Gutter Garden

My brother just posted this picture on his FB page of a gutter garden. Don't think it is HIS garden, but I thought y'all would like to see it.



Kim

They hang good on fence posts too.

FABULOUS!

Couldn't do that down here in the summer... I think the crops would be in danger of spontaneously combusting after they dried up from the heat...

Not if you use gravity operated drip feeders along the guttering runs that run off fairly large header tank containing various nutrients. or use some porous drip hose pipe instead

Here in the UK thats how lots of crops are grown commercially but they are usually grown in the big 4 mtr wide plastic tunnels due to our erratic weather.

English grown strawberies are still on sale in the big super stores at not much more cost than the mid summer varieties.

plantoid wrote:Not if you use gravity operated drip feeders along the guttering runs that run off fairly large header tank containing various nutrients. or use some porous drip hose pipe instead

Here in the UK thats how lots of crops are grown commercially but they are usually grown in the big 4 mtr wide plastic tunnels due to our erratic weather.

English grown strawberies are still on sale in the big super stores at not much more cost than the mid summer varieties.

We had over seventy days of 100+ degree heat this past summer... it was brutal... in a gutter, the soil temp would be well over 90 degrees around the clock... I know the local lake temps get to about ninety....

Interesting .
My thoughts on those temps .. keep the plants really well watered and they should still grow .

I lived in Cyprus in 1976 & 1977 , in 1977 day temps reached 44 o C ( 111 o F ) for about a month and a half yet the tomatoes , melons and lettuces etc still grew like weeds as they were well watered .
Same in Canada when we were there out in Quebec in June , July , August & early September of 2003

Providing the plants have the right quantities of water they will perspire and grow .. though you might need a tiny bit of nutrient feed in the water as well

I set up a drip system for my raised beds this summer, so watering was done. My problem was that my tomatoes, bell peppers, and eggplants quit fruiting in the heat... No worries though, I got a plan for this summer...

I'd try using a trigger pack filled with cool water and spray the flowers " to set them " about an hour before dusk or in the morning before the heat starts to rise

Ashort,

Inquiring minds want to know (and also those of us with wandering minds) about your plan. We get the heat and humidity down here in the summer as well. Right now I have 5 tomato plants full of green and ripening tomatoes, but I go into tomato withdrawl during the summer. I was told the fruit won't set if it doesn't get below 70 at night, and the thermometer doesn't go anywhere near that temp.

Thanks,

Mike

CaptainKidney wrote:Ashort,

Inquiring minds want to know (and also those of us with wandering minds) about your plan. We get the heat and humidity down here in the summer as well. Right now I have 5 tomato plants full of green and ripening tomatoes, but I go into tomato withdrawl during the summer. I was told the fruit won't set if it doesn't get below 70 at night, and the thermometer doesn't go anywhere near that temp.

Thanks,

Mike

Plantoid alluded to part of it. I have read in numerous spots that misting will help - I will be doing this on eggplants and some pepper plants as well. Second, I will be attempting to use shade cloth over the plants to keep it a bit cooler. Third, I am looking into different varieties that are more adapted to the weather we have here.

Lastly, for my paste tomatoes - I am taking that first big harvest that comes off. After that, I am taking cuttings of the roma's and rooting them and then afterthat second smaller harvest a couple of weeks later, tearing out the old plants and replanting a new set of tomatoes from the cuttings. They should grow well in the heat and then in September set a big crop.

Shade cloth..
Heat .. A bit of history & getting it down .

That brings to mind the old temperature controls used by the big stores in the 1920's USA , cooling towers & driving in the desert etc.

In the big USA stores of the 1920's they had large wet deep pile doormats sunken into a floor well level with the rest of the floor by every door in & out the store.

As people walked over the wet mats , they absorbed water into their shoe leather which they then walked round the store floors making for evaporative cooling and as a result were able to experience temperature drops in the stores of several degrees.

The desert thing was to hang a water bottle inside a wetted wollen sock in front of the radiator of the truck and as the engine driven fan drew air past the sock & throughthe radiator it evaporated the moisture on the sock again giving several degres of temperature drop to cool the water bottle a bit.

Could you use those shading cloths and a fine hose sprinkler perhaps on a timer to throroughly wet the shading cloths for the purpose of evaporative cooling ?

Perhaps with a directed or oscillating electric fan helping to evaporate & cool things down after you have wet the cloths either before the heat of the day arrives or in the evening after it's dropped a bit in order to get the plant back into nectar production / fertile state and then hand pollenate things .

Due to once running 50 bee hives for a dozen or so years I learnt how to give the bees a bit of real nectar during hot spells using sprayed water on shut down flowers early in the morning , they also used the water to evaporatively cool the hives.

I suspect that once the nectar flows in a flower it is much more likely to be fertile , for my take on it is that's how nature uses the bees & insects to pollenate the flowers at the right time in a short time slot.

I am well familiar with the evaporative coolers that you refer to. My in laws used to live in New Mexico and did not need an air conditioner with a compressor to cool their house. They had an evaporative cooler on top of their house that trickled water through a straw mat and then a fan blew air through the mat, thus picking up moisture and distributing the moist air throughout the house through their heating ducts. This works very well in dry climates. Unfortunately, the Tampa area that I live in has a humidity level of 99.99999% or higher in the summer.

From what I have read, it is recommended to water plants under the leaves and not get the leaves wet. This could cause potential problems. Would misting the plants in the evening cause problems maybe I will just place an ice block under each plant to cool it off ... lol).

