Emily Baker

Awesome!! This is such valuable information, thank you so much for your time and your incredibly thoughtful and educated responses!
I am going to be out on site this weekend, I will let you know how some of my testing goes!

Natives here lived in what are referred to as Chickee Huts, basically open air pole buildings with palm frond thatch roofs (kind of like what you picture a tiki hut to be). This was after early settlers drove them to marshy areas. Prior to being forced into a more transient lifestyle, it is believed they had a wattle and daub style homes, so I know it is possible to build those types of structures with local earth provided materials. I am not sure about the rushes, I rarely ever see any that are dried, so I would need to harvest some and see what happens. They seem to have something of a sponge like texture inside the hard exterior, I assume for filtration of the brackish water. Not sure how that would impact things over time, but I suspect it may have an interesting impact on the level of insulation the cob provides.

Thank you, Amy!! This is really exciting news! Thank you so much for your response, I am even more excited to get out and do some experimenting now!

Newbie here, but very interested and excited about possibilities. I am going to start building some small cob structures to test, but wanted to see if anyone had any theories or experience with straw alternatives in cob.

I am in Florida on the midwest coast, and the area I am planning to build in does not have an abundance of straw of any type. However, I do have an abundance of palm fronds! Structurally, these seem to be very solid and take forever to break down, as well as being very fibrous. Could this possibly work as an alternative?

My other thought would be the needlegrass (I dont know what it is actually called, but it grows in marshy areas and the end of it is so sharp it could take an eye out). I read in another post that silica content of the grass was a factor, and my assumption would be that since this lives in a sandy & brackish area, the silica content would naturally be very high.

Third thought is brazilian pepper tree. It is invasive, and I have acres of it at my disposal. Would this be safe to incorporate into a structure on some way, either as structural elements for a wattle and daub, or even within the cob itself?

I appreciate any help I can get! This is a remote location that is not accessible by machinery, so using what can easily be transported by a person or what is readily available in the area is very important to me.