Laura Di

Ran across misting systems when we lived in AZ… flex small diameter tubing, micro-nozzles and hook up to the house spigot. Line the perimeter of the roof (or in our case just the patio) with the line of nozzles and turn on the water during the hottest part of the day. Lowers the temps by about 20F and uses about a gallon of water an hour. Kept the plants hydrated too. We thought it would only be a benefit for the patio area but it lowered the temps in the house. We would have expanded the system around the other 3 sides of the house if we hadn’t moved to WA. We didn’t install it here for several reasons. It rarely gets hot enough here to justify the expense, materials or effort. The humidity here is much much higher and evapotranspiration is already happening so it probably wouldn’t lower the temps as much.

In our area the harvested plant material must be disposed of as toxic substances. They are dumped in a toxic dump. Not good. There is research on bio processing with fungi but I haven’t been able to find a practical outfit - yet. We know it’s possible, different fungi have been shown to reduce these substances to an inert form or a form that bacteria can further process into an inert form. We need to move the lab processes out into the real world. I do know that you absolutely should not burn or compost these materials, nor ingest them. It’s a good idea to wear protective gloves and clothing when handling the materials. (Anyone is free to disagree with this, see you in the infusion center.)

About daikon radishes... when you use them for bio-drilling it’s best to plant them in august/September and leave them to die back in the winter. The roots punch down into the soil and decay feeding the soil. Sunflowers are also good for loosening the clay and creating biomass for building top soil and trapping eroded material during the rainy season. Ours tend to want to flop (our slope is 19.8%!) but I find that a couple of upright bamboo stakes pushed in while the ground is soft and hefty string run between them works just fine. It’s a little difficult to get up the hill to harvest the seeds but that’s okay, the birds love them.