Mart Hale

I thought I would give this a little test, I dug out a hole underneath the bottom sloped side of my billboard tarp... A light rain, and it filled the tub with water....
I have two ideas...

One use this tub with wicking rope to water plants around the tub, thus self watering plant system..

Two, replace the tub with a 55 gal barrel. in the barrel put a sump pump with float valve that kicks on with a float value when it fills with water, then have it pump the water to an IBC tank, or... another 55 gal barrel that feeds more wicking ropes.....

What I like about this system is it can capture a huge amount of water as it has a vast square footage. I placed bamboo poles on either edge to raise the billboard tarp so it funnels the water where I want it to be.

Ac Baker wrote:I wasn't familiar with "air pruning".  Reading up, I gather that chinampas are built based on oral knowledge passed down by chinampero farmers. One of these Aztec agricultural techniques is starting seedlings in soil blocks, which does what we now call "air pruning" to avoid seedlings becoming pot-bound.

I'm wondering if jute twine could provide sufficient wicking of water in such a system of soil blocking?

Yeah has taken years for me to wrap my brain around air prunning, and a bit longer for me to test if what I thought was happening really happening.  

The best thing to do is to test different wicking materials  cotton will work, but it will rot out about every 3 months and has to be replaced.

I have tried soil blocking, but it takes expensive soil mix to make it work for me,   this method works with my soil mix and saves me $$$.

I love experimenting....

Tummeric with pretty flowers

So...   I have taken some sweet potato slips i start rooting in my 5 gal bucket air bubbler, then  I put them in the wicking rope setup with air prunning pots.      I am very pleased to see to root pruning is in full effect.     Roots trying to get out in every direction...       Next step is I take them out of this and drop them in my grow bags....    

Welcome aboard,

I have been off grid for at least 3 years now  ( electrical grid ).      But I do spend about $200 a year on propane for heating needs.

At present I am working toward moving more off the food grid, producing a higher amount of my own food needs each year.

I do advise looking to youtube to learn various ways to move off the electrical grid, and also to discover  that there are other grids as well  food, medical, security.....  

I did not do this overnight, but as always a work in progress.      

Cheers

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Curtains on beds have been a thing....     Sorta a tent in wide cold rooms.

I have been testing more with the wicking rope for watering plants.     I wanted to see at what rate the water was moving at different heights of the water source.      The ½ inch rope moved  ¼ cup water in  24 hours….   that is with the source side by side.     The one elevated about 8 inches from there moved ½ cup of water in 24 hours…      

Now…   I want to test going from below to above which should take longer to move the water…   I believe in doing this test I need to do this with soil to get a better idea of the amount of water that is making it to the soil which is different than an empty cup.      I think I will weight the soil before and after to get an idea of the rate of water is moving.

To me it is ALL HYPE.    I love my Asian jumping worms, excellent for my plants, if they eat the fallen leaves that means I get VERMICOMPOST woo hoo which makes the plants grow more!    More food for the birds....      

So,  I have them all in my aquaponic systems and my plants are thriving...  I encourage more of them....

They have been around Florida for years, and I hope they stay they are most welcome here.

Storing heat chemically....