I did not understand clearly the suggestion of recycling washing machine/sink water - if i would collect the water from the washing machine - wouldn't it have soap/chemicals in it? same thing but different quantity of soap/chemical with sink water...perhaps I got it wrong...🤥
Great question!!! I want to know too. Thank you! I just wonder what would be a good counter part for colder climates that you wouldn’t need to take out of the ground.
If you have a Mexican grocery store near you, check if they have unglazed clay cups (cantaritos de barro/jarritos de barro)! They're normally used for cocktails and beverages, and come in lots of sizes that are practical for the garden. They're as inexpensive as getting a terracotta pot from Lowe's without needing to plug drainage holes. For the lid, I use a regular schmegular terracotta saucer. Happy gardening!🙂
In the places they originate from, ollas are also used to store drinking water. This is because as trace amounts of the water seep out of the olla, that water takes the brunt of the heat from the sun and evaporates off instead of letting the heat build up in the water still inside, thus the olla keeps your drinking water much cooler than if it was stored in another vessel.
Being off grid I remember hearing that the spanish would put these in a shaded place outside with good airflow to cool their drinking water during hot days. I haven't seen them in Australia to this day
I garden here in north Texas, the drought was brutal this year. I used many of these in the ground and in containers. Combined with shade cloth, I was able to keep many plants growing and alive all summer untill the temperature dropped and the plants were able to produce. Many people here this year gave up even the experienced gardeners. I will be using this method for everything from here on out Combined with water collection.
That's the future, the climate around the world is only going to get tougher. We're going to need every technique in the book to be able to produce food
*To all the DIY-ers out there: Don't use 2-component glue/sealant anywhere near stuff that you want to eat!* All epoxies are 40% bisphenols (BPA)... a "cold" curing process will leave a lot of the BA uncured so it will leech into the soil. Taken from the MSDS of Gorilla Putty: "Bisphenol A-epichlorohydrin polymer" is listed a key ingredient... definitely nothing you want in your food! ... and for the silicone rubber caulk: get "Aquarium Grade" or "Kitchen Sink Grade!" - the construction / general type contains toxins to inhibit the growth of fungi - again, nothing you want in your soil.
@echognomecal6742 the benefit of the ollas is that the porous terracotta makes them responsive to soil moisture levels. Unlike plastic pots with holes, ollas hold their water until the soil is dry.
Love my ollas! I also scour the thrift stores for terra cotta wine coolers and just put a saucer on the top of them once they're buried. Cost effective and easy to fill!
I have numerous DIY ollas buried in the front yard. They're perfect when you have no idea how much or how little water your plant needs, because the plant will figure it out themselves (as long as the olla is filled). I really like them for the onions and bunching onions, because it looks like a little onion fairy-circle, especially when I decorate the olla with a ring of rocks. With my DIY ollas, I like to line the top layer with silicone caulk as well, so that water slides towards the hole when i fill it up with my hose.
Just to understand - if you use 2 clay pots as he showed, you paint the inside of the top, inverted pot? So when it's all buried, water only sleeps out the bottom portion? That would help encourage the plants roots to grow deeper to reach the water?
@@classicrocklover5615 I paint the outside of the top. If you put the pot properly on a table, it would be the base where the pot touches the table--that's where the silicone would be painted. Then it's flipped upside down, to be the very most top part of the olla, if that makes sense.
@@magnumxlpi I'm giving up a small amount of space for the olla, but I'm not giving up nutrients. I still add compost to my plants when I need to. I lived in a place that had a severe drought for over 10 years, so an olla system helped reduce the amount of water needed and frequency of watering.
