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Albedo: Albedo is the amount of reflectivity of an object. The amount of incoming electromagnetic radiation is compared to the amount of radiation reflected by the object.
Think about going out on a bright summers day in a black tee shirt and jeans…and then think about going out in a lighter coloured outfit.
You don’t just feel cooler in the lighter colours, you actually are cooler, and I’m talking temperature not style!
Vegetables need light and a certain amount of heat, but the high summer temperatures in places like California and Texas is often too much for tender plants. By changing the albedo rate your veggies will have a fighting chance. The higher the albedo the more heat is reflected from the object back into the air. This not only prevents scorching but reduces evaporation, keeping more moisture in the soil where your plants need it.
Whilst I’m talking about watering, surface watering in these conditions is a waste of water and often a waste of time. The water needs to be down by the roots, and there’s a couple of cheap and easy ways you can do this.
Putting a few holes in an old hose, filling it with grit and burying it a few inches under the soil delivers the water to where it’s needed without losing up to 70% of it to evaporation. The grit prevents the hose silting up.
Or:
Digging a hole about the size of a soda bottle and upending the bottle in it, a couple of holes in the lid, will also deliver water to the deeper levels of the soil.
Right, back to albedo, there are several ways to increase the albedo rate and take the heat off your plants:
Thinking outside the box sometimes provides relatively simple solutions to what feels like an overwhelming problem.
Take Care
Liz
Delivered by The Daily Sheeple
Contributed by Lizzie Bennett of Underground Medic.
Lizzie Bennett retired from her job as a senior operating department practitioner in the UK earlier this year. Her field was trauma and accident and emergency and she has served on major catastrophe teams around the UK. Lizzie publishes Underground Medic on the topic of preparedness.