Peeks into Past and Present: Drip Tape Gardening

November 15th, 2011 saw the debut of the bucket drip-tape system. I'd been wanting to try it out for some time. Part of my role in assisting with agriculture here is trying out new things to see if they'll be useful and/or sustainable for families in S. Sudan. Dry season (6 or more months of no rain and searing sunshine) puts a bit of a damper on eating in a place where refrigerators, freezers, and processed and canned goods are practically unheard of, or out of the average person's financial reach (saving for tomato paste, perhaps).
 So I'm always interested in something that will provide healthy veg through the lean months. Moru people do a pretty good job at river side gardens, and seem to be expanding a bit each year that I've been here.  But so far it's mostly for a couple green leaf vegetables and not much more. Thanks to the rock-wielding wonder of Caleb, an altar was built for the large bucket at the highest point of my garden. To that we rigged lines of flat tubing tape that has small slits at intervals of 12 inches. You fill up the bucket, plant your crops at each slit in the tape, and voilá! - you have a slow and steady supply of water just where your plant's roots need it. Protected with a heavy layer of leaf mulch (the best I could do at the time), so far so good.

I started with a trial of tomatoes, amaranthus greens, cilantro, a couple pineapples, a few sticks of chaya (a bushy leaf veg), some cranberry hibiscus (for their tangy leaf additions to salads), and a bunch of bagged cuttings of mulberry, bougainvillea, and a handful of moringa and leucaena trees). I've got some nice looking knee high tomato plants, and most everything else is doing well, albeit slow-growing. (I'm not surprised, I doubt I'd grow much out in this heat every day). Using bore-hole water has presented a bit of challenge. Its high salinity (Michael tells me) and its rich mineral content (which I can see from the crusts that cover the slits after just a few days of evaporation) won't be a feasible long-term option. We might have to think about the suitability of collecting rainwater in the summer months. We shall see. Meantime I'm looking forward to my "Big Rainbow" and Russian "Black Krim" heirloom tomatoes. With a write-up like this, who could resist: "Beautiful, dark purple-black fruits have rich, old-fashioned flavor touched with a hint of smokiness. Reliable and very productive." Hope they stand a chance in this sun!