Outdoor Desert growers?

[SmashedByHashish]

Iwould like to talk to the out door desert growers...having relocated to the desert I can say I'm in for a learning curve...so if you are an out door grower in a desert some where on this wonderful planet plz speek up and tell us how ya do it...1 thing Ilearned today is plants must be shaded during the hottest part of the day...

Does anyone do dwc out doors in the desert? I plan to try this and would love to know if anyone is doing so...

:group:

 

[SCARHOLE]

Sup man I grow outdoor where its prairie dessert an HOT.
Good topic.
I plant on the east side of bushes or cacti, so they get shade in the afternoon an evening.
I also use water absorbing polymers to keep the soil moist.
And LOTS of mulch an a plastic barrier to prevent evaporative loss.
Then I went with earth buckets to have a under ground resivour back up.
Doing this I can only water once a week even when its 115'+.
Instead of twice a day like my veggie garden.

Smaller 2-3 ft plants yield better than large 3-4 ft ones IMHO.
Not sure why, could be random.

 

[Torched]

Seems like the DWC outside you'd be inviting root rot. Isn't it like 74 degrees and up where root rot sets in?

 

[SCARHOLE]

Check this out dessert growers.
[video]http://youtu.be/HRF2bUBPA90[/video]http://youtu.be/HRF2bUBPA90

 

[Porky]

I used shade cloth on my veggie garden with decent results.

 

[lr2jd]

All I know is that you never water during the day, best is in the evening. Some shade might come in handy and it might be a good idea to cover your soil/ground with cloth and put some dirt on top of it. This way you'll prevent rapid evaporation of the soil. Maybe you could even dig in some rock wool about a foot deep. Or sow grass around your plants.
Planting near trees should help in providing enough water, since these roots hit the water table and will act like a sponge pulling water upwards.
Do not mist or spray them with water; these droplets will act like magnifying glass, burning your leaves.

DWC is a no-go in my opinion. The roots will be contantly wet and the plant will lose it's turgor within hours due to the constant evaporation.
I'd like to inform you about the way people are 'replanting' some deserts in Jordan and china, these techniques might come in handy! But I can't find the videos anymore. Some keywords were: permaculture, desertification, china, jordan.

 

[SmashedByHashish]

@SCAR...very good info brotha...that'll go in my note book...

@lr2jd...also some good info thanx...

As for me Ibelieve that dwc can be done...18" below the surface is 40° cooler...Iwas planning to someday put a 35gal plastic drum below ground...

So how do you grow? Plant rite into mother earth...pots?