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  • From: "Rich Blaha" <rich@mossbackfarm.com>
  • To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Techniques for capturing moisture
  • Date: Wed, 12 Jul 2006 10:25:54 -0800

Hi Antonio, et al.

I'm under the impression that a mulch cover does more to prevent loss of
water from the soil rather than to absorb dew and humidity. Not that it
couldn't happen, but looking just beneath the dewy surface of my mulches,
they are as dry as they were the sunny afternoon before.

The prevention of soil water loss is still significant, since soil
evaporation can be a big problem in hot exposed locations. That just doesn't
help Antonio out on his question.

If you get lots of coastal fog (as opposed to just dew), some folks in S
America have been working on fog catchment systems for a decade or so....a
couple of links are

http://www.fogquest.org/projects.shtml
http://idrinfo.idrc.ca/Archive/ReportsINTRA/pdfs/v22n4e/112937.htm
http://www.rexresearch.com/airwells/airwells.htm (scroll down for Airwells,
Fog & dew catchment. Just make sure that you don't install a HAARP array on
your place ;) )

I had grand plans some years back to use a portable fog catchment system to
supply water to remote forestry restoration projects along the OR/CA coast.
I still think it has potential...perhaps someday....

Cheers

Rich
Mossback Farm
www.mossbackfarm.com/journal



>
> Message: 3
> Date: Wed, 12 Jul 2006 11:30:18 -0400
> From: sinergyinaction@netscape.net
> Subject: [permaculture] Techniques for capturing moisture
> To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
> Message-ID: <8C873DF36DA175A-1118-3AA2C@mblkn-m20.sysops.aol.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>
> Hi,
> how is it possible to catch and store humidity from air (not rainfall!)?
> Any ideas or experiences?
>
> Cheers
> Antonio
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 4
> Date: Wed, 12 Jul 2006 10:40:26 -0500
> From: "Kevin Topek" <ktopek@houston.rr.com>
> Subject: Re: [permaculture] Techniques for capturing moisture
> To: "permaculture" <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
> Message-ID: <000801c6a5c9$7fd7daa0$0200a8c0@kevin>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> Mulch will capture the dew from night's cooler temperatures and retain it.
> Stones can do the same as the moisture condenses on them and runs into the
> soil. Heavy groundcover plantings will also collect humidity and preserve
> soil moisture.
>
> Kevin
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <sinergyinaction@netscape.net>
> To: <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, July 12, 2006 10:30 AM
> Subject: [permaculture] Techniques for capturing moisture
>
>
> > Hi,
> > how is it possible to catch and store humidity from air (not rainfall!)?
> > Any ideas or experiences?
> >
> > Cheers
> > Antonio
> > _______________________________________________
> > permaculture mailing list
> > permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
> > http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/permaculture
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 5
> Date: Wed, 12 Jul 2006 11:47:53 -0400
> From: sinergyinaction@netscape.net
> Subject: Re: [permaculture] Techniques for capturing moisture
> To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
> Message-ID: <8C873E1ABCD851E-1118-3AB23@mblkn-m20.sysops.aol.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> Hi Kevin
> well I was actually thinking of storing this "free" water in a tank, apart
> from doing what you suggest,
> so that I could use it at a later time.
>
> By the way do you think that high night air humidity can substitute (to
> some extent) for lack of irrigation during daytime hours in very hot
> climates?
> The place I am concerned with has (at this time of the year) very high day
> T (>40?C) but much lower night T with lots of humidity in the night.
>
> Sometimes I feel that mulch (straw and other organic mulches) although
> they let the humidity condensate on them, they do not allow much
> percolation to the ground itself.
>
> Cheers
> Antonio
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Kevin Topek <ktopek@houston.rr.com>
> To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
> Sent: Wed, 12 Jul 2006 10:40:26 -0500
> Subject: Re: [permaculture] Techniques for capturing moisture
>
>
> Mulch will capture the dew from night's cooler temperatures and retain it.
> Stones can do the same as the moisture condenses on them and runs into the
> soil. Heavy groundcover plantings will also collect humidity and preserve
> soil moisture.
>
> Kevin
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <sinergyinaction@netscape.net>
> To: <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, July 12, 2006 10:30 AM
> Subject: [permaculture] Techniques for capturing moisture
>
>
> > Hi,
> > how is it possible to catch and store humidity from air (not rainfall!)?
> > Any ideas or experiences?
> >
> > Cheers
> > Antonio
> > _______________________________________________
> > permaculture mailing list
> > permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
> > http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/permaculture
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> permaculture mailing list
> permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/permaculture
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 6
> Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2006 01:54:19 +1000
> From: jedd <jedd@progsoc.org>
> Subject: Re: [permaculture] Techniques for capturing moisture
> To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
> Message-ID: <200607130154.20053.jedd@progsoc.org>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> On Thursday 13 July 2006 1:30 am, sinergyinaction@netscape.net wrote:
> ] how is it possible to catch and store humidity from air (not rainfall!)?
> ] Any ideas or experiences?
>
> I believe there's two tried and tested approaches that work on a
> decent scale. (For small scale stuff, just having a rock mulch, or
> a sheet of metal angled towards the drip zone, will give some
> benefit.)
>
> Ponds and piles of rocks, though, can recover sizeable quantities
> of water from the air .. but that depends on geography as much as
> design, I suspect.
>
> Historically, the English built insulated ponds -- straw, then clay,
> then rocks above that. This ensured the water was cooler than the
> surrounding soil, and dissippated heat as fast as possible. Site
> became important (water-laden air follows valleys) -- so half
> way up a valley is ideal.
>
> Going back even further, there are lots of recorded examples of
> using a stack of rocks (sitting on top of a big water-proof 'saucer',
> usually of rock too) -- but this has to be a *big* stack to be
> really useful .. and you need to be in a pretty foggy place for
> it to be of much benefit. I believe in ideal situations you can
> recover a few thousand litres of water a night from these kinds
> of devices .. but not sure how big that would need to be, and
> whether there are thermal limitations on the optimum size of
> your pile -- or just practical ones.
>
> Jedd.
>
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
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> permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
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>
>
> End of permaculture Digest, Vol 42, Issue 19
> ********************************************
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