Tag: 2 litter bottles

Water Powered Timer

So, I’m playing around with a gravity fed Aquaponics bed. Most ebb and flow systems I’ve seen use either a bell siphon, or an electric/mechanical timer. This idea is a little different, it uses a Shishi-odoshi (“scaredeer”) or sōzu to start a siphon which drains a 5 gallon bucket of water into a grow bed. The timer is governed by the flow of water into the scaredeer (the 2 liter bottle).

Some background:

I have a fish pond, a rain barrel and a gravity fed water timer. The rain barrel is 10 foot off the ground and a solar powered pump replenishes the barrel with pond water while the sun is out (like a water tower). The barrel, in turn, drains into my water timer overnight and on super cloudy days.

The aim of the timer is to be able to slow down the water flow as much as needed and not worry about stalling the siphon or fully draining rain barrel.

Here’s what I got so far:

Here’s a video of it in action:
Here’s the sunshade I made for it out of sugarcane leaves.  I’m thinking of re-making it out of banana later on.  We’ll see.

Garbage Day Garden

I posted an article on constructing a garden from 2 litter bottles.  I like 2 liter bottles for their uniform look, and thought they would work well to make a kind of a modular garden which is easy to water. In reality, there are a lot of caveats.

So you can read about the basic construction here:

http://www.moderndaydads.com/garbage-day-garden/

Also, you don’t have to buy pipe strap.  You can cut straps from other 2 litter bottles, which is how I do it now.

Here are some of the problems I ran into using 2 litters as pots in this tower fashion.

Drainage and PWT( perched water table).  It’s was easy to overwater my plants because the soil on top felt dry long before the soil on the bottom dries.  Poking holes all around the container helps, adding a wick helps, mixing pine bark into soil helps, and having awareness of root depth and the plant type helps. Also it helps to buy a moisture meter :) – They are cheap.

 As a software architect it was tempting to try to automate watering.  By design you can water all plants simultaneously, but that doesn’t mean all plants want water at the same time.  To close the gap, it helps to group plants of the same type and size in one column.  It also helps to sort the plants so thirstier (or well drained) plants are on the bottom. 

See the following link for more information about PWT:
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/527353/#b

Plant Types – don’t expect grow lots of tomatoes, or peppers, it can be done, but they like more room.  Here’s some plants that I’ve had success with:

  • cilantro (I grow a lot this)
  • scallions (I grow lots)
  • basil
  • parsley
  • oregano
  • ground cherries,
  • lettuce,
  • lemon balm,
  • blue porter weed,
  • thyme
  • pineapple sage (needs lot of water)

Algae – you might read that algea grows in clear containers and competes with the plant’s growth. If your worried about this, you can leave the labels on or paint the outside of the bottles. I’m happy regardless of the algae, but it’s worth noting.

…More to come…