Mike

Nice one Mike ,

It makes you realize just how great a range the members growing conditions are , I'd not thought of high humidity at almost " jungle conditions ", but does that actually stop the plants getting set & producing fruit ?

I guess my thought is, what ever happened to keeping it simple? Plan your crops and gardening according to your zone when the weather and temps are condusive to growing those crops?

I may be in the minority, but my days of "intensive gardening" are over. Just throwing it out there...

plantoid wrote:Nice one Mike ,

It makes you realize just how great a range the members growing conditions are ,

Hah! I'm sitting here chuckling because my summer was cool enough to slow/stop germination and growth in my gutters. They are located less than six feet away from a 4x6 TT that got the same seeds planted, and the lettuces did fine in the big box. The gutters got an hour or two less direct sunlight as well.

Each plant marker represents a week. I started in early March at the bottom, left to right. I hadn't harvested anything when this pic was taken. I'm blaming cool weather and bad location.

This summer I'll move them to a sunnier place.

Just trying to "extend the growing season" (and not go into 'mater withdrawl during the summer).

Mike

nKedrOoStEr wrote:I guess my thought is, what ever happened to keeping it simple? Plan your crops and gardening according to your zone when the weather and temps are condusive to growing those crops?

I may be in the minority, but my days of "intensive gardening" are over. Just throwing it out there...

We may need to revoke your man card... why be simple when you can build something.. I am thinking of a daylight activated misting system that goes off early in the morning... Let see, I need a photovoltaic controller, some poly pipe... hmmm.....

ashort wrote:...a daylight activated misting system that goes off early in the morning...

Rooster thinks that's what kids are for!

True dat!

boffer wrote:

ashort wrote:...a daylight activated misting system that goes off early in the morning...

Rooster thinks that's what kids are for!

NICE ONE BOFFER!

ashort wrote:

nKedrOoStEr wrote:I guess my thought is, what ever happened to keeping it simple? Plan your crops and gardening according to your zone when the weather and temps are condusive to growing those crops?

I may be in the minority, but my days of "intensive gardening" are over. Just throwing it out there...

We may need to revoke your man card... why be simple when you can build something.. I am thinking of a daylight activated misting system that goes off early in the morning... Let see, I need a photovoltaic controller, some poly pipe... hmmm.....

.... A 24 volt transformer taken to DC on the circuit board , a water solenoid off an old washing machine and a simple radio shack plan and bits to build your timer / amplifier on your own bread board , an electric leaf .
My device has an micro volt electric sensing leaf that can be adjusted by resistance to allow a greater wetness to occur and a separate adjustable timer to control the length of the watering , finally ... a very fine misting spray head set on sticks & a couple of clear waterproof enclosures for it all .

I couldn't find the PV control cell I wanted at a sensible price to do the daylight on /off switching ,s o I went for a simple mechanical plug in 24 hr timer that can be set in 15 minute segments instead .

I might be lucky and find one whilst I'm not looking so to speak.

nKedrOoStEr wrote:I guess my thought is, what ever happened to keeping it simple? Plan your crops and gardening according to your zone when the weather and temps are condusive to growing those crops?

I may be in the minority, but my days of "intensive gardening" are over. Just throwing it out there...

If that were my case I'd never have had any decent tomatoes, aubergines , capsicums , strawberrries , celery or half of the brassicas & lettuces that I have had over the normal & extended growing period this year.

My beds were just a mess of mud & rubble till the 27 th of July this year .

I've had to resort to all manner of things to get plants to grow , survive and thrive . Now it's pay back time and they are delicious.

At nearly 61yrs old the days are rushing by in the wrong direction , so for me it's do what I must do to get what I want before my birth certificate runs out.

.... A 24 volt transformer taken to DC on the circuit board , a water solenoid off an old washing machine and a simple radio shack plan and bits to build your timer / amplifier on your own bread board , an electric leaf .
My device has an micro volt electric sensing leaf that can be adjusted by resistance to allow a greater wetness to occur and a separate adjustable timer to control the length of the watering , finally ... a very fine misting spray head set on sticks & a couple of clear waterproof enclosures for it all .

I couldn't find the PV control cell I wanted at a sensible price to do the daylight on /off switching ,s o I went for a simple mechanical plug in 24 hr timer that can be set in 15 minute segments instead .

I might be lucky and find one whilst I'm not looking so to speak.

If that were my case I'd never have had any decent tomatoes, aubergines , capsicums , strawberrries , celery or half of the brassicas & lettuces that I have had over the normal & extended growing period this year.

My beds were just a mess of mud & rubble till the 27 th of July this year .

I've had to resort to all manner of things to get plants to grow , survive and thrive . Now it's pay back time and they are delicious.

At nearly 61yrs old the days are rushing by in the wrong direction , so for me it's do what I must do to get what I want before my birth certificate runs out.

If nothing else...your creative. I feel lucky at this point I can go down to Home Depot and buy a timer, and attach to the end of a soaker hose.

I know this has wandered away from gutter gardens, but I'm thinking about giving these a try. I think they'd be great for growing lettuce! I was watching gardening videos on Youtube tonight and came across some pretty cool ideas. I wonder, though, is there deeper, wider guttering? Heck if I know...

Youtube video of wicking gutter garden using gutters and buckets

I'm also wondering about aquaponics... *closing the Youtube tab because it's 1:30am!*