Build a J-Tube Style Season Extender in a Hugelkultur - PEP BB rocket.wood.hugel

This is a badge bit (BB) that is part of the PEP curriculum. Completing this BB is part of getting the wood badge in Rocket.

This BB requires you to build a j-tube style season extender in a hugelkultur.

Building a Rocket Stove into a hugelkultur is a great way to increase both soil temperature and ambient temperatures around your garden bed, effectively extending your growing seasons!

The major development with this BB is that the mass of the heater will be the actual hugelkultur.  Existing versions of this project have been done with several conjoined barrels in the core forming a stratification chamber, and the exhaust chimney traveling alongside the heat riser, within the vertical barrel to extract as much moisture as possible.

You might be best served to build this rocket into a brand new hugel, rather than deconstructing an existing hugel to incorporate a rocket season extender retroactively.  Thus, there is the potential for stacking BB's with any level of Gardening Badge.



Here's a video describing a Rocket Hugel build at Wheaton Labs:

Here are a few resources for incorporating a rocket into a garden bed:
 - Extremely Over-Engineered and Ultimately Decomissioned Rocket Greenhouse Bed
 - Rocket Mass Heater Hugel Thread

You should already be familiar with the ins and outs of a standard j-tube style rocket mass heater from your builds at the Sand and Straw level, but if you need a refresher, here are some resources:
  - The Rocket Mass Heater Builder's Guide by Erica and Ernie Wisner
  - Top Questions About Rocket Mass Heaters
  - New Build - Need Help
  - Building My First RMH (Tommy's Tea Dome)
  - Farm House RMH, First In House Build

To complete this BB, the minimum requirements are:
 - 6" or larger J tube system
 - stratification chamber inside hugelkultur bed

To show you've completed this Badge Bit, provide proof of the following as pics or video (less than two minutes):
  - the site before you begin work
  - 5 points during construction of the RMH
  - the finished project from several vantage points
  - hugelkultur temp before and after using the heater