Previous blog about Dr Bell's autogardens by Jennifer Hausler
With the cooler weather finally returning to the NYC area and the author's return from a vacation in North Carolina, it seems like the summer is coming to a close.
In a garden this means three things.. 1) Harvesting 2) Starting cool-weather crops 3) Recording the results of the current year in preparation for next year.
Most of what will follow in the next few posts are contributions to item 3 but first, a listing and photos of the seven autogardens that are in operation at this time or were used earlier in the growing season. This will help you to become oriented to the basic styles of AutoGardens.
AG 01 - Indoor autogarden in basement to start seeds
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| AG 01 Basement autogarden under lights. Top of Archimedes water lifter (AWL) is visible at rear |
AG 02 - Indoor autogarden in living room window to grow house plants
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| AG 02 - Living room autogarden. AWL out of sight on left |
AG 03 - Greenhouse benchtop autogarden to grow seedlings prior to late spring planting [no photos permitted at Pfizer greenhouse]
AG 04 - Nyack Community garden plot autogarden
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| AG 04 at Nyack Community Garden plot - May 10th. AWL at rear and powered by batteries |
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| AG 04 June 13th. AWL at right and now powered by solar panel |
AG 05 - Pfizer employee community plots (outdoors) autogarden
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| AG 05 May 25. AWL and vine racks not installed |
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| AG 05 July 8. AWL out of sight at rear. Vine racks installed |
AG 06 - Home patio 3-tiered autogarden for flowers
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| AG 06 - May 27 3-tiered Step Garden on patio. Partial sun location. |
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| AG 06- August 22nd AWL is visible at the left and watering controller is on the right. |
AG 07 - Home side yard autogarden for vegetables
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| AG-07 June. Side yard garden for vegetables. Foil on pots is to protect the plastic from UV damage. |
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| AG-07 July 28th. Viewed looking down. AWL is on left. Tall vertical posts are for Morning glories. |
I've been reading about your inventions on Jen's blog. Very neat!
ReplyDeleteI have a number of self-watering systems at work on my roof top deck but am facing a 12 foot incline to get my water from my rain barrel back up onto the deck. I thought about a solar pump. Can you tell us more about how the auto-lifter works? I would love to figure out if I could replicate it on my deck.
ReplyDeleteTonya
Regarding making the water lifter...
ReplyDeleteTake a central rod (pvc pipe for short runs, stiff pipe for longer ones) and wrap a flexible tube around it (I find the flexible conduit from AutomationDirect.com) works best. Attach a gearmotor to the top (sources are MPJones, Skycraft Parts and Surplus, American Science and surplus)that turns at between 10 and 60 rpm. My motors are ones that used to rotate rooftop TV antennas. MP Jones' surplus car seat motors are fine. At the bottom I create an endpiece with a bolt sticking out and I have the bolt go into a hole in a piece of PVC pipe that is wedged up againt the bottom of the water container. For a long run I would recommend that you provide some sort of support in the middle. It could be as simple as placing a 10 inch piece of PVC pipe of appropriate size in the middle of the water lifter and using two or three small casters to create a bearing to take the weight of the middle of the water lifter. I am testing a simple water lifter design that can lift water straight up and next summer will replace all my Archimedes-style water lifters. I am also testing a water-controller that only turns on the motor when the plants need to be watered.
Tonya let me know how your design turns out. I would recommend that you start small and then make the big one. That way you will get a feel for the size of the motor needed and the angle at which the AWL needs to be placed to get the water to be raised.
Here is a link to a short video of an AWL during its early development in my basement
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_profilepage&v=HDNak38i4Hg
Dr Bell:
ReplyDeleteDo you have a drawn diagram of your water lifter? I have read your explanation but being a visual learner it would be very helpful if you had a diagram or a series of photographs clarifying the parts of your lifter. I am roof top vegetable gardener in Toronto, Canada and use a DIY sub irrigation system for my planters. Your system interests me and might come in very handy for others who want to grow on elevated surfaces with a stable water supply. But like they say a picture is worth a thousand words and would help me greatly to understand and build my own lifter.
If you are interested my own gardening flickr site is: http://www.flickr.com/photos/johanne_daoust/sets/72157627147248383/
Another blog you might be interested in is my friend Bob Hyland in Brooklyn. His site is all about sub irrigation planters: http://www.insideurbangreen.org/2011/08/index.html