D - ESP   

Andes: a walipini half underground with earth warmth where the temperature never sinks under 0º Celsius [0]		Walipini: Pit greenhouse in Bozeman in Montana (Canada) - interior view with cold air ditch and water barrel heating at the back side [4]	2. Simple pit greenhouse with 1m deep trenches+"earth tables" with solar roof+earth fill at the back side [2]
Warning: Do not use plastic films, they release plasticizers and microplastics into the air due to weathering and thus poison the air. The roof must be made of glass or Plexiglas, with a hail protection chicken wire on top, so that large hailstones cannot reach the roof.

Literatur
-- James McCullagh: The Solar Greenhouse Book - edition: Rodale press
-- Mike Oehlers: The Earth Sheltered Solar Greenhouse Book
-- Underground Greenhouse: https://insteading.com/blog/underground-greenhouse/
-- some thoughts of Michael Palomino (2022)

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Aug.8, 2022: The new idea: pit greenhouses with earth trenches - the earth tables remain like a raised bed

The case: A berry farmer in the region T (T1) always has the problem that harvesting strawberries is a "back-breaking job". I already knew this from a farmer in another location called T (T2). I suggested the farmer in T1 that he could install raised beds in a pit greenhouse, so that he could plant the strawberries in the raised bed and in the pit greenhouse he would have strawberries without heating all year round because the earth walls were then the heating. But the boss found that too complicated and, above all, too expensive.

Well, in Canada in Bozeman we can find for example such a pit greenhouse, and there are also water barrells as an additional heating:

Walipini: pit greenhouse at the location of Bozeman in Montana (Canada) - interior view with raised bed and water barrels as an additional heating [4]

It's just like this: if you build a house half underground and keep access to the earth wall, the earth wall stores the warmth of the whole summer and radiates it in winter. The two most important factors in a pit greenhouse are 1) the large amount of thermal mass in the walls which are at least 1m thick (stones, earth, water barrels) and 2) the position of the windows to the sun. The earth is the mass that stores the heat in the longest (thermal inertia for about 4-6 months). And then the building works even in winter without heating.

I then searched for a cheap solution. So at the end came out that raised beds with own cases are not necessary, but
-- You just have to dig trenches, then the "earth tables" remain and are then like a simple raised bed
-- Earth is a heat storage in summer and releases the heat during 4-6 months in winter: the earth walls, the ground and the "earth tables" ("raised beds") save the heat and then release the heat in winter (The reaction from earth to temperature differences is very slow)
-- You secure the earth walls with chicken wire and piles or protect the "earth tables" with wooden boards - for the first trial you don't have to protect everything right away
-- You can then design the roof as a gable roof, or as a sloping sunroof to the sunny side, so that you have a gigantic earth wall as a heating at the back, which brings even more heat storage in winter
-- The heating system can be reinforced with water barrels (rain water) that are not in the sun in summer but are in the solar radiation during winter times when the sun is shining in a flat angle, and these water barrels can also be applied for a drip irrigation system
-- The only cost in the company is irrigation and sowing and harvesting, whereby the time for harvesting is HALVED because with the earth tables (like elevated beds) there is no more "back-breaking work on the ground.

Here are the sketches and descriptions:

Sketch 1: Simple pit greenhouse with 1m deep trenches+"earth tables" as simple "raised beds"
by Michael Palomino, Aug.8, 2022

  
Sketch 1: Simple pit greenhouse with 1m deep earth passages+"earth tables" [1]

-- You dig 2 trenches 1m deep and maybe 5 to 10m long to start
-- You grate the earth walls with chicken wire (chicken wire with posts and cable ties, and connect the posts to each other, you hit nails into the top of the posts and connect them across the bed with a white leash) or you put wooden formwork (not so cheap but this is the protection of stains)
-- You put a simple arched roof over it with tarpaulin
-- You fix the tarpaulin at it's ends with stones and ensure that the roof becomes airtight, with 2 windows on the gables for regulation in summer.


Walipini: pit greenhouse dug by hand in New Mexico, earth tables resp. raised beds are missing [5]
from: Underground Greenhouse: https://insteading.com/blog/underground-greenhouse/

or

-- You build a foundation for a simple roof scaffolding with a transparent corrugated roof or flat roof (plexiglass), it just has to be tight
-- There is an entrance door on one gable, on both gables there are windows for temperature regulation in summer

This cheap construction (should not cost more than 5000 bucks, the roof costs the most) has the following properties:

-- On the earth walls with chicken wire, the double of the heat is stored in summer like in the normal pit greenhouse, because:
-- This simple construction with chicken wire then has twice the number of earth walls like a normal pit greenhouse (which only has the border walls)

-- that's why the depth of 1m for the whole pit is enough, you don't have to dig 1.8m deep
-- But if you dig 1.8m deep, you can save part of the foundations for the roof.

