Disks For New Watering System

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The other day the madman came running in all excited – “The disks are here!” No, not the newly released boxed CD collection by Stevie Nicks. These were small disks to plug up holes for his new watering system.

New Watering System

Last week he heard about an interesting watering system. We were at the Haddam Focus Garden planting hot peppers. Fellow Master Gardener Diane Gawronski introduced us to an interesting irrigation concept using ollas, sometimes spelled oya. Any time the madman hears of an irrigation system, he becomes all ears – especially this year. The madman is expecting this summer to be dry. Following that one wet week in early spring, we have watched lots of predicted rainstorms dry up. And those that don’t dry up seem to be missing our section of Farmington. Our garden is dry – a lot drier than it should be.

madman watering hot peppers with a container — *The madman is very interested in the olla system because he doesn’t want a repeat of last year when he lugged water to the garden almost daily.*

So, when Diane mentioned watering system, the madman’s ears perked up. Diane had an unglazed clay pot – actually two unglazed clay pots exactly the same size glued together at their tops. She plugged the hole in the bottom one and was ready to sink them into a hole she dug in the garden soil. She buried the pots in the garden, leaving about 2″ above the surface. Then she packed soil tightly around it. She added water through the exposed hole, filling the whole container to the top. Then she covered the hole with a flat rock, “because I like to keep it neat,” she said. And it stops bugs and debris from getting in and water from evaporating out.

water droplets on the side of a clay pot — *Since the clay pot is unglazed, water will slowly seep through the pores.*

Soil Moisture Tension

This works through the concept of soil moisture tension. Remember, the madman loves his science so this phrase is right up his alley. I’ll break it down a bit for you. Soil moisture tension creates suction around the pot. That’s why the soil is packed tightly around the olla. When the soil is dry, more water is pulled through the pores of the clay pot. However, when the soil is moist, thanks to rain, there is no suction and water remains inside the olla where it stays until it’s needed. The roots of the plant get a consistent level of moisture. Using an olla means less surface watering which means less weeds. The madman loves that idea.

drawing of plants on either side of an olla showing how the system works — *This drawing is from a nice article on the Native Seeds website explaining the Olla irrigation system.*

So, Who’s Idea Was This?

Diane says the clay pot olla is not her original idea – it is borrowed from the olla pottery of southwestern Native Americans. Interestingly, we heard mention of olla pots during our recent trip to Arizona. A real olla pot doesn’t look like two pots glued together. It looks more like a long necked gourd.

image of an olla pot — *Ollas created especially for irrigation are available at a variety of gardening outlets. This one is available from Garett Wade.*

But our Native Americans can’t take credit for this idea any more than Diane can. The art of using clay containers for watering started some 4,000 years ago in China. Ollas quickly found their way to Mediterranean shores where local artisans added their own decorative touches. The moors probably introduced these pots to Spain and Portugal. Eventually in the age of exploration, Europeans brought them over to the new world.

madman's hand putting a bead of glue on a pot rim. — *The madman used Gorilla glue to create a watertight seal between the two pots.*

We Have To Try It

After watching and listening to Diane, we decided we had to try this in our garden. As soon as the disks arrived, we were ready to go. Fortunately, over the years we have amassed quite a collection of clay pots, so finding pairs of matching pots was easy. We just needed ones with no cracks and no edge chips that would prevent a good joint.

As suggested, we used Gorilla glue. The madman placed a bead of glue around the pot rim of one of the pairs. Then he carefully placed the other pot on top of the glue bead. The madman fussed over the proper alignment. Then, we glued the metal disk onto the top hole. We used bricks to clamp the pots together. The hardest part was waiting 24 hours for the glue to set. (You know how patient the madman is!).

madman aligning two clay pots. — *According to the madman, getting the pots straight was the hardest part.*

Does The Idea Hold Water?

When we were sure the glue had set, we flipped the pots over and filled the reservoir with water to test for leaks. We sealed the leaks with fresh Gorilla glue. Of course, we had to wait another 24 hours to test again for leaks. On future designs, the madman thinks he might try caulking the joints with bathtub sealer. When we decided our ollas were water tight, they were ready to go in the garden.

Not all plants benefit from olla pots. Beans, grains and Corn and other field crops are out of the question because they cover so much garden area. Installing enough ollas in the field to have an effective watering system would be extremely expensive. Not to mention outrageously time consuming. If you want funny shaped root crops, go ahead and use an olla. But, this is not typically recommended.

field of corn — *A crop like corn covers too much area for effective olla irrigation. This image from Alabama Extension is marked CC0 1.0.*

Fibrous Roots Work Best

Plants with fibrous roots, like the zinnias and other flowers we grow for the pollinators are ideal for olla irrigation. The madman’s hot peppers are also good candidates. If the ollas work as well as we hope, next year we will try incorporating more of them in the main vegetable garden. Besides, most of the garden has been planted already and we do not want to disturb the plants.

overall view of the madman's front garden. — *Since most of our garden is already planted, we could not add ollas among the plants.*

But, thanks to this year’s funny spring, we still have areas in the garden to plant. In the vegetable garden, he has more peppers to plant, so installing an olla or two or three will be easy. We figure each of the ollas we made will support four vegetable plants. The madman will stake out the planting area and mark the center. Then he’ll dig a hole deep enough to accommodate the olla with about 2” to spare on top. After the pot is in place, he will pack the soil tightly around the pot. He’ll set the plants about 4” from the pot, water well then fill the olla and hope for the best.

*Two ollas placed in the ground with pepper plants. Note the pile of rocks to the right – those are the smallest ones we had to dig out before getting the hole deep enough.*

We will repeat the process in the last flower bed, except we expect to put more than four flowers around each pot. As long as we keep an eye on the water level in the ollas, our plants should get a consistent amount of water throughout the growing season.

While we have been busy making ollas, the humidity returned to Connecticut. But, more exciting, the first Monarch has visited our Waystation. That calls for lemonade.