Make a Sustainable Hypertufa Trough

This video shows how to make a sustainable hypertufa container. These troughs are typically molded using a mixture of portland cement, perlite, and peat moss, but in this tutorial, I’ll be working with coconut coir as a more sustainable replacement for the peat moss. I’ll also be using a sand mold method to shape my container. This method allows for much variety and experimentation with shapes, since you aren’t restrained to a box or bowl shape, as in other methods.
Prep
To start, you’ll need to break up the compressed coconut coir bricks by rehydrating them with water. It may take more water than you think. You’ll then need to let the coconut dry before mixing the hypertufa.
Sustainable hypertufa recipe
Though a 1:1 ratio is what is recommended for the version of the recipe that uses peat moss, I found that coconut coir doesn’t hold as much water, and so I recommend more of a 1.5:1 ratio of coconut coir and cement to water and perilite.
N95 mask or equivalent
Gloves
Quart container
2 quarts of cement
2 quarts of perlite
3 quarts dry coconut coir
Water (add a little at a time until the consistency of cookie dough is reached)
Tip: You can adjust this mixture depending on the size of the container you are trying to make.
Learn more and see step-by-step instructions: www.finegarden...
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[@lindapopejoy2190]

YUS!!! Down with the peat moss!! I was just looking to see if anyone uses a replacement and… shazaam! Here it is! Thank you so much!

[@sillydorny]

I love the sand mold! Thank you so much for this video!

[@CaraDees]

YAY no peat moss here! I LOVE YOU!

[@christinenguyen2530]

Beautiful! Thank you for sharing!

[@teresaholland4790]

Great video short sweet and to the point appreciate that I’m gonna make one or two or 3 cheers Florida

[@GardenEvolution]

Love this!

[@erinjames377]

I love it, but can someone make one for me.

[@JayCWhiteCloud]

Just as a point of reference...With OPC industrial cement (aka "portland") being one of the largest polluters in the world, it is impossible to call something made with it "sustainable" as it is a leading cause of both air and water pollution in its manufacturing... Per the rest of your video I really loved it, but would recommend, in the future actually using "natural cement" or "limecrete" which as a much smaller carbon footprint than does the local "portland" you purchase at a big box store. Then this could actually be called "sustainable" in context...Thanks for sharing your content...!!!

[@Padraigp]

Nothing is completely sustainable though. Just more or less. Hydraulic lime does work amaxingly well ..our path is built of it and over 130 years old. It hss cracks and sunk parts but its also easy to fix any cracks whereas cement you often have to unroot the whole thing and redo the whole thing limecrete you can patch it up all day long it seems very forgiving.

[@JayCWhiteCloud]

​@@Padraigp As a traditional and natural builder, I'm not sure I can agree at all with the perspective "nothing is completely sustainable" unless this meaning is in context nothing is permanent, including the planet itself... If that is not the meaning (???) then it is not really an inaccurate statement as I have been designing and building, at minimum, 98% all-natural and sustainably for over 40 years with most of my architecture and related projects, by either their mass and/or volume... We fully agree about modern OPC concretes being not only a highly toxic material but not a sustainable or ecologically viable one by comparison. In just durability alone OPC materials are a waste of resources and effort unless the goal is strictly speed and profit at any cost for the things made of them...

[@Padraigp]

