Post by woodyz on May 31, 2014 18:52:23 GMT -7
The Zeer Pot post got me remembering another root cellar idea I am testing.
The ice storm we had here took out the electronics in our washing machine due to power surging so we replaced it.
I never can just throw something away, so I was stripping out the bad washing machine for usable parts and stuff. There is a great little pressure switch in a WM the shuts it off when you open the lid. Lots of useable stuff.
So it was a top loading machine. Some will remember I used an old deep freezer as a cold storage bin a couple of years ago. Its buried in the side of a pond dam so I can use the deeper colder water to keep the air circulating in it. It works very well, in fact too well in the winter, I have to remember to close down the incoming water line some and open the top vent more in the winter. If it were buried deeper, I think I could keep it about 30 degrees all year round. which is too cold for potatoes which is what is in it.
Of track, back to the washer. I dug a hole the size of the outside box and put it in so the lid is just under the surface, the bottom about 3 feet down and covered with mulch in the middle of a flower garden. I dug (I say I but I had some friends do the digging, I just point) a trench out the back at a downward angle to about five feet deep put in a PVC septic tank pipe running up into the back where the motor was, just covered it with gravel and then replaced the dirt. So I check the temp in it a few days we were at almost 100 degrees and it stayed too warm. So remembering the freezer was insulated, I got a 4x8x2" piece of styrofoam at Home Depot and lined the box. I used the opening in the back where the water hoses went in as my exhaust running 4" pvc to above ground about a foot. Put a screen over it to keep out bugs and small critters and a cap likes on the vents on your roof so its got good air flow but rain can't get in. I am going to surround it with hardware cloth and plant blackberry vines around it.
So the air from the pipe at 5" is cooler than the air at the top of the vent pipe, so it pulls air into the insulated box. Not as much of a cooling difference as from the deep water in the pond but it is staying under 50. So I think it will work, we will see this fall. I will layer straw and potatoes and see how it works. The metal trash can buried just under the ground with no top vent works fine if you keep your stored stuff at least 2' from the top but the top 2' gets to warm and it is in an area I didn't want to put a top vent, I may just store other things in it.
And I have got the most and biggest blackberrys right now I have every raised, there are so many new growth vines producing mega berries I can't believe it, 2 or 3 times last year.
The only thing I did different was drive several 1" PVC pipes down into the roots and about once a week I water into the pipe so the water goes right to the roots. I think the surface watering last year was running off before it got very deep. I have a good strawberry crop too, but about the same as last year, except I have twice as many plants.
The only thing I planted this year is Pinto Beans and I just broadcast them on my compost over buried wood piles. They have come up everywhere now that we have had some rain. I just planted them to try them out and to put some nitrogen into the piles.
I do have a good carry over crop of onions and carrots that are doing better then they did originally last year. Proof they grow better in April and May when it is cooler.
The ice storm we had here took out the electronics in our washing machine due to power surging so we replaced it.
I never can just throw something away, so I was stripping out the bad washing machine for usable parts and stuff. There is a great little pressure switch in a WM the shuts it off when you open the lid. Lots of useable stuff.
So it was a top loading machine. Some will remember I used an old deep freezer as a cold storage bin a couple of years ago. Its buried in the side of a pond dam so I can use the deeper colder water to keep the air circulating in it. It works very well, in fact too well in the winter, I have to remember to close down the incoming water line some and open the top vent more in the winter. If it were buried deeper, I think I could keep it about 30 degrees all year round. which is too cold for potatoes which is what is in it.
Of track, back to the washer. I dug a hole the size of the outside box and put it in so the lid is just under the surface, the bottom about 3 feet down and covered with mulch in the middle of a flower garden. I dug (I say I but I had some friends do the digging, I just point) a trench out the back at a downward angle to about five feet deep put in a PVC septic tank pipe running up into the back where the motor was, just covered it with gravel and then replaced the dirt. So I check the temp in it a few days we were at almost 100 degrees and it stayed too warm. So remembering the freezer was insulated, I got a 4x8x2" piece of styrofoam at Home Depot and lined the box. I used the opening in the back where the water hoses went in as my exhaust running 4" pvc to above ground about a foot. Put a screen over it to keep out bugs and small critters and a cap likes on the vents on your roof so its got good air flow but rain can't get in. I am going to surround it with hardware cloth and plant blackberry vines around it.
So the air from the pipe at 5" is cooler than the air at the top of the vent pipe, so it pulls air into the insulated box. Not as much of a cooling difference as from the deep water in the pond but it is staying under 50. So I think it will work, we will see this fall. I will layer straw and potatoes and see how it works. The metal trash can buried just under the ground with no top vent works fine if you keep your stored stuff at least 2' from the top but the top 2' gets to warm and it is in an area I didn't want to put a top vent, I may just store other things in it.
And I have got the most and biggest blackberrys right now I have every raised, there are so many new growth vines producing mega berries I can't believe it, 2 or 3 times last year.
The only thing I did different was drive several 1" PVC pipes down into the roots and about once a week I water into the pipe so the water goes right to the roots. I think the surface watering last year was running off before it got very deep. I have a good strawberry crop too, but about the same as last year, except I have twice as many plants.
The only thing I planted this year is Pinto Beans and I just broadcast them on my compost over buried wood piles. They have come up everywhere now that we have had some rain. I just planted them to try them out and to put some nitrogen into the piles.
I do have a good carry over crop of onions and carrots that are doing better then they did originally last year. Proof they grow better in April and May when it is cooler.