Just A Random Tip

This isn't a bad tip by any stretch of the imagination. It is especially useful when you have been guilty of forgetting to water your baskets-which we all do. The compost sets like concrete and the water just dribbles over the sides when this happens. It is the first thing I do when I have forgotten nto water-AND it works.

We have one of those large American freezers that dispense ice from the front of the freezer cabinet-the ice is made anyway, AND your freezer is on anyway.

It won't work if you do regularly water ( and you want the cubes for the pimms and ginger ale ), because you won't need it, but it is an excellent emergency measure.

 

Yes we have one too .... although almost out of ice tonight as been so hot and all the kids are home!!

But yes your right, the ice is there anyway and no opening the freezer which reduces the electric etc.

Will definately bear it in mind

 

The ice cube idea runs contrary to the advice, though it mainly applies to greenhouse crops, that I've followed for years. That is to fill watering cans and leave them in the greenhouse so that the water warms up before watering the plants. This way the roots don't get a sudden chill which I suppose has a similar effect to leaves being subjected to a sudden chill - the plant goes "oh!"

(I've had a probe measuring soil temperature in our polytunnel since February and during the last couple of days the temperature of the top inch to two inches of loose dry soil has been hitting 30C. I must see what the temperature of the compost of the pots in the greenhouse is hitting and measure the temperature of tap water)

 

I'd be worried about the sudden chilled water to plants aswell tbh.

I'd rather just water my toms from below with lots of water every morning. Worked last year, cant wait for this year

 

I don't want to detract from the conversation, but the thought that "Ice makers make ice anyway" isn't correct - otherwise when you went away on holiday the door would fly open with the weight of ice inside!

It costs money to make ice, pure and simple. You take out ice, a sensor causes more to be made.

Each to his and her own of course, but you most probably are aware of my views and my family is set on reducing our energy footprint. We have thrown out our big American Fridge / Freezers as I was horrified when I put a meter on them to record their electricity usage (over £200 each p.a. :( ). In fairness they were very old, but in looking to replace them there were no combination fridge/freezers that were energy efficient, and so we have resorted to using our original freezer, our original standard fridge, and an ice maker that we already had that we run periodically and put bags of ice in the freezer.

 

It must be an age of product thing-my fridge freezer is more economical than the one it replaced.

And by no means am I saying that using ice is the way to water your plants-to qualify it a bit more, I have in the past ( and will do so again-although I promised myself I would be more attentive to them) inadvertently allowed my planters and baskets at the front of the house to dry out. When in that state it is difficult for the water to be absorbed-in that the majority of it just ran around the edges of the compost, down through the containers and straight out. I have used ice cubes then to sit on top of the soil, where it has defrosted and gradually released the moisture into the compost-which was absorbing it at a slower rate anyway. It is not the same as pouring ice cold water through a pot that hasn't dried and thereby giving the roots a shock. By the time the ice gets to the roots it is water that has warmed. Once this moisture is in the soil, the compost is more accepting of water and I would then of course go back to using the rainwater collected in the butts.

I am not advocating the uise of ice as a watering alternative-far from it. You can't beat a couple of water butts and a good memory.

 

"It must be an age of product thing-my fridge freezer is more economical than the one it replaced."

I'm sure that's the case. Just hovering out the air filter on ours reduced the leccy bill substantially!

But in looking for a replacement "American" fridge freezer I couldn't find anything triple-A, or A* or whatever the current examination-top-pass-rate is!

I like the idea of slow-release melting-ice-cubes revitalising a dried-out hanging basket. I dunk pots in deep water when that happens, which is clearly not easy for a hanging basket :thumb:

 

It's a Hotpoint one-the sticker on the inside of the freezer door says MSZ801, it was bought early last year. I don't remember off the top of my head what each letter means-AAA, ABA etc, it just said A against energy rating-which I presume means its fine-at least that's what I specifically asked for when we bought it.

 

I put water retaining gel in my plant pots.