The basic shape in the Andes: The pit greenhouse is a half underground greenhouse with approx. 1.8m high and inclined earth walls, the geothermal energy is saved from the walls and from the ground and emitted in winter, the raised beds or "earth tables" are missing [0]


PLUS:
-- The planting and the harvest with the "earth tables" is much easier and faster, the harvest is twice as fast and without "back-breaking work"
-- The earthworms still have direct contact with the earth
-- Then it will be totally warm there in winter because the earth walls and the "earth tables" emit the heat for 6 months - you will be able to have strawberries, vegetables or even pepper even in winter WITHOUT heating
-- If you want, you can still put water barrels in winter to strengthen the heating system in winter
-- For strawberries in winter you have to have a bee colony to pollinate the flowers or you have to pollinate them by hand, but at the "earth table" or on the raised bed that goes even without "back-breaking work".

Now variations are still possible with a large sunroof and walls around to reinforce the heating system in winter: e.g. with a sun roof in front and with an earth's fill at the back:

2. Simple pit greenhouse with 1m deep trenches+"earth tables" with solar roof+earth fill at the back
by Michael Palomino, Aug.8, 2022

A lot more space is used for an earth's fill. You can use the shadow slope for shadow plants, or if you build the whole thing more stable, also for slides for the children.

2. Simple pit greenhouse with 1m deep trenches+"earth tables" with sunroof+earth filling at the back [2]

In India (Ladakh, North India), such a pit greenhouse was built with sunroof, thick earth brick walls being plastered as insulatino around with clay, and additionally with an earth holder, but also without "earth tables" (or raised beds):

  

India (Ladakh, Northern India): pit greenhouse with sunroof front, earth brick walls being plastered with clay on 3 sides,
and at the back there is an earth filling, but also without "earth tables" (raised beds ") [6.7]

The "earth tables" or "raised beds with earth connection" would have to be filled up in the pit greenhouse in India.

There are already many pit greenhouses with raised beds, but in Europe this construction is missing::

       
Walipini: Pit greenhouse in Bozeman in Montana (Canada) - interior view with cold air ditch and water barrel heating at the back side [4]
Pit greenhouse in Mongolia (central photo): solar roof + raised beds in a wooden frame - the roof and the rear wall are still isolated with black film [11]
Wisconsin ("USA"): pit greenhouse with raised beds built by Roald Gundersen [19]

No information is known about the layers in the raised beds. The pit greenhouse in Montanta (left) is equipped with water barrels as an additional heating in winter. At the pit greenhouse in Mongolia (central photo) one part of the roof is hidden with a black film at the top. I assume that the black film also serves as an additional heating and becomes about 70 degrees warm. The Wisconsin pit greenhouse (right) is about 80 m long like a hose and brings ingenious yields.

3. Simple pit greenhouse with 1m deep trenches+"earth tables" with solar roof+earth wall at the back

by Michael Palomino Aug.8, 2022

 
3. Simple pit greenhouse with 1m deep trenches+"earth tables" with solar roof+earth wall at the back  [3]


Pit greenhouse in Nepal: almost completely sunk, with inclines solar roof and "heating wall" at the back [8]

As the back of a pit greenhouse you can also install a water tank to collect the rainwater. This water tank also serves as isolation.
Many owners of pit greenhouses store the rainwater on the rear wall as irrigation water, and for additional heat storage (link).


Further variations
-- You can also "dig" the pit greenhouse with earth tables diggin first a pit of only 0.8m, and then dig the 1m deep trenches, so that large earth walls (elevated beds) are created all around. Here is a pit greenhouse being dug in:

Pit greenhouse (walipini) in Bolivia completely buried with transparent sun roof - the earth tables or the raised beds are missing [12]

-- you can also grow a pit greenhouse with "earth tables" adding it to a residential building

Added pit greenhouse by Mr. Rob Stout in Embudo in New Mexico ("USA") [9]

or
-- Add it to a barn, with an earth brick wall, or
-- Build it into an earth slope.

