Richard Ha writes:
What a storm! The house shook with intense thunder and lightning last night. This morning, an eleven-mile stretch of Highway 19 was closed, 20 miles north of us, because of the storm.
During the day today we expect no more than 6 mols/meter square of plant-useful sun energy. Ideally, tomatoes need 25 mols/meter square.
Cloud cover and rain are most associated with low sun energy. This low sun energy applies to PV systems on people’s roofs, too. Leaves are another kind of solar radiation collector.
But even though the sun energy is down, our new hydro generator is at max production.
So, if the sun is bright, the plants smile and so do we. If it’s rainy, we generate more electricity.
Either way, we are happy.
Here’s information on waterflow in nearby Honoli‘i Stream as of this afternoon. It’s from the USGS (click to enlarge).
Here’s the same information year to date.
We had hail last night in Puna! I hope you suffered no damage to your property.
Not to criticize, but landscape mode for video makes for better perspective!
Richard… There is a foliar spray used by Biodynamic farmers made from finely ground quartz crystals. When applied it covers the leaves with what amounts to billions of quartz prisms that attract and reflect light. Essentially you are coating the leaves with extra solar collectors in low light times of the year etc. There are other benefits too. Just one idea which conventional farmers need to consider…
Aloha Wally Andrade