First of all we have used ollas that we made from 4" and 6" pots. Before I go on, they did a great job. They watered our plants fine. We used the larger ollas in our pepper and tomato. We used the 4" ollas in our bush bean bed. We live in the Boise area where we regularly get roughly two months of 95 to low 100 degree temps. I figured we would fill the large ollas a couple times a week and the smaller ones two or three times a week. Sounded good but did not work out that way. Because of the high heat we found they all required filling every other day. We also soon learned that when you stuck a funnel in the top hole to fill the olla we created a vacuum almost instantly. We solved that problem drilling an 1/8 " hole in the top of the olla to let the air escape. The watering so often required lots of time. Bear in mind that we were using about 30 large ollas and about fifty small ones. The other big issue for us is that it gets very cold here in the winter. That required digging up the ollas so they would not freeze in the winter. Ummmm .. .. .. we love our drip irrigation system. Turn on the water, let it run for an hour or so then shut the water off. Hook up an Ez-Flo with liquid fertilizer in it and it fertilizes while it waters. Yes I have a pile of ollas sitting outside by my shed. Let me end this by saying that when we dug the ollas up to remove them the holes where the ollas were, were absolutely lined with roots which told us that the ollas did their job. In our situation they were just not practical. This post in no way is meant to discredit the ollas. They worked.
I didn't knew about ollas until now, but the first thing I thought after watching the video, and reading your comment was: couldn't you use the hoses to fill the ollas? I think it would avoid wasting water, as the ollas would disperse water slowly, mostly to the plants, not loosing to the soil itself.
Yeah if I have ydig them up each winter and replant come spring it's a lot of work. I'll just use a drip hose. Too bad too because this system seems really cool
@@humanman There's a reason the system was developed in Central America in dry hot places that never had to worry about frost and needed ways to conserve water in clever ways.
I experimented with one DIY olla this summer. I planted 6 tomato plants and used it on one of them, and it was the only one that had no blossom end rot....consistent watering. Next year I plan on making several. And I did this without knowing about the correct distance to place it . Also I purchased the lid from Dollar tree, much cheaper. Thanks for this very informative video
Oh my gosh! I recently met a ceramics artist at my local makerspace who is making these out of some clay that got messed up (its two different clay types mixed together that can't be fully glazed now). She invited me to join in making some for my own garden because she has so much clay. I'm going to be joining her this week.
I picked up several taracota funnel shaped ollas. These are placed near the plants then a bottle filled with water is installed into the funnel. The corks from the wine bottles plug the drainage holes in the plant pot ollas. I collect water from the rain gutters and the in house dehumidifier. The tanks have goldfish to eat the mosquitoes, and fertilize the water. Combining aquaponics and ollas. Periodically I partly drain my tank to add the bottom muk into my sandy soil.
I made my first DIY Ollas this year and had mixed result. I used bees wax due to "sustainability" etc. and I noticed that some pots just lost a lot of water after some time, so don't use bees wax to seal them or fill them and check if it leaks after a couple of hours/days and THEN bury it. I also tried them in grow bags and had mixed results again. I noticed bad growth in grow bags with Ollas because the plants were simply too close to the Ollas and I suppose root growth was therefore not promoted. It was an experiment and I expected such results but it seems like the diameter is really key when using Ollas in containers. In my normal beds I noticed AWESOME growth and healthy plants.
Last year was my first year using grow bags. I didn't realize the bag itself would wick out so much moisture! I have very large bags - about 80 gallon bags. So I think I am going to remove the dirt, use the plastic bags the soil came in to sort of "line" the interior of the bags, and replace the soil. I'll have to cut slits in the plastic bags to allow a little drainage.
Was watching a video the other day saying that lots of sealants like silicone contain fungicides and other stuff, they suggested using aquarium sealant.
I actually use these in conjunction with my drip system in beds that need a lot of water. I'm here in Los Angeles, really hot really dry, etc; so I do the inverted method someone below mentioned where you seal the lid to it and left the drainage hole somewhat open, put a dripper inside and sealed that up almost all the way just leaving a little bit of space for air to pass back up. I bury it almost completely, maybe put a rock on top to mark the spot and prevent any surface evaporation.
