Cristobal Cristo

Watering in my case is not expensive - the problem is that it does not really help, because air temperatures are too high for development of fruits on vegetable plants. When daily temperature is optimal then the night is too cold.. So I'm thinking about some extensive shading system and overhead sprinkling to lower the temperature, but at the same time it's very not permie so I don't want to do it, because it's too much effort that may still result in failure. That's the price of growing something in an area where nobody grows anything so there is no source of any wisdom. These who grow live in different microclimates. After the extreme heat wave of 2024 when even irrigated figs died I came to terms with the fact that my land is great for ranching sheep (almost zero effort) and growing fruit trees (fruit bushes fail). Vegetables are extremely difficult to grow and this is what I mean as high cost gardening. Maybe it can be done but with constant load of time and money.

If you are located in a place with humid summer climate and fertile soils, the investment is basically seeds and a few tools. I tried it, almost no effort and instant success.
If you live in a place that is arid, has intense sun, poor soils, drought and extreme temperature variations, it may be difficult to recoup the cost of time and money spent on irrigation, plant protection from rodents, shading and experimenting.

Joshua,

From 15 various old apple cultivars I grow, the fastest growing is Antonovka seedling. I would not use my measurements as a reference, because my growing conditions are very difficult, but I observed increase of diameter from 1 cm to 6 cm in 3 growing seasons. The other apples grew half of that in the same time period. Besides that Antonovka is one of the best tasting apples.

Benjamin,

Is the wall solid? How thick is it?
High mass walls have excellent sound insulation values. Is the roof structure shared with the neighbor? Maybe this is how the sounds gets in. I would investigate it first, before adding anything - especially vulgar synthetics to an old house.

Hi Matt,

My observations based on experience of planting over 200 fruit trees.

1. The soil in Central Valley is poor in organic matter. After digging out the dirt (the hole at least twice the diameter of the root system) I mix it with 50% of compost. For a young tree/bush it will mean to survive or not.
2. Rodent pressure. I always plant in home made planting cages made of 1/2" opening chicken wire. Please do not use larger opening - small gophers will go through them.
3. Try to protect the tree from excessive sun. Despite the nursery catalogs using the word 'full-sun". It looks that they mean Midwest, East or Souteast full sun and it's a different sun than southwester/western sun. Completely clear skies for several months, combined with very low humidity and high heat is too much for most of the fruit trees. It looks that you already have tall trees around you so it will help A LOT (I'm establishing trees on a sloping frying pan).
4. Mulch a lot and irrigate deeply two times per week in hot months.

Persimmons will do good. European pears need quite a bit of winter cold. Low chill apples are rather flavorless.
Peaches will be happy. I would definitely add figs and some citrus - mandarins or kumquats. Their evergreen foliage will beautify your area in the gloomier months. You could also try Asian plums and apricots.

I'm familiar with these concepts through other European masonry heater books. However, having  chimney is not violating free gas movements rules, just helps them. Heaters or even bonfires may work without a chimney, but with a chimney they will work better:
-chimney will help keeping inside bell pressure lower than the room pressure and prevent smoke (toxic gases) leaks to the room
-it will increase speed of gases so it will help the combustion in the firebox
-it will expel toxic gases AWAY from the house - by the time they will fall to the ground they will dissipate and mix with fresh air
If chimneys were dispensable, factories, metal works or power stations would be the first to stop building them to save a lot of money spent on 200-300 m tall stacks.
I have already built a house from scratch (CEB for all walls) and built a nice tall chimney between kitchen and the living room. The house is permitted, but even if it was not I would still build a chimney. I only regret that I did not build another one on the other side of the house.

Thank you for sharing the drawing.
Were you considering the rectangular bell in the middle of the room/house? The drawing does not show  any other walls that these two vertical lines, so a heater in the middle would heat it nicely, because most of the heat would come as infrared radiation. This way you could erect a chimney in the middle of the house and your space would not be limited by a long bell.

Alden,

I was re-reading your last post and realized it would help if you posted the layout of your house and the heater. I'm just wondering why you would need such a massive bell (ISA of 25 m2/270 sq ft) to heat your home?

Thank you Judith.
You mentioned a year ago that you had planted them from seed five years ago, so it means they are about 6 years old now or so. I purchased mine as a seedling (probably one or two years old) in 2023, so it will be turning 4 (or 3) years soon. So when comparing to your smaller tree it looks like the slow growth is normal. Maybe it is really focusing on the root growth and one day will launch up.

Pia,

Painted wood and clay do not sound like good friends. Applying plasters even to similar masonry substrate has its challenges. If it was not painted then it would be already difficult. I think it would be easier to tear it all and infill the studs with light clay and then you would have choices. It's a project, but I can not imagine how a natural plaster wood adhere to a painted panel.