Plant trees for afforestation
Restoring a long-destroyed forest is a very important matter. We use different technologies for planting and supporting trees.
Planting and supporting trees while creating a forest is a major job that requires constant attention and effort. Depending on the constancy of moisture in the soil, we decide to use additional seedlings support products. There are several ways to increase the chances of a young tree taking root.
Zai.
Zai is an African technology refined by Yakouba Sawadogo. Zay is a hole in the ground. Peasants in the Sahel region of Africa have long used the Zai during particularly dry years, when the land became hard, to trap rainwater on hard soils.
As we know, hard and hot soil does not absorb rainwater, which quickly drains and erodes the landscape. However, by creating holes, the peasants allowed the water to linger and soak into the soil.
During one of the severe droughts, when many people began to abandon their lands and move, Yakouba Sawadoga began to make Zai and fill it with compost, manure and straw. Mixed with soil, his fillers absorbed and retained moisture better.
We use Zai for tree planting most of the time, as even in humid areas, degraded land quickly becomes like Sahel.
Groasis waterbox.
Waterboxx uses natural principles to support seedlings.
Capillary water is perfectly preserved under stones, logs and manure, even on the hottest days. The soil is damp or wet under heavy objects. As soon as the sun shines on the soil, the capillary dries up. The Groasis waterbox prevents this.In most deserts and semi-deserts, precipitation is about 250 mm. This is 250 liters per square meter. But this rain falls in 2 days, and all the water evaporates within a week. So the problem is not water scarcity, but capturing and distributing water throughout the year. Groasis waterboxx captures this rainwater and distributes it evenly throughout the year.
Anywhere in the world where even the lowest relative humidity, surfaces can get colder than the air temperature, condensation occurs. This is the phenomenon that the Groasis waterbox uses: due to the temperature difference between the surface of the Groasis waterbox and the ambient air, the Waterboxx surface locally cools below the dew point.
As a result, water droplets form on the surface of the Groasis waterbox, which flows down into the Waterboxx. Its design stimulates the formation and collection of condensation. Thus, the Groasis water box not only collects dew, but also promotes its formation.
Water from the tank is distributed in small daily doses through a small wick, providing constant capillary moisture to the soil under the Waterboxx. In this way, the Groasis waterbox stimulates the efficient use of water.In nature, seeds are distributed by grazing animals and birds. The seeds are sown on the soil surface. The manure adheres the seeds to the soil and protects it from drying out. Thus, the capillary makes the seeds moist, stimulating its to plant a small root directly into the soil, providing direct access to the available capillary moisture, allowing it to grow further.
The seed-planted Groasis Waterbox mimics this process: it does not disturb the soil and therefore maintains the existing capillary structure of the soil. Without capillaries, the soil dries up into dust and erodes.
The water storage in the Groasis water chamber acts as a soil temperature equalizer. Avoiding extreme temperatures encourages growth.
The Groasis waterbox allows us to grow trees in arid areas using the minimum amount of water. That is why we use this technology in almost all of our projects.
"I am grateful to Pieter Hoff for the information from Groasis" - Sergey Markov.
