Water-Saving Sub-irrigation on a Cairo Rooftop

This is from Inside Urban Green…

The Solar Cities blog is about rooftop solar water heaters that are an energy efficient alternative to electric heaters.

This photo of a Cairo, Egypt rooftop with a solar water heater included the vegetable garden benches to the right. It looks to me that the containers on the vegetable benches are watered the same way that container plants are sub-irrigated in green houses around the world.

It is a little known fact in the consumer market that most container plants are watered by sub-irrigation using an ebb and flow system, either on benches or on a concrete floor.

There is no narrative on the blog about the vegetable garden but the robust health of these plants leads me to believe that the containers are sub-irrigated.

Note the plastic liners. Water collected in these basins (or added to them) will rise up by capillary action though the drain holes in the nursery pots. It is a far more efficient and water-conserving method then either hose watering or drip-irrigation.

If sub-irrigation is a more productive, water-conserving method in the greenhouse, why aren’t we all using it for our houseplants and container vegetables? Think about it.

Even though my garden outside is thriving, I keep moving plants inside…they grow faster, the sub-irrigated containers were all recycled from restaurants or friends, and the health food store.  They droop for a day and then take off…I am getting one cherry tomato a day right now,  Up from one a week for the last month.  I fought back the spider mites with Neem oil, the strawberries are flowering again.  And there is something very powerful about creating an inside environment…controlling all aspects (except the millions of microbial activities).. 

My house feel more alive, I love living with more plants.  There was never time but for a few at a time as I was raising my kids. 

The lettuces are an inch high, I’m nibbling.  The Swiss chard is 2 inches tall…yummmm, I can’t wait.  The beets are aggressively popping out of the soil, they all germinated! 

And I swear the plant lights must be great light therapy for me too, I find myself dancing a lot, again….maybe it’s the growing stuff…the peace…no kids at home…whoops, did I say that out loud. I love ya’ll…

The plants are thriving…so am I…my desserts are selling well in Riverside…Sheff’s Everyday Gourmet