Robert Marsh

Bentonite will seal....  but will only stay sealed if protected....    and as long as it stays wet.

New Alchemy Institute years ago had a number of articles about sealing ponds (built in SAND) with grass clippings...   Cover (thick, 1' deep of compacted ?) and then cover the grass clippings with something to hold them in place...   they would break down under anerobic conditions into a kind of gel.....   might be a lot better than a rock (on the inside of the pond... )

I had an idea I have never tried: where there is a pond that is good BUT for a leak...   mix up bentonite (you can get cheap at a feed mill that makes pellets and not have buy 'pond' grade) into a slurry, and find a way to keep the pond stirred up to keep it in suspension so it would be in the water as it want out the leak...  the way bentonite works is to EXPAND tremendously and as long as it stay's wet, will keep expanded....   I had though an outboard motor (electric ?) on a boat tied to the shore / in the middle / near the leak....  

The reason pond building guides say to never let trees grow on the dam, is a root that dies can leave a channel for water to flow out....   if this is up toward the top of the pond / where you can see the leak...  you may have to wait for dry summer OR siphon the water level down below the leak if you do not have a drain in the bottom of the pond, and get a excavator to dig down and fill back the area with clay while compacting each layer....

River valley running E-W, zone 6, on the edge of tornado alley in SW Missouri. Most storms come from NW in winter, SW in summer, with the occasional severe one from the SE. Wind break to the West, hill with trees close by to the North. the Hoop house will run N-S (so open ends facing North and South), just to the East of the Western wind break.  Had 70MPH straight line winds last week just West of here, but did not go over 50 here. This is not too uncommon...

Snow is RARE to be over 2", but did have one 20" a couple decades ago.  Ice is common with 1/2" common and up to 2" once or so a decade.

Great idea to consider, one I had not run across before !

Our goal for the hoophouse going up this fall is to have almost 100% open ends all summer long.....

What is the best way to do this ?    

I originally though of LOTS of doors / windows....   but that's pretty complicated, they are all standing open = sticking out all summer long, and costly.

I am now thinking c channel and wiggle wire (the top would already be that for the roof anyway), along the bottom, around the door and around a fan opening... and (this is the question, how much framing and how much c-channel / wiggle wire is needed for the plastic ?  I see roof hoops from 4' spacing to 6' spacing..  should I put up smooth tubing vertical supports every 6' on the end walls, and have the c-channel / wiggle wire only top, bottom and around the door (and around one big fan for winter cooling), OR do I need one or two vertical's to have C-channel too ?

OR, is there a better / different way ?

The kit is coming with the end wall plastic only...   I seem mostly fixed end-walls using big washer nailers or tape over 2x4's vertical...    

all ideas appreciated.

Just a few FYI's and thoughts (from being raised as a pipe fitter, and building a climate battery greenhouse a couple years go, Zone 61):

I have an issue with a 6" header pipe as above: resistance = need bigger fans = use more electricity...   I figured the min. size header (and riser) pipes to be 10", 12" HDPE WITH A SMOOTH INNER LINING was just about the same cost as 10" and a FRACTION of the cost of PVC, so we ran 12" header/riser pipes. I used 10" fans, AC Infinity and they did NOT move the needed volume of air, had to put a "pull" fan on the outlet slaved to the 'push' fan up at the peak of the roof.

I used the spreadsheet from (the guy who did all the commercial Canadian climate battery houses), and should have had about 15% excess winter heating and 8% excess summer cooling...  winter heating is working great, I do need a small (8") automatic exhaust fan to avoid overheating on warm winter days with full sun...   the internal temp. dropped to 47 for a couple hour once over 2 winters, next lowest 'low' was 54. Even on cloudy winter days always 70's.  Summer: it works FOR A GREENHOUSE, might hit 92-93 on sunny days which is great for a greenhouse, but bit too hot to work there comfortably..  we now schedule greenhouse work for early mornings...  

Too hot to grow good salad greens in the winter !  (We have a hoophouse going up this fall for 2 planing beds (winter greens!) and 2 rows of fruit trees)

Papaya, Banana growing well and fruiting; the citrus trees and avocado are growing well, citrus is flowing now. Mango has not done well. We move the figs in for the winter and have an early crop.  

I try 2 to 3 new things every years...  some may take years to know if they will work or not, and MOST are failures....   but finding what works, the successes, more than make up for all the failures.....

Native Persimmons are very common here (6b but down in river valley and I think 6a is more accurate) and pappaw's have been spreading like mad the last decade or so...  have been grafting to improved varieties= one of the successes.

Grafting black walnut seedlings (that grow like a weed here) to improved varieties w/o a strong solid support stick tied on every few week as the graft grows...  was a recent failure (100% blew out in a strong wind...  and they were all 3 to 4' high !!!).

Try, find what works....

r

Luke Bryan wrote:

Chi Monger wrote:
And someone, I thot, asked if they could achieve an above-ground cool room, like a root cellar…

What is the general temperature range of a root cellar - and does an underground room somewhat replace a refrigerator without all the energy requirements?

No, it does not replace a refrigerator..  but both supplements and provides a place for bulk storage that while not cool enough for refrigeration is cool enough for root crops (ideally with a dirt floor to keep humidity UP) OR canned / bulk foods depending on how it is designed.

Look up your steady state ground temperature where you live (usually 6' down) and that is THE COOLEST the cellar can be. The better built, the closer to that temp.

We are in SW Missouri: I just read that 1/3 of the Ozarks used to burn every year... (in the Conservation mag..), while wildfires of any size are now rare here... and some of the family think I kinda nuts for as much fire preparation as I have done (with a little left to do), even a small fire if it's close to you can be a disaster.....

Our cellar is a walk in from inside the lowest level of the house (you don't have to run outside, it's designed as a tornado shelter as well as fire shelter), with double doors; the double thickness insulated steel door opens inward, the light weight outer door opens outward (so we could easily break through it if needed). The door frame is 1/4" x 4" steel, welded to the rebar in the concrete walls. It's a big pantry (concrete floor, not enough humidity for good root crop storage, we don't keep more than a month or two of potatoes etc. there) so useful space. Roof is an arch of poured concrete with rebar on 6" centers then 2' of dirt in the center so deeper toward the walls...   it's flat in the yard and you would not know it's there.   Water, 12v power from the batteries as well as 110, floor drain, air intake and air exhaust.  

FYI for ideas....

We keep a 4' crowbar and hammer in our's (vs elec. chair saw.... lol)

I read your plan is to evacuate if possible, if not then use the root cellar as emergency back up. The less fuel that can burn close the better ?

The next time you need to re-shingle the house, metal roof ?

I know siding should be fire proof too, ideally metal or asbestos or masonry....  we compromised  with 1" solid oak (pretty good fire rating) trying to keep all trees at least 50' from the house, and keeping a lawn (yes, lawn... green growing short grass) that we 'will' (soon) keep well irrigated....

Consider overwintering a sweet potato in the house....   just cut the long vines into pieces for slips. I have done this a number of times.

I think the original question was: can you keep a small hardy kiwi inside the first winter to get more growth ?

I have the same question, my MALE died, have 2 nice large females....  got a male, it's about 8" tall now, can I re-pot in a larger pot, and keep inside over the winter to have a better chance of flowering next year ?