Drought in CA

Letting the lawn die. Only growing peppers and tomatoes instead of my normal huge assortment. Granted I will be growing like 30+ pepper plants :)
 
 
 
what about the cannabis growers out there?  Are they all still growing?
 
The Emerald Triangle is the nations largest growing region in the USA. I doubt a drought will hinder it. This region isn't too far from me either :) Not a smoker anymore though.
 
filmost said:
Have you guys considered clay pot irrigation?
So I get this great idea for a portable above ground garden. I went to the back of my local grocery store and picked up a few of these for an experiment with the olla. These are FREE and they just throw them away. Its what the vegetables come in at your local markets. So I went to a craft store and got these Clay tall pots for $2 each with a top that fits. I'm seeing how these Caribbean Peppers do in this environment.
 

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Spicy Mushroom said:
Letting the lawn die. Only growing peppers and tomatoes instead of my normal huge assortment. Granted I will be growing like 30+ pepper plants :)
 
 
The Emerald Triangle is the nations largest growing region in the USA. I doubt a drought will hinder it. This region isn't too far from me either :) Not a smoker anymore though.
Im going to have 6-8 plants. ;)
 
Yeah well. I normally grow huge pumpkin, cantaloupe, and watermelon patches. So I'm still cutting back my watering a lot! :P Just not willing to sacrifice my peppers. Especially since it's this grow season I am growing a ton of new varieties I have never had. Fatalii, datil, bohemian goat pepper, bonda ma jacques, jamaican hot chocolate, madam jeanette, brazilian starfish...  Never tasted any of them! :)
 
SavinaRed said:
So I get this great idea for a portable above ground garden. I went to the back of my local grocery store and picked up a few of these for an experiment with the olla. These are FREE and they just throw them away. Its what the vegetables come in at your local markets. So I went to a craft store and got these Clay tall pots for $2 each with a top that fits. I'm seeing how these Caribbean Peppers do in this environment.
 
Awesome! Hope it works well. Something like that would cost like 10 bucks here.... -_-
 
Spicy Mushroom said:
Yeah well. I normally grow huge pumpkin, cantaloupe, and watermelon patches. So I'm still cutting back my watering a lot! :P Just not willing to sacrifice my peppers. Especially since it's this grow season I am growing a ton of new varieties I have never had. Fatalii, datil, bohemian goat pepper, bonda ma jacques, jamaican hot chocolate, madam jeanette, brazilian starfish...  Never tasted any of them! :)
And what is pathetic is that us residents only account for 5% of the water usage! Political BS at it's best. :rolleyes:
 
Honestly I find it hard to comprehend living somewhere that water is such a scarce resource, trying to wrap my brain around it.  I think I'd have to get inventive about it using vapor stills and like on Tatooine.  Weren't they fining people for collecting rainwater in California too? (lol)
 
Helvete said:
Honestly I find it hard to comprehend living somewhere that water is such a scarce resource, trying to wrap my brain around it.  I think I'd have to get inventive about it using vapor stills and like on Tatooine.  Weren't they fining people for collecting rainwater in California too? (lol)
 
The noble governments of many western states have gone after large numbers of civilian and and business criminals who were practicing rainwater catchment.  :rolleyes:
A rather small number of nuclear plants dedicating their thermal and electrical energy to desalination would provide all the drinking water California might need.  Providing enough for agriculture would require building a few dozen such facilities - something I can't see happening any time soon!
 
around here (So Cal) it's a fairly big deal right now.
I've stopped watering my grass but once every week and a half or so.. just enough to keep it from completely dying and it is a nice shade of brown/yellow right now.
As for my peppers, I really don't have issue as they are only watered about once every week and a half anyway and I have only 30 plants this year. It's basically like someone takes a bath one more time a week.

I look at them every evening after dinner and only water when they are still wilted then after the sun goes down (that's the best way I've found over the years to not over water anyway).

I did give up my hydroponics this year as 10 plants I normally do use a lot water to replace evaporated and replace when contaminated or just to flush..
oh and as to the political end -
I've read that we haven't done a single additional aqueduct or pipeline for water since late 1960's - early 1970's but we are still providing 50 BILLION to a commuter bullet train that goes from basically desert to basically farmland.
 
scrufy said:
I've read that we haven't done a single additional aqueduct or pipeline for water since late 1960's - early 1970's but we are still providing 50 BILLION to a commuter bullet train that goes from basically desert to basically farmland.
That's because of all the eco-nuts in this state. It's time to throw those whack jobs out and build some reservoirs.
 
scrufy said:
I did give up my hydroponics this year as 10 plants I normally do use a lot water to replace evaporated and replace when contaminated or just to flush..
oh and as to the political end -
I've read that we haven't done a single additional aqueduct or pipeline for water since late 1960's - early 1970's but we are still providing 50 BILLION to a commuter bullet train that goes from basically desert to basically farmland.
there is only so much water that the EPA will allow you to pump from northern California. most of these water sources are protected in some way or other, rightly so i would argue.

California's issue is not lack of pipeline, but lack of rain.

good luck to you folks... people here in texas were shitting their pants for a few years, but the whole drought broke somewhat. i think the water resources folks in the dallas major metro areas are still bonding out major water projects though... as they rely almost solely on surface water.
 
queequeg152 said:
California's issue is not lack of pipeline, but lack of rain.
 
 
SO TRUE! I have been wishing for rain for the last 2-3 years!
 
Right when they say we are going to get rain, it sprinkles for a few hours and done.... wtf precipitation, I'm looking at you!
 
Edit: though a little extra pipeline couldn't hurt...
 
OOOOR, stop paying the politicians altogether and invest in yourself California! Stop supporting your own cancer! (too far?)
 
the problem is that there is almost no where to pipe water from at this point.

you would have to go farther north into Oregon and invest 10's of billions in creating reservoirs and pipe lines.

large scale water pipe lines are basically the most expensive things in the universe... 96" steel morter coated waterlines require like 11 feet of depth and costs thousands per lineal foot installed.

its actually far easier and cheaper to simply desalinate water and or process treated waste water with reverse osmosis. problem with RO treating waste water is that you then need injection wells because nobody wants to deal with the permeate created. injection wells are hugely costly and nobody wants them installed.

problem with the above is that it makes agriculture impossible as water costs as much as 10x more.

RO waste water is like half that cost. and building reservoirs costs like half what ro treating waste water does... over the long term at least.
 
IMO. Don't know why the rest of the US ain't helping us with our water issues... 70% of the AG is grown in cali... more cost for farmers means greater cost for everyone.

They should also gibe us all rebates for tankless water heater..
 
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