Make Your Own Ollas

So that`s why you had upside down pots in the Garden LOL I meant to ask you why.. Maybe we need to make these for watering our Garden next year

I have been doing some research kobi and what I have found out is that larger, more stronger roots can break the pots. Also I read that the pots should not be allowed to drop below 50% water because of salt build up or something of that nature don’t remember where I found it or what it said just know that it said don’t let it drop below that mark. FYI also found a site that claims that milk jugs work just the same by poking holes in them? Kinda curious if that works too. I think I may try both just to see.

I love this idea. Maybe it is the drought that we are in that is making me more thoughtful about ideas like this.(or maybe it is the $200.00 water bill) Vicki

Really helpful post and a good idea. I have considered commissioning a local potter to make classic ollas, but this sounds a lot cheaper.

Not a stupid question Flo. I’m learning myself and I found that Terracotta is very porous and will ‘ooze’ water but the pores are not large enough to let the roots grow into the terracotta.

Assuming these are lead-free pots so as not to leach that stuff into your veggie garden, is there another type of adhsive that wouldn’t break down and into the soill if one is concentrating on growing organic?

Awesome project! Summers can be droughty at times depending on how mother nature is feeling that season and these would be super stellar!
Another great place to find cheap pots are thrift stores. I have quite a collection cuz you just never know…or maybe it’s an addiction….

hi homesteadonmainstreet,
I tried those. I used silicon instead of glue. and pipes connecting the ollas to a main bucket or tank. (you just need to add water to the tank and it would level)
They work really well, and the plants growing next to them are happy. but there are some problems.
The setting I use is that I glue with silicon a 16mm pipe on the top with a T, so there is open air right above it (one T side connects to the pipe, the other 2 sides are up and down). Since I use gravity from a small tank (water level should be the same)
you need to put those openings along the way too (every few meters for a 16mm pipe), unless you use a large pipe. the size of the pipe affects the flow (if i understand correctly the density is less when there is air contact) I’m not sure of the physics but those were my findings (I once tried and failed with a 150 meters pipe, since there were no openings along the way :-). you can consult Pascal’s law (pressure formula).

The problems I find are:
1. Transparency: if something happens for example the pot cracks, it’s hard to determine where it happens. I had an idea to put a little flag – a skewer attached to a cork inside, and colors or a flag outside so you can visually watch the water level inside the pot. but I hadn’t tried it.
2. Quite fragile: I used silicon for connecting, it’s fragile because you connect them with inner T, and connecting requires some movements.
Perhaps a better idea is to base them on a siphon. then you just need to attach two pipes to the bottom (or use something heavy) of the pot.
3. green scum in the bucket or tank may reach the plant roots through the pots. If you want to clean the tank, you cannot use anything that would harm the plants.
In my settings the tank (a large bucket) was fixed in place (dug in the ground) so I couldn’t take it out to clean or the entire system breaks. A siphon design would probably avoid that problem.
But siphon’s water pressure can break. so there is still some maintanence to do. (if you imagine it on a large scale, it means checking every pot’s siphon connection)
4. No digging: if you want to change a crop you cannot do that.
This should be for groundcovers (think stinging nettles etc), perennials, large bushes or trees.

By the way, it seems that the size of the pot doesn’t make that much a difference.
I thought the moisture radius would change. but it’s all related to the soil density, so if it costs less, you can use small pots.

Hope this information helps
kobi

I read about ollas/clay pot watering just as I was planting my garden, so I put a few pots in the ground as “placeholders” that I would replace with the glued 2-pot olla. I put a metal pie plate over one, a plastic pot saucer over another. Put a plastic container or lid with a rock to hold it down over the drain hole.
Then dislocated my shoulder so project over.
These 2 pots hold water quite well, sometimes don’t need refilling for a week.
I also used a shallower, wide pot in one of my raised beds & used it’s terra cotta saucer as a lid. This one needs refilling daily but I’m quite sure less water used than a drip system. I figure the water evaporates through the “lid”. Didn’t have time to get the drip system to the raised beds before injury. Filling the pot daily with a jug of water wasn’t too bad one-handed. Easier than dragging a hose around, dealing with kinks & catching on things.
Used some “rose pots”, small but deeper ones in a couple of 5gal pots, using the saucer as a lid and those last 2-3 days
and tried burying a regular plastic pot, no lid, as a water-to-root delivery system
these plants grew larger, quicker than plants with the “ollas”that need infrequent filling.

from other reading I have done, the olla is superior to a bottle with holes poked in it, or my water-to-root pots because they just pour the water into the soil, whereas the olla is self-regulating & won’t deliver more water than is needed.

I hope to do something more sophisticated next year, but this year has been an interesting experiment.

In this article, we will focus on debt settlements and how is it different from filing for bankruptcy.
This account can be easily maintained and used for automatic processing of site
orders as well as manual orders via phone, fax,
e-mail, or in person. Only five states limit the amount banks can charge on credit card
debt.

Could Olla be used to water a lawn?

For additional olla fun, keep an eye out at garage sales for clay wine cooler cylinders (These were filled with water and then, as water passed through the terra cotta to the outside and evaporated, the water (and the bottle of wine inside) cooled without refrigeration. There are no holes to plug, and if you are lucky you get the saucer that comes with the cylinder that you can use as a lid (or if you just search around there always is some round thing that will fit. Just make sure there are no gaps so mosquitoes get in. You do NOT want them.

Hi admin, i must say you have hi quality content here.
Your website should go viral. You need initial traffic boost only.
How to get it? Search for; Mertiso’s tips go viral