Carlos' Wall Un Año Después

Carlos posted a great time lapse video of an update to his wall.

Hi Matt


After nearly a year, a fungal infection, pests and several dead plants I want to share the restoration of my Vertical Garden Patrick Blanc style.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=741_YPmpi5o


I learned a bit in this process, for example, something important is to improve ventilation to avoid the appearance of fungal and bacterial infections, so I put a ceiling fan near the vertical garden. I changed the felt by one of lesser quality, which has a more open fabric for increasing oxygenation and ventilation of the roots and substrate. Also, I changed the substrate by a sphagnum peat moss, I hope this help to a better plant growing. Related to the pests, I have to tell you that in my tropical town is a headache, particularly Planococcus insects, this kill some plants and weakened other. Finally about my first video, I have put some notes in Spanish that explain a little the construction process.


Congratulations for keeping live your great blog


Regards


Carlos Pacheco

It sounds to me that Carlos may have been over watering a bit for his climate if he was struggling with oxgenation and fungal and bacterial infections. Make sure you set your watering cycles to allow your wall to dry off. Most plants need wet and dry cycles.

It's great to see Carlos sticking with his wall and updating it.

Thanks for the update Carlos.

Matt

No more pump sucking

Forgot to mention that I changed my irrigation setting a few weeks ago. The pump was running too long per watering and the basin would get very low and the pump would make a sucking noise. So I timed the watering until the pump made a noise and used that for my baseline. I think I went from watering about 4 times a day for 8 minutes to watering 7 times (every 2 hours) a day 2 minutes per watering. Not very scientific but it hasn't affected the plants at all and now I don't have to hear the pump sucking. Bear in mind that the actual water volume probably hasn't changed much because when the basin got low the water volume being sucked up was greatly reduced.

Phillip's Update

I love it when people send me updates on how their wall is doing. This one is from Phillip in The Phillipines. Phillip first wrote in to tell me about the alternative materials he used to make his wall. I was particularly impressed when he used speaker cabinet fabric for his moisture retention material. He proves that almost any dense synthetic felt can work. Here's Phillips update:

Hi matt,

i just pruned my vertical garden, my copea's started to bud and new offsprings of bromeliads can be seen. sent pictures as to the condition of my vertical garden it looks good but i think I have to change the prayer plant and the fern because its in direct sunlight and leaves start to get burnt. Im thinking of building my next green wall next week. ill keep you posted.

thanks

phillip

Fabian's Update

So Fabian wrote in with an update on the amazing wall he worked on in Bangalore India. Fabian first wrote in when he was trying to source moisture retention fabric in India for the Jaaga Living Building project.

The project has come a long way since those cool mock ups. Here's the update:

Hey Matt,

long time no update.
It takes quite a loooong time to find the right plants for the wall.
Plants that can take the rough Indian environment and the not
so well watersoaking coir felt.
Still testing with drip irrigation and different times of watering.

Check out some pictures:
http://www.fabsn.com/theblog/2011/01/india-vertical-garden-update/

Cheers
Fabian

Click here to see more photos of the Jaaga Living Building project.

Greenwall in a picture frame on Etsy

I don't normally post about greenwalls I run across online. There are already great sites for that like Lushe, but this greenwall in a frame on Etsy was too cute to pass up.

Sam's Update

Sam originally contacted me about damp smell that was coming from his greenwall, in his restaurant in Auckland New Zealand, with over 1,500 plants. Sam sent me a great update with some beautiful pictures.
Sam wrote:

Hi Matthew,

These are some of the better pictures, they were taken to profile the restaurant directly, not so much for the wall itself, but I how they suit.

The wall is made up of 1700 plants, over a 6m high x 4m wide wall, that returns around on one side (the left) so its double sided for 2m .

The plants are mainly peace lily's, boston and hen& chicken ferns, and spider plants, planted into 3 layers of Hydrotech felt (which we got from you), secured back to the same ply that you used, fixed to a steel frame. We used steel as the weight of our wall was so much.

The trough at the bottom is custom made stainless steel trough, clad with raw steel for the right look - the water in the pump is then reticulated through pipework at the top of the wall by a pump. We have 5 hydroponic lamps set up to go on for 8 hours a day overnight.

We PH test, add nutrients (including clearwater), clear blocked pipes, and check all plants twice weekly... and flush out the trough once per week...

so two months in, the wall is really flourishing, it takes a fair bit of work to keep it this way though! The great thing about your style of wall is that you can get it looking amazing from the first day of installation, and you can put it together yourself if you do your homework, and get some good people to help you out.

The smell has diminished substantially also with the addition of 'clearwater' to kill of the odour causing bacteria.

So... finally... cheers for your blog and you tube post!

cheers

I am also a planted fishtank keeper and Sam's bacteria problem seems strange to me. Instead of adding something that kills bacteria I'd rather see him add something that establishes a healthy colony of good bacteria. All planted fishtanks have aerobic and anaerobic bacteria living together and healthy tanks do not have an odor. The basin of a greenwall is like a simple pond/fishtank in many ways. I add aquatic snails and worms to my basin to help breakdown plant material and add a natural fertilizer source.

Sam also mentions blocked pipes. I can't stress enough how important it is to include inline filters between your pump and your irrigation tube. Without these filters you will need to check your tubes for clogs like Sam and I. I still haven't retrofitted a filter to my system so I periodically take the top irrigation tube down and clean it out. I also do some spot unclogging with a paper clip. All of which could be avoided with a good filter.

Sam's wall looks amazing and is by far one of the most ambitious walls that was ever inspired by this site. Congratulations Sam!

Phillips Great Alternative Materials Wall

Phillip wrote in to explain how he built his first wall using alternative materials available to him in the Philippines. I think this is a beautiful wall with some very smart materials choices. I'm particularly interested in the marine plywood for substructure as this is available everywhere and much more eco-friendly than PVC sheets. I love the variety of plants and the dense planting. Also the composition of the plants and the textures are beautiful. Nice job Phillip. Please stay in touch and let me know how your wall develops. I suspect you'll be doing a lot of pruning to keep up with growth.

Dear Matt,

Im Phillip from the Philippines. I went for a vacation in Thailand and saw the beautiful green walls in Siam Paragon that is why have researched it right away and came across your video in youtube. I was redirected to your bloggsite and read all about it, hence making my own green wall. The first problem i encountered was the felt as it is not available here in my country so i used a carpet fabric that is being used for speaker boxes. I also used marine plywood covered in canvass as to protect the wood from water as pvc boards are not yet available here. I tried to slit the fabric as detailed in one of the blogs in your page and had problems in planting as not to all my plants are 3" pots. but we pulled it off and finished the wall. my wall is now 2 weeks old and i want to thank you for a very informative site i just hope it my wall lasts as i have not used the materials indicated in your site and Patrick blancs book "the vertical Garden"

I attached some pictures of my first attempt.

thank you

sincerely

phillip