Emmanuel Rolland,
Gardening at school
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After a cutting has grown strong you
can plant it out in the garden.
It needs to be protected as follows.
Plant out the new young tree, keeping all the soil mixture around its
roots so as not to damage them.
Manure the base of the tree and water it.
Place around its base a black plastic square of 80 cm making a slit
from one edge to the middle so that it can wrap around the
newly
planted tree without damage it.
Place another smaller square of black plastic the same way.
To stop the plastic from moving put a tyre on the plastics with the
tree in the middle.
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The black plastic will keep
the heat and water in the soil around the tree and it will stop weeds
from chocking it. |
The tyre stops the plastic moving,
gives shade and protection to the tree and stores up heat and water.
NB Do not forget to water the tree and when planting out the tree do
not damage its roots.
The system then reabsorbs the water into the soil mixture to nourish the roots.
When it rains water falls on the ground and is absorbed until it finds soil that will not allow it to pass e.g. clay.
When it has not rained for a while and the soil dries out this forces the water to be reabsorbed upwards towards the roots of the plant.
This happens in the plastic plant container.
For you to see this happening try the following:
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Take a sugar cube and soak it in a coloured liquid. You will see the liquid being absorbed into the sugar from the base upwards. |
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Now see this happening in your
plastic plant system.
Leave the container 8 days in the sun so that it dries out.
Disconnect the bottom portion and fill it with water.
Reconnect the two halves. Wait a couple of hours and then look at the
soil mixture in the container.
You will see the water being absorbed up to the top.
Measure how much the water has risen in one hour and you can calculate
the speed of absorption in centimetres per hour.
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The plastic bottles are
transparent which is ideal for observing what is happening inside. |
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