Eric love this DIY! I am in 8 B Florida very hard to keep everything moist! I will give it a try! We are in fixer upper raising our grandkids so we haven't set up any irrigation yet! I tryed this summer to grow as much food as I can! Not easy! I do appreciate all your tips!!!
I experimented last year with one olla and found it was really efficient so I’ve been buying terra cotta from thrift stores. Some are so beautiful it’s a shame to bury them, but they work so well!!
@@epicgardening have you tried growing and eating what the Indians did? I'm trying prickly pare cactus . Hint use a propane torch to remove the fine thorns. Many parts are edible. The pads and fruit. The patch adds to our security system. Who is going through a cactus patch to break in? Ask the old timers . Also planting hazelnut shrubs. Looking foward to roasting the nuts. Neolithic food, fences, and fuel.
@@gregsanderson2470 I’m just seeing this comment, but on top of making ollas, I’m trying the “three sisters” method for growing corn, squash and beans this year. Maybe not the most drought tolerant compared to a cactus but gonna try.
Archaeologist here- Just an FYI, large jars with this shape are often called ollas whether or not they’re used for irrigation. It’s commonly used for pre-contact (before Spanish arrival) descriptions of Maya pottery too- and we do have examples of pot irrigation from various places in North America before the Spanish arrived. So maybeee 🤔
I buried some unglazed terracotta pots in my beds and they cracked over winter. Something to consider if your in a climate that experiences freezing winter. Building organic content in soil and using thick mulch will increase water retention significantly. I’ve heard 1% increase of organic content on an acre of soil, will hold an additional 20,000 gallons of water.
Thank you for showing cheap DIY ideas as well for the people who can’t spend the money on your product. I however, will be buying some from you ❤️ Happy farming!
Terra cotta pots add up in cost real quick. You accomplish the same thing with a food-grade plastic bottle and a 1/2" nylon rope wick leading out of it into the root zone. The only cost is the rope, and it lasts for many years - I don't know how long exactly, but I have some that have been in use for five years and there's no degradation at all.
I've got some strawberries growing in something similar and I wasn't sure if they'd handle the transition from being watered normally, to having the water seeping through the pot constantly. But, so far, they seem to be thriving over all. It's a lot less time on watering than I was doing.
Tip for the drainage hole, fill a hole with putty on the inside, never fix a hole that will be under any pressure from the outside only(if you can help it). Doing it this way means the putty adherence strength is no longer what keeps the water in, but its mechanical strength as its pushed against the bottom by the weight of the water. Less chance It will be worked lose over time or pop off under pressure. Also spraying the inside of the lid with a waterproofing agent(like whats used on tile grout) would stop most evaporation from the top of the single pot Olla.
I use a plate for the top as it doesn't allow evaporation. They work great. I made my own hose that has a whole over each vessel so to fill I just remove the lid by sliding it out from under the hose and then turn on the hose and it fills them all at once. I do some weeding and keep an eye on when they are full as with a small hole it will fill slower than with a hose .You could use a drip system hose and put a large emitter over each post. you do still have to remove and replace the lid but it allows you to do more than one task at a time.
Kevin, Thanks for the DIY--the costs of premade ollas can be really prohibitive. 😊 Suggestion for a design variation: Attach the saucer to the top of the pot w/ silicone or Gorella glue. After curing, turn the DIY olla saucer-side down & bury, using the pot's original drainage hole as the fill spout. The shape of the pot means the original bottom is narrower, therefore, there will be less evaporation from that end. Additionally, you can paint the pot bottom w/ a sealant to decrease evaporation. 😁
About the DIY-ing: *Don't use 2-component glue/sealant anywhere near stuff that you want to eat!* All epoxies are 40% bisphenols (BPA)... a "cold" curing process will leave a lot of the BA uncured so it will leech into the soil. Taken from the MSDS (material safety data sheet) of Gorilla Putty: "Bisphenol A-epichlorohydrin polymer" is listed a key ingredient... definitely nothing you want in your food! ... and for the silicone rubber caulk: get "Aquarium Grade" or "Kitchen Sink Grade!" - the construction / general type contains toxins to inhibit the growth of fungi - again, nothing you want in your soil, as those substances will also kill aquatic organisms and damage human nerve tissue.
