Friday, September 9, 2022

Olla version 2.0

So last week I showed off my first attempt at creating do-it-yourself ollas to provide moisture to garden plants using less water.  As I explained in that post, ollas are unglazed clay pots, which when submerged in soil and filled with water gradually provide moisture to surrounding plants as needed without the loss to evaporation that occurs when plants are watered by hand or automated sprinklers.  However, as noted in my prior post, the first three I tried were draining much more quickly than I'd imagined.  I mentioned an alternative approach that could provide deeper watering without requiring refilling as frequently but I hadn't planned on changing out the original ollas for a new model right away.

That changed due to the intervention of another party.

This is a 2015 photo of a raccoon I'd confronted in my back garden early one morning and tried to chase off.  He turned on me in the driveway and stared me down until he finally rambled off.  Raccoons have been regular visitors since we moved in but this is one of the only daylight shots I have as they generally prowl under cover of night.  They love water and seem particularly adept at finding it.

The fault doesn't lie entirely with the raccoon.  I decided to swap out the clay lids I'd placed atop the original ollas with larger plastic pot saucers to cover the above-ground rims of the pots more completely.  I didn't stop to consider that the light plastic lids might encourage mischief on the part of raccoons - until the next day when I realized that all three lids had been tossed aside and that the bottle caps I'd used to seal the bottom of the submerged pots had all been pulled out.  The water inside the pots was mostly gone and each pot was partially filled with soil.  But at least the pots themselves hadn't been pulled up!

At that point I abandoned my version 1.0 design.  I purchased silicone sealant and rubber stoppers for an olla to be created by joining two clay pots at their rims.  After cleaning the original pots and removing the putty I'd used to seal the bottom of the version 1.0 pots, I got some help from my husband in applying the sealant.  I hadn't realized that I needed a caulking gun to apply it but luckily my husband had one.

With a rubber stopper inserted in one pot, we applied sealant to prevent the plug from coming out.  We then applied sealant around the top of each of the 2 pots we planned to join together.  It was a messy process, especially as the sealant ended up coming out the bottom of the container rather than through the tip.
 

 

I used four 5.5-inch pots to create two of the new version 2.0 ollas because that's what I had on hand.  Like version 1.0, I still consider this an experiment.  The 8-inch pots remain hard to find, as well as being significantly more expensive.  However, if this design works well, I'll look into creating more ollas using larger pots.

 

Although the seller claimed the sealant would be dry and waterproof within 2 hours, we gave it a full day.  The completed ollas are 10 inches tall and 5.5 inches in diameter at their widest point.

The biggest design flaw with version 2.0 is that the hole in the upper pot that sits just above the surface of the soil is only about half an inch in diameter, which will make it a little more difficult to fill


As a reminder, here's a photo of the original olla pots in place in my back garden:

Photo taken when the clay saucers were still in place as lids

And here's a photo of the olla version 2.0 pots in place:

This time, I soaked the ollas before putting them in the ground.  I also watered using a surfactant (wetting agent) as Horticat at PlantaHolicOz suggested.  I've used surfactant before to break the surface tension in the soil when it's so dry that the water just sheets off without sinking in.

I used the original clay saucers to cover the holes.  Covered, they don't look any different than version 1.0 from above.  Even if the pesky raccoons shove the lids off, they shouldn't be able to get into the pot with just a small hole on top.

Today is the tenth, and hopefully last, day of our interminable heatwave.  Prospects for a thunderstorm are good but one can never count on rain here until it starts to fall.  Meanwhile, we're all just trying to stay cool.

Pipig, stretched out on the top shelf of her screened catio, trying to stay cool as morning temperatures climbed.  Despite the heat, she's spent more time there than in the house. She really doesn't like air-conditioning.


All material © 2012-2022 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

20 comments:

  1. You can sometimes find terra cotta flower pots at moving sales for almost nothing. Sometimes at thrift stores, too. I ask the sellers if none are out, sometimes they think no one would want them. Got a few that way.

    I'll be interested to see how the ollas work for your plants. They would be useful on my slope for the summer-water Aloes, where the water doesn't penetrate easily.

    The water is usually all splashed out of the urn fountain basin in the morning--I am guessing that is raccoon. Yesterday the 6' E. tirucallii next to the fountain I can barely lift was knocked over--wonder if that was raccoon doings, so.

    Great shot of sleepy paws!

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    1. I've yet to try the local big box stores for clay pots, which will probably be my next stop. A friend told me she's bought them at a Walmart too, which was surprising.

