Handy Gizmos

[ohugal]

I go trough 60-100 gallons each watering during most of the year

You have an ebb and flow system?

I've modified/extended a few of my gardening tools to make them easier for a taller person to use, especially my 3 prong cultivator. I made a dibble tip out of a stainless steel alloy in the early 1980's when I worked in a machine shop. I attached it to a wooden snow shovel D style handle. (I made the internal taper of the tip to match the existing taper on the handle.) It comes in handy when I'm planting 400-600 cloves of garlic in the fall. I can make the planting holes while standing up.

You got any pictures of that?

For watering the cacti in my miniature greenhouse/cold frame, I use about 5 liters. The disadvantage of the pressure sprayer is time. It takes too long. Which is something I want to avoid when I decide to water my cacti before leaving to work. I would say it's approx. 30-40 minutes. There's a lot of small pots because of the high amount of small cacti and cuttings I got this year. Always in search in the perfect solution.

[jerrytheplater]

I go trough 60-100 gallons each watering during most of the year

You have an ebb and flow system?

I've modified/extended a few of my gardening tools to make them easier for a taller person to use, especially my 3 prong cultivator. I made a dibble tip out of a stainless steel alloy in the early 1980's when I worked in a machine shop. I attached it to a wooden snow shovel D style handle. (I made the internal taper of the tip to match the existing taper on the handle.) It comes in handy when I'm planting 400-600 cloves of garlic in the fall. I can make the planting holes while standing up.

You got any pictures of that?

For watering the cacti in my miniature greenhouse/cold frame, I use about 5 liters. The disadvantage of the pressure sprayer is time. It takes too long. Which is something I want to avoid when I decide to water my cacti before leaving to work. I would say it's approx. 30-40 minutes. There's a lot of small pots because of the high amount of small cacti and cuttings I got this year. Always in search in the perfect solution.

Both? I'd have to go take some. Never took photos. I can, it will take more than a few minutes.

[nachtkrabb]

About watering cans: The nicest with the best snots for my way of using them come from the 1950ies. Very ergonomic & well balanced. The smaller ones usually with elongated snouts. Splendid.
I get them quite cheap at garage sales or on fleamarkets, although they usually are made from metal (copper?): Nobody else seems to be interested. Just as well...
N.

[jerrytheplater]

Copper is not magnetic and oxidizes to green. Steel rusts. Galvanized steel is gray and will rust when the zinc coating comes off. Brass is also not magnetic and will oxidize to green also. Copper is softer than brass.

[nachtkrabb]

I am neither a chemist nor a metallurgist nor an alchemist, although I think I can recognise enough for home use. I just wanted to express that I usually would expect copper as the material for metal watering cans from the 1950ies in Germany.
N.

[jerrytheplater]

I am neither a chemist nor a metallurgist nor an alchemist. I just wanted to express that I usually would expect copper as the material for metal watering cans from the 1950ies in Germany.
N.

Ahh, but you can look at what you have or find in garage sales. Copper is more valuable than steel or galvanized steel.

[jerrytheplater]

I went out and took photos of the dibble and then my battery died. Cultivator will be tomorrow.

Overall of dibble with a 36" yard stick for scale. You can see the "D" Handle. This was from an old snow shovel from the early 1980's. :

rsz Dibble & Yard Stick.jpg (144.85 KiB) Viewed 3055 times

I made a stainless steel bolt and nut using a flat head bolt to attach the dibble to the wooden tool handle. I had to make the nut custom. I did not want the attachment hardware to protrude beyond the profile of the dibble. The dibble itself is made from a grade of Stainless Steel called 17-4 PH. That means it contains 17% Chromium, 4% Nickel and it also contains 4% Copper plus other minor amounts of other elements. The balance is Iron. The PH means it is Precipitation Hardenable, which means that one of the constituents will precipitate out of the metal internally between the grain boundaries when heated to the correct temperature and cooled at the correct rate. (probably copper) I won't bother looking up the details as I'm pretty sure most of you really would not be interested. But, Google is your friend if you want more info.

Here is the head of the bolt:

rsz Dibble Head, drive.jpg (126.21 KiB) Viewed 3055 times

Here is the nut on the bolt:

rsz Dibble Head, nut.jpg (124.5 KiB) Viewed 3055 times

Ohugal: If you want to see the process I sometimes go through when planting my garlic, I made a video of it over 13 years ago in 2009 using a Flip Video device. Its still up on my YouTube channel. The video is in two parts. I did it with a snow storm threatening. The ground was frozen about 2-4" deep. I used a pick to break it up.

Part 1: https://youtu.be/Fvmase4jhMA
Part 2: https://youtu.be/0Zcsszj6Los Part two shows my cultivator and I gave a description of it. The Dibble also.
The next year when it grew to show it worked: https://youtu.be/E5ylSIkCwd0 taken on April 3, 2010 and only about a minute.

[Carpkel]

I use a kitchen funnel to help direct water to the soil line when a cactus overhangs the pot or does not allow me to pour water in the typical way. The funnel also works great when i need to keep water off the body of the cactus ie. Blue cactus or rot prone cacti. My "watering cans" are actually recycled juice bottles cut in half.

[C And D]

a loop of tape on the seed stem of these Sarcocaulon keeps them from flying off and drilling themselves into hiding
If you just touch them when they are ripe they go flying

IMG_1254.JPG (68.48 KiB) Viewed 3000 times

IMG_1251.JPG (65.09 KiB) Viewed 3000 times

[C And D]

I have I was more photographically inclined
I could make a good photo out of this combination

IMG_1281.JPG (57.01 KiB) Viewed 2970 times

[MrXeric]

Interesting dispersal of seed, I should get to growing these one day

[keith]

A big tray like the use at the airport for TSA screening helps when transplanting keeps soil from making an even bigger mess.