Good sealant advice--thank you. No worry on my use of anything but aquarium silicone. Been an aquarist since 1990--aquarium grade the only silicone I use. 😊
I've been using those for about 3 years. No one where I live in West Central Georgia have a clue what I'm talking about. The amazing thing is the root ball that formed on the olla after the growing season
We had such a rough garden growing season here in Kansas last year. I am stepping things up this year to hopefully give me that edge. I've been thinking greatly on a more passive watering system as water did not go deep enough last year. So, I've been looking at and for ideas. And lo n behold! Here you are with the perfect solution. I'm living off SS, so I don't have a lot to spend. Plus, I'm more into DIY at this point in my life. And BOY! Have I got clay pots. Thanks once again for a surprisingly simple, excellent idea to beat Ma Nature's attempts to foil me. I'll report my success, or lack of, this fall. 😊
Another option is terracotta watering spikes. They look like a big fertilizer spike, but are hollow so you can invert a wine bottle to keep them filled. Since the bottles aren't opaque, you can see when they need to be refilled. You can also DIY the spikes into buried gravity fed irrigation by plugging the tops (I did it with cement, but it's not the easiest) and inserting drop irrigation tubing into them. The line is fed by a tank somewhere that makes filling easier since it's only one place and can be automated using a float valve system. I've also seen the two pots ollas set up for gravity feed.
There are also terracota spikes with a tube, that supposedly can suck water out of a container, but could probably also be connected to a larger pipe system, like drip irrogation. But you would probably need lots of them.
I just got some watering spikes that do the same thing. Fill terracotta spike, put tube in gallon of water and it siphons water to the plants. Currently keeping my indoor cloth potted plants nice and hydrated.
Still seen in the rural Southwest, for sure. Works best in a very dry climate. One can do something similar with some lightweight fabric (e.g. a clean sock) wrapped around a water bottle. Soak the fabric in water and allow it to evaporatively cool the water bottle. Works even better if you can hang it out the window of a moving vehicle.
Using the one pot and lid DIY ollas is something I've actually had a bit of success with. Seal the lid to the top of the pot and bury the pot upside down. The slope of the pot gives you the narrowing of a regular ollas and the drain hole becomes the fill hole. This gives the added benefit of reducing the surface area of water exposed to the air. Cover the hole with a smooth rock to keep out mosquitos.
I''ve been using something like this for years with great sucess. Burry a plastic bottle with a few needle-sized holes on the bottom, you can close the lid so it doesn't evaporate.
the modern day version is plastic water and soda bottles with pin holes in the bottom (or the bottle is inverted so the larger bottom surface faces up and can have a hole cut big enough for the hose to fill)
Thanks for showing the DIY version even though you sell them! I'm trying to figure out how to irrigate my garden for next year. It used to be nice therapy but as my garden grows it is impossible to stand out there in the heat for 2 hours to water it.
You might try watering first thing in the morning instead of in the afternoon. Just a suggestion, I'm sure you have other reasons for choosing irrigation over hand watering, too.
I loves ollas. I add them to my garden beds in conjunction with drip irrigation. I also use it in areas far from a water source. They work great in large containers.
I thing I might make a few of those 2 pot ones this winter. I think they would be especially good for tomatoes and cucumbers to keep their water regulated in the hot summer days 🌞 Silicone would work for joining the pots, but look for something labeled as adhesive for outdoor use would be best 👍
Excellent, thank you! Another video I saw shows gluing the saucer to the top of the pot and then using it upside-down (with the small hole at the top for filling water). But I like the topsy tursy two pots together style, too. Smart! We have very dense clay soil here so putting these in and out (for a tree) is not a small thing, I need to leave them in year round... but valuable in our dry summer months (and during our drought). I think for freezes I'll have to think of something else clever, like putting something on top of it (California zone 9b so the freezes don't go deep).
