(cool (warm?) stuff! – promoted by eli_beckerman)
Every year I start my garden early by using solar cloches made from 2 liter plastic bottles. These three cloches were planted with seed in the last week of March and first week of April, respectively, with tomato and basil, cucumber and dill, and zucchini in planting Zone 6A, eastern Massachusetts.
The ring of bottles are filled with water to store solar heat during the day and the central bottle has its bottom cut out and pressed into the soil to protect the growing seeds.
Recycled Solar video: http://youtu.be/KTLBsxI-Xl8
Recycled Solar
Take the label off a clear plastic 2 liter
soda/pop/tonic bottle.
Cut the bottom off the bottle.
Plant a seed.
Press the edge of the bottomless bottle
into the soil around it.
The bottomless bottle is now a cloche or hot cap,
allowing earlier planting.
Open the bottomless bottle’s bottle top
for warm days and close
it
for cold nights.
Take the labels off a few more
clear plastic 2 liter soda/pop/tonic bottles.
Fill them with water
and surround the bottomless bottle cloche hot cap.
Tie a string around this circle
and pull it tight.
During the day, the bottles of water
get warm
and stay warmer longer at night.
This recycled solar cloche
can take a month off planting season.
If you have green
plastic 2 liter soda/pop/tonic bottles,
place them on the North side
of the solar circle.
The darker the bottle
the hotter the water gets
in the sunlight.
This is a two tone solar cloche.
Take some silver paint
and paint the backs of
the green bottles
to reflect
light back
into the system
and you have a
three tone tuned
solar
cloche.
I built one once
for Candide’s garden.
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