Joseph Ellsworth

Hi Ben,    Rather than try to post a book on this thread I have tried to capture the important information at our website.  It is still a work in progress.   Feel free to contact me directly from there.


This article provides a basic overview of the RainAmp technology and Process:   https://rainamp.com/2023/10/16/rainramp-s1-trees-thrive-between-storms/

In this article I tried to capture our process of how our desire to grow food producing trees and shrubs on land with inadequate water drove the developing the process and technology:   https://rainamp.com/2023/10/16/homesteaders-transform-baren-land-to-vinyard-and-orchard/

I have more content coming soon.     If you have additional questions please reach out.  If you have a question then somebody else will probably have the same question.

I was thinking about your young fruit trees.  I don't think you can use the entire RainAmp process which requires digging out and enriching a bio-sponge before planting.  You can still form the bowls but it will require moving soil from elsewhere around your parcel to form the bowls.  We did this for a bunch of blackberry starts that were struggling and it worked fine.      

You may be able to just use the planting bowl and skin if the following are true.  Otherwise you will need our S1 system:
* You have adequate rainfall to support the tree
* The maximum time between rainstorms still leaves the tree with adequate soil moisture at 3 foot deep.
* Your trees are tolerant of pooled water when big storms hit
* Your soil drains well so pooling is not a problem
* You don't need to store more water than is available in the soil column below the tree to support the tree between storms.

Thanks Joe Ellsworth

Hi Ben,   We are based in Ford WA near Spokane in eastern WA.    We get about 19 inches of rain per year most of it during early winter with hot dry summers.

Where are you located?  How much rain do you get?  How long do you go between storms in the hot part of the year?   How old are your trees?    What kind of water retention do you see in your soil?      What kind of results are you seeing from your weening process.  I ask these questions so  I can provide the most relevant data.

I will send more information when I get back to a larger computer.  

Here are a couple pictures you may find interesting.  All these trees were planted in late May before a hot dry summer. The trees that used the RainAmp process survived and thrived. These trees were all equally neglected because the location of this hedge is 350 foot beyond our longest hose.

Hi Daniel,   35 inches of rain is quite a lot compared to our 19 inches.   A lot depends on how long you go between storms and your soil texture. In areas with relatively frequent rain and good water retention in the soil, one year of auxiliary water can be adequate. We only watered the trees during the first summer at our house in Michigan, where we received about 40 inches of rain, but it was very rare to go more than 2 weeks without rain.  At our current location, we can go over 60 days without rain in 95+ degree heat and low humidity.  What rain does arrive during those months wets the first few inches of soil and evaporates quickly.

At our new house in Eastern Washington, we only get 19 inches of rain, and almost all of it arrives during early winter, leaving us with 4 hot summer months with very little rain. Additionally, our soil is coarse sand, which only holds about 13% of moisture by weight, meaning it doesn't store much water to support the trees. In this location, ponderosa pines will grow without auxiliary water.  Fruit trees struggle. I have heard that some drought-resistant plum trees seem to do okay after the 4th year.

We invented technology and a process that can help grow fruit trees on land where they would not normally survive due to a lack of water. It takes a bit more effort when planting, but it really helps. We invented the technology because we wanted to grow over a hundred grapevines and the state imposes rather draconian fines if you exceed the allowed water usage from household wells.

You did not mention your soil characteristics, so it is difficult to be sure,  due to your high rainfall, I suspect you could use the technology portion of our process on new trees for 2 years and then move it to a new tree. If you wanted to be safe, then allow three years.

In our area it is necessary to augment the rain capture bowls with a Bio-sponge area 12 inches by 35 inches deep.  We mix in as much organic matter as we have available before replacing the dirt and planting the tree. This generally increases our moisture storage from 13% by weight to over 40% and provides a couple of extra gallons of storage in the immediate sponge. One advantage of our planting bowls is that they concentrate the water into the area around the core root mass and tend to create a deep, inverted, V-shaped column of moist soil. The tree's roots tend to follow this moisture deeper than they would normally go which helps them become drought resistant.        Our technology aspect captures excess water and pumps it into storage so we can drip feed the trees for up to 130 days between storms.  It also helps ensure standing water doesn't stay around the tree where it can attract insects and damage the tree.

In the two attached pictures the trees still alive were planted using our process.   The trees that are still alive were planted in the spring using our process.  The dead tree was planted at the same time with  good soil was well watered for the early summer.  All these trees were neglected for most of the summer because they were 300 foot beyond our longest hose and it was a pain to carry water to them.   The bowls help concentrate what water did fall so the trees using the process had sufficient water to thrive.

Note:  Our preferred bio-mass for these plantings are clippings from Balansa clover.  It has super deep roots so it grows for more of the summer.    We grow  Balansa mostly to obtain the clippings that we use for bio-mass when planting.   We find that when we spread the cuttings and allow them to dry before mixing into the soil that it  does almost as well as peatmoss for increasing water retentions and it delivers a bunch of nutrients as well.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions.  I would be happy to help you adapt our process for your location and soil conditions.

Thanks Joe E.

We have a device and process that allows us to grow trees, vines and bushes on land where we do not have accessible water.

We invented the process because we wanted to grow hundreds of grape vines on land where  we could not obtain water rights sufficient to support them.    

Our approach was to concentrate the rain using technology to store excess water so we can use it to drip feed  trees for up to 130 days between storms.

We started with fruit trees but the process turns out to make growing remote hedge trees and wind breaks  where running water pipes would be to difficult or expensive.

We  want to talk with people who have similar challenges to gather feedback on how to improve the system.    

We especially want to talk with potential beta testers who have a podcast, blog or YouTube channels and face water access problems.