An additional way I have seen with the terracotta pots is to put the silicon around the top of the pot seal to the tray, plant, fill through the drainage hole. One could make a floater with a fake flower little flag as the flower, flag lowers you will know when to refill.
Or...you could turn the plant pot upside down, seal the plant saucer to plant pot rim, pour the water thru the small drainage hole, then cover it with a rock. Then, the neck will be smaller than the base, sorta like a real olla.
That's more or less the design I saw the first time I saw this. But, you're probably better planting into the teracotta and watering around it, as you get more planting space for the volume. Placing the water in the teracotta makes more sense if you have a much larger planting areas. And, if you seal the thing entirely, then you'd be able to fill through the seal and just fill one reservoir as needed.
I've used ones I made myself out of terra cotta plots. I had the best luck with squash and tomatoes. Young plants still need a fair amount of auxiliary water. I used silicon to fill the hole. Worked great.
I ran across the olla DIY last year. The first set the hubby made was made with either 2 inch or 3 inch pots from dollar tree (the ones that came in a 2 pk). He sealed the hole in the bottom with either hot glue or silicone (don't remember which). Instead of gluing 2 pots together he wanted to be able to see how much water was left, so he used a plastic clear bottle with bottom cut off (I think it is a 1 liter pepsi bottle). I just remove the lid to refill being careful not to put lid on to tight. Later during the season, he wanted to try to adding them to a drip line with a water tank, which worked even nicer. All I had to do was fill the tank once a week instead of filling individual ollas every few days. I live in zone 8a with highs in the mid 90's to low 100's. This year hubby is building me an aqueduct from the house to a 250 gallon tote on top of a tower made from a plastic pallet sitting on cinder blocks. I have been filling that from a cute little pond that he built years ago (pond is just a little bigger than 250 gallons). The pond is filled from a rain barrel over flow pipe.
I saw some ollas available in a nearby Sydney store last year. Only problem- they started at $65 each! No way, hosa. So I'm now in the middle of making five of them myself. I'm using the 2 pot method except at the top hole I'm adding some tubing that will reach up to the top of the bed. In the top of the tubing I'm adding a funnel so it's easier to fill up. I'm experimenting with using some old water bottle funnels (which never worked with the bottle watering method) and also some narrow tops of 1.25l drink bottles. I'm actually not going to bury these pots near the surface either. I'm repurposing some small-ish plastic barrels (which previously had transported herbs) to use as vegetable planters in the spring (around September in Australia). The DIY ollas will sit on the bottom of the barrel so they will function as both watering back-up and to fill in some of the dead space. Hopefully the plants will reach down deeply to get to the water which will help their roots to become stronger.
I use these as my main watering system. I only get time to water in the evening when I get home from work. I can fill all the pots (I have many) without having to worry about leaving plants wet overnight. I will still water with the hose when I get the chance. But I don't need to worry about them. Everything is growing so well!
I am in a similar situation! I still plan to water well and deeply with a hose, and then fill an olla in the raised beds. Watering everything well should prevent immediate wicking from the olla. I would like to only need to water with a hose maybe once a week
If you had a single floating ball inside the vase that was larger than the neck, then you could fill it until the ball floated and autosealed the top of the vase. You would still want to have a lid, but it might also help with evaporation a bit.
Spirit Talk is correct. All that ball is doing is taking up space in the jug. There's also the question of... if the ball is larger than the neck... how do you get it in there? 🙂 If you're concerned about evaporation, just use a food-grade plastic bottle instead an olla or TC pots. Use the cap the bottle came with and run a 5/8" nylon rope into the top of the jug down to the bottom, to wick water out into the root zone. It works great, it can cover much more area without re-filling nearly as often, it's far less expensive than buying terra cotta planters or ollas, and you can have a reservoir anywhere from 1-liter to five gallons. I suppose if one really wanted to, they could bury a 15-, 30- or 55-gallon drum and run a bunch of wicks out of it. It depends on how big of a hole you feel like digging, and at a certain point it becomes difficult for the rope to wick water out over more than a few feet. 2.5 gallons is the most common size I use, with two rope wicks, each reaching out about three feet in either direction.