@@JayCWhiteCloud oh nice. I have an old house which ive used as sustsinable materials as i have had acsess to. My dream was to build a cob house but im getting old now and ill probably only have the strength to weave a living willow hut by the time if ever i can get any bit of land. If id only had capital instead of rent id have had something built 30 yesrs ago but i didnt own the land so i couldnt get a loan. And although it had lake clay which would probably have worked its that sort of clay for lining canals and ponds... i wouldnt have been able to roof it without some money a few grand would have done me for timbers. Anyway. Dreams die without capital and youth to bouy them. I suppose what i meant by nothing is sustainable 100 percent is that it depends what you can manage. That unless you actually did weave your house out of living willow to some degree youre going to have something which to some extent is unsustainable. But yes lime over cement. But then lime is also a finite thing. Its quarried and its got to be heated its got to be transported. So its not 100 percent sudtianable unless youve got a lime wuarry and a lime firing pit right there in your back yard. To some degree everything sustainable is unsustainable if it has to be transported from miles away. Its a matter of degree. Cement then lime then whatwver local mud you have around you. And even mud csn run out. Wuarries where they once made bricks have been exhuasted in the 1900s . So att some point sustainable is what you can get your hands on. I just made some lime putty but unfortunately some of my hydrated lime powder got a bit damp befire i managed to get it slurried up and into tubs. I think it will still be ok its got a bit of texture to it. But i wanted to try a lime and fat slop wash on one of my insides if a shed and see what happened. Hopefully it will be ok. Ph do you know the nito project channel here. Youll like it if youve not already come across it. Nito project. Look it up. Awesome.

[@JayCWhiteCloud]

Hello @@Padraigp , Whatever the spectrum, I always admire those who at least admit that natural and sustainable should always be the goal and that they are always striving (as you seem to be) in improving their skill sets and more ecologically viable modalities for the architecture you steward over or wish to have... I think most folks either forget or modern contractors are too addicted to modernity to realize (???) that the most sustainable architecture are those already built...and typically built better than modern architecture. Any structure older than 120 years has already demonstrated there viability and durability is valid...and...!!!...by its material nature are "natural buildings" in most, if not all regards. So, be it a proper historic restoration using natural and traditional materials...or...a new build project, I simply follow the natural pragmatic logic, means, and methods of material applications that our forebears have employed for millennia...There is simply no reason to "reinvent the wheel" or try to "fix something" that is not broken, to begin with... Earthen architecture, be it cob, light cob, rammed earth, adobe, or related amalgamation of the earthen traditional systems...all of them are very applicable today in virtually all biome types. They must be properly designed and matched to where they are to be constructed, but all lend themselves well to wonderfully sustainable and efficient homes... I can relate to "getting old"...LOL...but also find it is more a "mindset than a viable reason to not "live" any differently than I have most of my life. I may be a bit slower, but that is about it, and I encourage others to maintain that perspective for themselves wherever possible... As for your "spiling hut"... (aka "willow hut" or 竹製蛇籠, shicra, etc) there is nothing wrong with that either, and often the structural matrix that completes many forms of earthwork architecture... Cost can be an issue but is often not as grand the challenge as willpower and motivation...My intent is not, at all, to disempower you, but "capital" and lack of perceived youth are not reasons for failure to achieve any dream...I'm 63 and still doing the same activities I did at 23...Again, this is all relative to mindset... I do fully acknowledge that much in life is based on what anyone, "can manage," both fiscal, mental, and physical for themselves. This is true. However, those limitations are often treated more as excuses than actual reasons in the tangible...As such, yes, you can weave a home out of nothing more than small twigs and vines, and have it last much longer than most would think possible... As for lime being "finite" that too is kind of relative based solely on the "human metric" of assistance. Most close-to-surface veins of calcitic and dolomitic hard limestone (et al) could, itself house double the current planet's population, and most are projected to last centuries to millennia of consumption...even with modern methods of quarrying such stone...Most areas of the world (not all) have stone nearby, but few realize this, or fail to look at the other natural resources around them...The bottom line is this planet is made of stone and earth, and even at triple our population (which the planet won't allow to happen) these resources are not going to run out...especially if used in a sustainable fashion...Virtually no location has really been exhausted...What actually takes place is the greed of corporations close them because they feel they are no longer profitable...Again, most things on this planet are very sustainable...IF...???...human greed is removed, and acknowledgment of traditional skills are installed in place of it... I wish you all the luck with your lime projects, and yes I know of the Nitor project as many young learners take up the next generation's mantel for stewarding over this planet and the traditional skills necessary to protect it...Thanks for the chat!!!