 

Walipini, sunk greenhouse into a mountain slope with window front to the sunny side [14] - pit greenhouse half on an embankment in the slope sunk with earth brick floor, the raised beds are still missing [13]

General information

-- For potatoes you need complete raised beds with an own floor so there is no connection with the ground because of the danger of mice "outside"

-- Rainwater from the roof can be collected on the back wall in a water tank or in water barrels for irrigation

-- To strengthen the heating system in winter, you can put water barrels inside - you can let out the water in summer for evading any heating effect, and in automn fill them with new rain water - or the roof is built in that way that in summer the water barrels remain in the shadow, but in winter with a flat angle, the solar radiation will touch the barrels

-- Roof areas to the north can be covered in black so that they heat up at most

Pitch greenhouse with window front to the sunny side and drain channel - this house is an Earth Ship and the roof is covered in black [20]

-- strange is that meditative piano music is troubling and killing many mushrooms (pests) from the green house (link)

-- If you know permaculture, you can plant closely with permaculture in the pit greenhouse and you know which plants are protecting each other from the pests mutually (link)


Balance: The pit greenhouse works WITHOUT heating!

After building a pit greenhouse with trenches and "earth tables"
-- NO heating is needed in winter, with an inclined sunroof and with a large earth wall on the back side, certainly not

-- The pit greenhouse with ditches, "earth tables" and water heating barrels is a complete, always warm system without heating costs
-- The "earth tables" are the safety for an easy harvest without damaging to joints or and sprains
-- The only operating costs go for irrigation and work, but the harvest goes twice as quickly with "earth tables" or raised beds because there is no "back-breaking work" anymore

Combination with permaculture: yet much better!
-- If you use permaculture with the narrow planting according to root shapes and natural pest control (link), you can plant and grow ingeniously tightly
-- Some meditative piano music in the greenhouse protects against viruses and mushrooms: piano music is supposed to combat vermin (link)
-- You may have to protect the earth tables with wooden boards, which may reduce the heating effect of the earth tables, in any case is recommended an inclined solar roof and a large earth wall as a heat storage on the back side
-- The irrigation runs from the tap or from a water tank with rainwater on the back, whereby a water tank on the back is also an additional heat storage.


Forecast
-- With a large-scale application of pit greenhouses with earth tables or raised beds, each country should be able to supply itself completely self-sufficient with vegetables and berries in summer and in winter without "back-breaking work"
-- A bee colony in winter for pollinating flowers seems important
-- With pit greenhouses with high dimension, even papaya, bananas or even mango etc. are also possible.

No heating necessary: stables and residential buildings with warm earth walls (the "earth ship") are existing for a long time
Also stables and houses can be built with pure geothermal heat with the solar window front and the back side with an earth wall. These stables and residential buildings are then 18 to 20 degrees warm in winter without heating and without heating costs (these houses are called "Earth Ship", the inventor is architect Michael Reynolds in Arizona, here is the Earth ship index link - the construction of an earth ship see here link). Rothschild's Mossad media in Europe never report this, although these houses in the "USA" have existed for 20 years.

     
Earth ship in Brighton, total view [14] - The inventor of the earth ship Mr. Michael Reynold's portrait 2010ca. [15]
     
Construction of an earth ship at Kilaloe Ont ("USA") with front work [16] - Construction of an earth ship at Kilaloe Ont ("USA"), the window front is ready [17]


Plan of an earth ship with berths and water tanks, floor plan [18]

For building up the large earth walls, architect Reynolds is using old car tires filling them with earth and compressing the earth by hammering. Then the walls are then plastered. The earth walls store the heat in summer and release it for 6 months in winter. You see that the WHOLE WORLD has built its houses wrongly, and the natives were right to use underground huts with top windows in winter. This "earth ships" are gigantic and in the meantime can be purchased as kit in the "USA".

Russian country houses in Siberia are ALWAYS half sunk.

It is strange that the governments in Europe in 2022 cut the energy, but do not propagate these inventions of sunken greenhouses and houses with earth warmth WITHOUT heating.

The project: build your own pit greenhouse or present the project to the government

The small pit greenhouse is the BEGINNING: you dig a large pit and put an arched roof over it, then you can check out how the earth walls store the energy and are radiating the heat in winter:

Walipini: a pit greenhouse being dug by hand with a bow roof, New Mexico [5]

If the farmers or hobby gardeners realize that the pit greenhouse remains warm even IN WINTER WITHOUT HEATING, they can start to build larger buildings:

   
1. Walipini: Pit greenhouse in Bozeman in Montana (Canada) - interior view with cold air ditch and water barrel heating at the back side [4]
2. Simple pit greenhouse with a 1m deep trench+"earth tables" with solar roof and earth fill at the back [2]

-- You could register the project for a pit greenhouse at the government, maybe it will be financed because it is an energy-saving pioneering project for agriculture: 0 energy greenhouse even in winter

-- You can also win agriculture students to participate in the project for digging the trenches, and architectural students for the roof etc.

-- The cost is the rafters and roofing as well as the earth filling and the earth wall at the back side. The construction which is attached to an existing shed or house is the cheapest.

