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Posted on 02/11/2011 5:15:58 AM PST by Red_Devil 232
Good morning gardeners. My order of seeds and supplies from Jung’s arrived this past week. Now all I need is a sign of when the weather here in east central Mississippi will warm up! We had snow this past Wed. about an inch and a half of heavy wet snow. The over night Temps have turned it into a layer of ice crystals that has not melted away yet. It is 15 degrees this morning and is supposed to go to 45 this afternoon which should melt the remaining snow then highs in the low 60’s this weekend. I am waiting impatiently for the highs to get to 70 and remain there!
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What are you using this for?
I’m betting there is a Copper Kettle inside the barrel and the base you built is the burner...
So, when is the first batch due?
We had a 50deg range in temps today, from about 6am till about 3pm, from 18-68degs. The house actually got too warm for a little while in the afternoon. Back down to the low 20’s tonight, then moderate temps for a while. At least we are having sunshine for a few days.
This is looking good! Thanks for all the pictures!
Could you please add me to your ping list? Thank you!
“What are you using this for?”
I’m collecting the rainwater off of the roof, storing in a 300 gallon tank, and it will provide irrigation for the large raised bed I am building in the background, behind the small retaining wall, and up against the house. There is no water supply on that end of the house, so this arrangement will do nicely.
I used to split the branch I was putting the graft onto, take the graft, make a wedge out of the bottom and have it in the split in about 10 or 15 seconds. Then, wrap it with string and a plastic bag that you get in the produce department.
I sort of figured it was for outside watering purposes.
A great idea for somewhere where water shortages could be an issue.
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I went with a $100 rain barrel that taps off the downspout (it’s partially visible, so appearance matters), hooked into a few food service containers hidden around the side of the house via buried PVC to increase capacity.
I drilled a 1” hole in the bottom of each container below one of the caps. Placed a 3/4” male PVC adaptor on a length of PVC pipe, added a washer and silicone sealant, and carefully fed the adaptor to the 1” hole, which was just the perfect size that turning the PVC pipe caused the adaptor to thread itself through the hole for a nice tight fit. Added a 3/4” PVC female adaptor, washer, and sealant on the outside.
Buried PVC piping, poured some concrete for a nice stable base, and then set the containers in place.
If I went to 300 gal, I’d have about $215 into the project. I’d rather just pay a little extra and go the route you did, but I have very limited space to work with.
I read about a fellow who was building a homestead, and he bought a 20,000 gallon plastic tank and properly buried it in the back yard, and harvested all of his water off the roof and directed it into the tank; creating in effect a buried, sealed cistern. It took something like 8 months to collect enough water to fill it but it stayed filled after that. He installed a submersible pump in the tank to get water to his filtering system but that was how he got most of his water.
Is algae growth ever a problem?
We get moss and algae on our north facing back roof, which we have to clean off every year and that even has a chance to dry out some.
I got one algae bloom in the chickencoop barrel late last summer, and I just hosed it out, rinsed it with chlorine bleach, rinsed it again and let it refill. No problem since, but I expect to clean it out at least once a year....
The garden barrels get emptied pretty quick. Four barrels is only 200 gallons and in the summer that doesn’t quite make it. That’s what drove the 300 gallon tank size for the other end of the house, that should get me through the summer.
I do my watering in the late afternoon/early evening, once the sun is off the area.
It allows the plants to get the water before the sun evaporates it and the soil stays moister longer.
I know a lot of people recommend against watering at night because of mold problems, but when it’s that hot and dry, mold shouldn’t be an issue.
What did you do to seal the PVC to the curved side of the barrel? I would think there would be a bit of pressure on that lower connection from the weight of the water.
I don’t know why, but that chicken watering system is just cool.
Do you get summer rains up there? It is very sparse from May to late Oct here on Humboldt Bay. The weather continues to be lovely and my First Wife got both Dahlia bed deadheaded and weeded this week but winter returns Monday...
Thank You
Great screen name.
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