solarray

From void into vision, from vision to mind, from mind into speech, from speech to the tribe, from the tribe into din.

Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Recycled Solar: Double-Glazed Hot Cap Cloche

I was cleaning out my storeroom the other day and came across another recycled solar device that I was fooling with a few years ago.  A one liter clear plastic bottle makes a good hot cap or cloche when you cut the bottom off it.  Plant a seedling, pop the bottomless clear cap over it, and you protect  the seedling from the cold.  It probably adds between 5 and 10 degrees F over the outside temperature by protecting the seedling from the wind and by capturing sunlight in a small, closed space.  My twist on this idea was to find different sizes of clear plastic bottles which could nest one inside the other making a double-glazed hot cap cloche.  A double-glazed hot cap cloche might be able to protect the seedlings even better, keeping that small, closed space even warmer than the outside air.

This afternoon, I planted two tomato seedlings in my garden using this device.  We'll see whether it works.

1 Comments:

At 6/11/2015 2:01 PM, Anonymous Mark said...

Very clever idea. I like the double hot cap idea. I live in Colorado and we lose a lot of plants every year that are supposed to be perennials. Perennial or not, when it drops to 30 below, it's tough to survive.

 

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