-- I always ask myself: the pit greenhouses have been known for a long time already, but in Switzerland hardly anyone is making it, because people only watch TV and DON'T KNOW THAT EARTH WALLS ARE SAVING THE SUN'S HEAT FOR 6 months (!!!)

-- The combination with the "earth tables", which doubles the number of earth walls and makes the harvest very facilitated, comes from me. Mother Earth has everything, there is no need for heating oil from the Saudis and also no nuclear power with nuclear waste or something!

-- The combination with the "earth tables", which doubles the number of earth walls and makes the harvest very facilitated, is genius. Mother Earth has everything, there is no need for heating oil from the Saudis nor any need for nuclear power with nuclear waste or something!

Photo sources
[0] Walipini, vegetable field on a low level: half underground greenhouse with earth warmth where is will never be below 0 degrees:
www.facebook.com/gmofreeusa - www.gmofreeusa.org
[1] Sketch 1: Simple pit greenhouse with 1m deep trenches+"earth tables": Michael Palomino 2022
[2] Sketch 2. Simple pit greenhouse with 1m deep trenches+"earth tables" with solar roof+earth filling at the back: Michael Palomino 2022
[3] Sketch 3. Simple pit greenhouse with 1m deep trench+"earth table" with solar roof + earth wall at the back: Michael Palomino 2022
[4] Walipini: pit greenhouse at Bozeman in Montana (Canada) - raised bed with water barrel heating: https://insteading.com/blog/underground-greenhouse/
Video: https://youtu.be/w1Aoj0QXrLM
[5] Walipini digged by hand in New Mexico: Underground Greenhouse: https://insteading.com/blog/underground-greenhouse/
[6,7] Indiea (Ladakh, North India): pit greenhouse with solar roof front and with earth wall with clay plastered at 3 sides,
and with earth fill at the back [6,7]: Underground Greenhouse: https://insteading.com/blog/underground-greenhouse/
[8] Pit greenhouse in Nepal: almost completely sunk, with inclined solar roof and "heating wall" at the back:
Underground Greenhouse: https://insteading.com/blog/underground-greenhouse/
[9] Attached pit greenhouse from Rob Stout in Embudo in New Mexico ("USA")
Underground Greenhouse: https://insteading.com/blog/underground-greenhouse/

[11] Pit greenhouse in Mongolia with solar roof and raised beds protected with wooden case - the roof and the back wall are isolated with black foil:
Underground Greenhouse: https://insteading.com/blog/underground-greenhouse/
[12] Pit greenhouse (Walipini) in Bolivia completely sunk with transparent solar roof, plan:
Video: WALIPINI EN ALTIPLANO BOLIVIANO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YN722I2eg7Q
and also here: Underground Greenhouse: https://insteading.com/blog/underground-greenhouse/
[13] Pit greenhouse half sunk in a slope with earth brick soil:
Underground Greenhouse: https://insteading.com/blog/underground-greenhouse/
[14] Walipini, sunk greenhouse in a slope with window front to the sunny side:
Underground Greenhouse: https://insteading.com/blog/underground-greenhouse/
[19] Wisconsin ("USA"): pit greenhouse with raised beds from Roald Gundersen:
Underground Greenhouse: https://insteading.com/blog/underground-greenhouse/
[20] Pit greenhouse with window front to the sunny side with drainage channel - this house is an earth ship and the roof is covered in black - see
https://www.darfieldearthship.com/page/3/ (Internet archives: https://web.archive.org/web/20190411013149/https://www.darfieldearthship.com/page/3/)

[22] https://www.darfieldearthship.com/page/3/ (Internet archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20190411013149/https://www.darfieldearthship.com/page/3/)

Earth ship as a stable or as dwelling house:
[15] Earth ship at Brighton, complete view - the inventor of the earth ship is Michael Reynolds portrait 2010 appr.:
-- earth ship at Brighton: https://www.wilderutopia.com/sustainability/earthship-biotecture-self-sufficient-off-the-grid-communities/
-- earth ship at Brighton, complete view: https://landscapeisdonovan2.wordpress.com/earthship-brighton-visit/
[16] Construction of an earth ship at Kilaloe Ont ("USA") with works on the front: Video: Earthship Construction - Kilaloe Ont (11'11''):
video:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UE4D8Bu1tpI
[17] Construction of an earth ship at Kilaloe Ont ("USA"), the window front is ready: video: Earthship Construction - Kilaloe Ont (11'11'')
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UE4D8Bu1tpI
[18] Plan of an earth ship with berths and water tanks, floor plan with cisterns at the sides: https://offthegridonthegrid.wordpress.com/case-studies/earthship/

             

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