[@FinegardeningMag]

Very good point, I will research natural cement for the next one! Thank you - Christine

[@Cryptochinodotsol]

I made one recently ...I have a piece break off ...got broken piece 2 weeks later is super light... I checked the pot and it's still moist what are you trying to do with the curing... is it still supposed to have moisture in the vessel ?? when you take it out of the plastic at the second curing??

[@FinegardeningMag]

no it should not have moisture... it may depend on how humid your environment is? In my bowl, I needed more coconut coir and cement compared to perlite. If your mixture is too wet, you may want to add more perlite, as well. It should cure for minimum of two days but can be left for up to a week. When you take the plastic off, test it - it should not make an impression when you press the bowl with your nail. If it does, then you may need to leave it under the plastic a bit longer or reassess your mixture. The second curing stage should be at least 3 weeks long. If it is raining the entire time, however, you may want to put the bowl in a warm dry spot, like a garage, so that it can cure more easily.

[@emkn1479]

I have a question about coir. I can’t find it locally, which means I’d have to have it shipped (carbon). Also, I hear it takes a lot of processing (high in salts I guess?) and lengthy shipping (more carbon) to get the raw materials to the stores. Is that more sustainable in the end? This is an honest query. I’d really like to know. Great tutorial though. I need to include this in my fall projects.

[@FinegardeningMag]

This is a wonderful question. Truthfully, peat moss would also need to be shipped as the sources for it tend not to be locally available to everyone. A majority of the peat moss found in stores is shipped from Canada or Russia. The biggest issue, however, is that peat takes a long time to develop-literally 1000's of years- and so isn't a sustainable resource in the end. Plus, the work it does to store carbon in bogs and wetlands is critical to keeping our ecosystem's healthy. When we remove it, we release carbon dioxide into the air. Peat bogs store up to 1/3 of the worlds carbon. Coconut, on the other hand, is a much more renewable resource and is readily available. Current practices have moved away from the use of salts in processing. It does need to be shipped across seas, however. In our opinion, though, using a byproduct that would be tossed in a landfill otherwise is a better choice than disturbing a peat bog, despite the shipping, at least for use in making containers. If you are looking for a replacement for your garden beds or for your container plants, then consider compost or leaf mold instead, which you can make yourself! www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/home/should-sustainable-gardeners-use-peat-moss/2017/05/09/1fc746f0-3118-11e7-9534-00e4656c22aa_story.html

[@emkn1479]

@@FinegardeningMag Thank you for the reply! Yes, I suppose it does make more sense to utilize a renewable resource that would otherwise be thrown away, I just wish it were more easily obtained. I’m sure that day will come. I generally buy the broken bags of potting mix at a discount and use extra amendments to make a mix for containers, but I always add fallen leaves to my garden beds-there’s nothing better! And thank you for the reference, I’ll check it out.

[@jenniferkuperman2589]

You can use any rotting wood or sawdust as a substitute for peat moss.

[@deborahmerkerson1145]

@@jenniferkuperman2589 I had been wondering if sawdust could be used in place of peat. It is plentiful in my area and usually free. I found a woodworking shop that offered me all I wanted for free! Peat moss is expensive and as pointed out, not sustainable.

[@Padraigp]

Any fibre you have locally. But you might have to process it yourself.

[@lindacravens1359]

Help! Can this be used for bird bath?? Perhaps sealing interior?

[@FinegardeningMag]

Might as well try! Let us know what you find out. Sealing could be helpful for long term.

[@jasonkaminski6230]

How did you imbed the colors?

[@FinegardeningMag]

I used mineral pigments! I didn't put that in the video because it seemed complicated enough. I intend to make another video about coloring... sorry for the super late reply! Here's what I purchased. a.co/d/07R9HuoB

[@Padraigp]

You are not using a trash bag youre using some sirt of tarp or fibre bag.

[@jonosborn7719]

Wonderful video, but horrible music choice. Every sentence was interrupted once or twice by the same tone that monitors in hospitals emit. Very disruptive.

[@karenescher1169]

Hypertufa