater.com/

do a search on here and elsewhere for "ollas" or "clay pot irrigation".  I'm not familiar with the aqua globes you're talking about, but ollas might be a good option for you.

I filled plastic milk jugs with water (then replace cap )  that had a single small hole poked in the bottom and hauled them out in a wheelbarrow from my closest waterline out to new fruit , nut and a few conifer trees newly planted this year and just let them seep moisture into the ground.  It kept the trees alive with shocked roots for almost four months without rain.  It was cheap and easy enough.  I would do it again the first summer of all new plantings to come as rooting is just establishing. 

So one, 1 gallon, water bottle worked?

I have aquaglobses in a house plants, 2 in a largish pot.  Hard to fill and not all too practical but pretty neat.  I have used gal milk jugs and they don't always drain out like I plan... I like the rain harvest and storing water in the soil.  I am putting rain barrels under downspouts and running drip to fruit trees from there. 

I set out about four one gallon jugs filled around 3/4 of each tree , sort of on the upside as it is sloping ground , I refilled them about every three days in the dry heat of summer.  Soemtimes I hauled the jugs in , other times I refilled them from other containers.  I had to adjust the size of the hole to keep it seeping gradually  without becoming a stream out of the jug and if the holes were too big they were leaking steadily before they got out where i wanted them placed.  I made a few mistakes where not enough would seep and a few more where they emptied within 20 minutes.  I had to replace a few jugs but they were free.

I only used the term aqua globe just so people would understand the very basic concept of what I was trying to convey.

The concept is a type of water container that would release water into the soil based on need. If we plan on living in the Desert and cannot afford for a well to be drilled, or the water from the well is unusable I would like to have some sort of backup plan.

It seems you have had some success with this method Synergy, but the implementation may have needed some tweaking.

The idea would be to install the type of waterbox system after the swales were dug and put in place, but before the rain came, since there is on average only 4" a year it seems this might be necessary.

There's also the idea of building a small, lined aquifer below your planting bed. I forget the name of it, but there's another thread all about it.

Kind of halfway between hugelkultur and building a pond. The liner can cover a fairly large area, draining it all to a big sand pit which the roots can reach.

people have always used different type of drip irrigation, sometimes just a jug with some small holes poked in the bottom so the water leaks out slowly..or clay jars

Terra cotta tends to retain water and in a freeze it fractures , so it is not practical here,  but in a desert environment burying an unglazed clay pot (I am thinking terra cotta) would allow water to seep through the clay into deeper soil where it is more likely to aid a rooting system and not evaporate .  Here is a link to where the Path To Freedom website shows the family managed gardens in southern California , showing them planting terra cotta pots into the garden beds.  I think leaving the rim a four or five inches above the surface allows you to mulch and work soil without getting dirt into your watering system and you could likely cover the tops with second hand mismatched plates.  Good luck with your challenges!

http://urbanhomestead.org/photos/gallery.php?gid=80

you're new to gardening and you're moving to the desert to make a go at life growing your own food.  good for you.  good luck.   it reminds me a little of "Into the Wild."

Aqua globes, or any above water collection in the desert is going to retain heat, and that's bad considering what you are looking to accomplish.  I would personally suggest a system of earthworks, small ponds, and terra cotta wessels that can be filled with water and slowly release it below ground level as the day goes on, or a soaker system below the mulch.

i use bottles and i push the part with holes in it down on to the soil in the hole i have dug to hold the upside down bottle with pinpricks in the cap. i hope that with the holes pressed aginst the soil the water will be more likely to come out slowy. Tha tis fruit juice bottles and nestea and such. Some times when i get back and refill them sometimes  they are full of water when i get back and somtimes all they are empty and i dont know how long they took to empty, still it has worked for a lot of young trees.
Does anyone know how to be sure it works everytime. 
  It seems to me that coca cola could produce a bottle that has a cap that has the right sized hole in its cap maybe two caps one for drip irrigation and another for the coca cola or maybe there can be a sticky peice of plastic over the hole in the lid to be pulled off when you use the bottle for irrigation.
It would be very good for coca colas name to do something like that, and very good for lots of poor people in dry places.
on the other hand an inventor could perfectionise the sytem and get some money for herself instead of coca cola getting the benefits. 
    There is a japanese intenational superstore that sells things like stationary and plastic draws for files, that sells a bottle with a tube like a hospital drip tube fixed in the lid of the bottle for you r potted plants. i have not used it yet. agri rose macaskie.

aljezeera had a documentary on how in the Yemen they grow a leaf they chew that is slightly bucks them up like a good cup of tea and how this plant uses a lot of water, tha tthey shoul dbe using for food.  A disadvantage in a country that is dry.
        i wonder if they could grow the trees bushes i am not sure which in a floored green house so the water vapor did not escape, as  somethings are grown in houses, in decorational all gass surrounded enviroments that dont need watering because the water that gets lost in evaporotranspiration condenses on hte walls and ceiling of hte glass and rips back down into the soil. i am thinking of a shaded green house as it is in the desert.

  With drip irrigation you bury the black tubes a bit, then they don't heat up so much and the sun does not degrade the plastic. It is my husbad that is the expert on the drip irrigation system.
      Maybe they are made of plastic that is not photo degradable, most plastics are photo degradable. 
  I woud have thought that you needed drip irrigation, it is quicker to start with the thing that makes things work. If you put on lots of mulch you wont need much irrigation but still a bit will help. The system of denting the desert does not use irrigation but if you want to establish some palm trees or other trees then it woudl be better to grow them in such a way that your first ones worked, instead of losing the first batch.
It is gutsy to start upin the desert. agri rose macaskie.