      I'd think a 6 foot Euphorbia would be tough for a raccoon to tackle but maybe a gang of them could topple one. I've had as many as 3 in my back garden fountain at the same time.

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  2. Good luck with your new design Kris! Raccoons are just too clever. I'm wondering now if my frequently churned up garden (right around plants and along the drip irrigation line) might be a raccoon and not the skunk I've been accusing. The rain has been coming down lightly but steadily down here in La Mesa since 7am, yet temp is still 80F.

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    1. Raccoons are clever as well as destructive. We caught one on a security video wrestling with a drip line as if it was was a snake! They regularly dig up new plants that aren't well-rooted and toss them about. The skunks and possums seem to have a more delicate touch ;)

      The rain didn't arrive here until about 4pm and it's been very light thus far. Our roof-top weather station has yet to record any measurable quantity. There's barely a trickle coming down my rain chain and very little going into my rain collection tanks as best as I can determine. I hope you're doing better than that in La Mesa.

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  3. The poor bandits must be water hungry; this heatwave saw the first evidence of them in my garden for the four years I've lived here. Muddy tracks all through the open sunroom where I have a half-barrel pond to mitigate dry air! On the plus side, lots of crushed and empty snail shells:) Wishing you a peaceful rain as Kay moves North.

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    1. In my experience, raccoons fixate on water whatever the conditions, although I expect that the widespread drought is sending them farther afield looking for it. But they are good with snails and slugs! That's the one and only service of value they perform in my garden. I haven't had a snail problem since we moved in ;)

      Hurricane Kay seems to have lost steam since leaving the San Diego area. We've yet to get any measurable amount of rain and, since we're under a 15-day outdoor watering ban, we could really use a decent soak.

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  4. Interesting to read about your experiment Kris, as I have been considering making some this winter for next to a few special plants next year. I suppose your wildlife is always on the lookout for water sources, but hopefully will leave these alone once they realise they can't drink from them!

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    1. Raccoons are very curious creatures, Cathy. I've never actually seen them drink from our backyard fountain but they regularly pull up, inspect and even carry off the sea shells we have in its top tier to provide a perch for the birds, as if they're going to miraculously find seafood of some kind. I'm hoping they'll give up on the newly designed ollas in favor of perusing the more "manageable" fountain.

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  5. Can an animal be both cute and menacing? If raccoon stared me down, I'd back away in a heart beat.
    I hope the 2.0 ollas prove a success. Maybe a funnel could be useful in filling them up.
    chavli

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    1. Raccoons are indeed cute AND menacing, Chavli. I'd never push matters with a mother raccoon. Although I've never heard of one attacking a human, they've been known to claw at small dogs that interfere with them. The funnel is a good idea!

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  6. Oh, those rascals! They keep you on your toes, don't they? I hope the new ollas work well and your heat breaks and maybe catch some rain. I guess Kay didn't touch your area? Eliza

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    1. Kay did reach us, Eliza! She just took awhile to get here. Initially, the rainfall was pretty pitiful and I thought the storm might have exhausted itself in San Diego but as the evening progressed it became slow but steady. We ended up with 6/10ths of an inch of rain, which is a good soak by our standards.

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  7. The intervention of another party created some challenges, but you were up to them. Ingenious. Pigpig is a sweet and smart kitty. :)

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    1. So far, so good, Beth. The raccoon hasn't tried to dig the new ollas up (yet).

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  8. Interesting that Pipig chooses the top shelf - I would have expected heat to rise, but she knows where she can find a cooler breeze?

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    1. When that photo was taken it was still relatively early in the morning. Several times I found her stretched out on the pavement floor of the catio but that wasn't as photogenic a posture ;)

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  9. I love the tweaks you've made. Will save this post for reference.

    I like animals, but that doesn't include racoons and others of their ilk who mess with my friends' gardens!

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    1. I've come to accept the raccoons, although that doesn't mean I don't curse them out when I discover their intrusions. I haven't quite come to terms with the bunnies but I suppose that'll come in time. I'm hoping that the rabbit that moved into our garden when the neighbors returned from an extended visit to their vacation house goes back there when the neighbor's take off again next week. I may leave carrots and lettuce for him when we pick up their mail and their paper on a daily basis...

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  10. Love that shot of Pipig's paws and your updates—hopefully they'll do the trick. Also thanks for linking to Horticat's blog. I somehow had missed that he had a blog!!!

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    1. So far, the new ollas have been undisturbed. They're definitely distributing more soil moisture than version 1.0.

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