@@dogslobbergardens6606 That sounds better and cheaper than an olla plus you're reusing plastic containers, the only issue is those break down in the sun eventually, during the summer a milk jug can crumble in a month or two.
Great idea, something new to try here in the Texas summer heat alongside of my DIY 2-liter plastic bottle with tiny holes I poked into the sides then buried the whole bottle (same refill principle with the screw-on cap above ground). Thank you!
I've been using DIY Ollas for a few years and to help cut down on the evaporation just smear some of the silicone you used to join the two pots together on the top of the Olla where it is going to be exposed to the air.
With the drought I had where I live this summer totally doing some diy this winter for the next season, all garden things are on clearance right where I live so win win for me lol
This seems cool, if I lived in a dry climate I might consider it. In my case watering time is my bonding time with my plants. It gives me a chance to check on them, make sure there aren't any pests and that their leaves are nice and green.
I’ve seen stuff about Olla before side but I love the face on the one of them and you did it in a great way actually showing Distance and I like the little chart. I did a screenshot of that so I can blow it up and look at it and show a couple ways to put it together, and I didn’t realize it was Mexican. I’m gonna have to check with the Mexican stores around here to see if we actually have any that they have for sale in the store locally
Thank God, your ollas vid is something useful and easy on the mind vice flood of negative news. Anyway, this solves maintaining moisture in a large container. Thank you
A little hack you can do is chop up some weeds like dandelion, nettle and verde lagos and put them in your ollas to slowly decompose and add more nutrients to the liquid. It takes a few months for it to break down.
We call them Ollies and we made enough for our gardens from unglazed pots, glued together at their tops with marine silicone, one bottom plugged, filled once a day to water to stop the drying out oc the gardens!
They sell the little versions of thes that let you recycle old water bottle or wine bottles. I personally have great success with them. These are far more pleasing on the eye though.
I like to use simple 32oz plastic bottles, prick some tiny holes in the caps and stick them in the ground for slow-releasing water. A bit like a resevoir.
I've done this. I've also kept the caps on and pricked tiny holes in the rounded sides of the plastic bottles and buried the bottle part way. I put an inch or two of sand in the bottom to slow the water dripping through the holes.
@@susanriggs8896 That last part is very clever about the inch of sand you add. Very good idea. I will definitely do that too. After I watched the video I realized I could also bury the complete bottle and simply prick a few holes in it at random places. Might try that next time we get 70-80 degrees weather.
8:24 For best case results, unstack them and apply a thick bead to one of the mating faces. It's a better bond. I'd use a tube of construction adhesive, personally. Great video, thanks!
These are great and when I have made them and had a water indication system of sorts built in. Before you join the pots measure something like a small diameter piece of PVC tube that fits the hole loosely as well as being long enough to show if the olla is empty add a small cork to one end. You may need to make the pots hole a little bigger and or a second hole to make it easier to fill, then join them as you did in the video, top it up and the cork will make the tube stand up as it empties it will show when you need to top up.
FWIW, this would be *PERFECT* for use with an automatic watering system using float switches + 5v water pumps pulling from a resevoir. The whole thing should cost less than $5 per olla and will keep them topped up 24/7. If you have larger ollas, you could use 'mini floating ball valves', which work like your toilet tank, for a fully mechanical system. Cheers!
Finally another practical example of how effective and ecological cisterns are as Viktor Schauberger advertised, and of course as many cultures have used for millenia.
I use a string that is placed one end on a bottle filled with water and the other end near the plant and it flows the same way as through a tube, a weird unexpected effect. Basically the higher mass of the water below drags the water above through adhesion forces. If the string is dry, it will not start by itself.
