Hypertufa

Have you ever heard of hypertufa (pronounced hyper-toofa)? If you have then your ahead of most folks however for those of you who answered no or yes I'm going to tell you a little about it.

First, hypertufa is intended as a manufactured substitute for natural tufa, which is a slowly precipitated limestone rock; being very porous, it is favorable for plant growth. Got that jewel of information from wikipedia.

Now the common definition: It's a planter!  A planter that folks make by combining ingredients, mixing them up, putting them in a mold and then, after it's dry and mature, planting stuff in the planter.

It's easy. It's fun. It's like playing in the mud. The planters will last many years.

Last week I conned my granddaughter into making her first hypertufa planter. Well, actually she only made about half but she is only nine so I cut her a little slack and mixed up the stuff for her. Her job was to get her gloves all messy and decorate the edge with rocks.

This planter to the left was one of the first we built.  Actually the first we built is under this planter and we're using them for legs.  They are a bit on the small side once you calculate the walls of the "legs" are about 2 inches thick thus leaving a hole for the plants to be about 4 inches.  Way too small for the likes of these desert dwellers.

We don't call our hypertufa pots, pots.  We call them troughs because they look more like troughs than pots to us.  Seems reasonable don't you think?

The picture on the right is another hypertufa trough that you will be surprised to hear is sitting in a pile of rocks.  Never would have thought that would ya?  We placed the trough in the rocks because we couldn't think of a better place to put it.

Below is our granddaughters creation.  It is in the curing stage and won't be mature for at least a month. 

So how do I build a hypertufa creation of my own the lady with the red hair asked.  I'm so glad you asked.

First gather the pieces and parts you'll need.  Those are:

• 1 part Portland cement, 1 1/2 parts peat moss, 1 1/2 parts vermiculite.
• A container like a 5 gallon bucket to mix up the mud.
• Water... but not too much or too little.  Not soup but more like cake dough if your into cakes or engine sludge if your a backyard mechanic.
• Something to actually mix up the mud... I use a 1/2 inch drill with a stirring attachment, if you don't have that then get a brawny guy and a wheel barrow.
• A mold.  This could be a cardboard box lined with plastic or a wood mold you make yourself with a release agent on the wood so the mixture doesn't stick to the wood.  In the picture we used 2 cardboard boxes, the larger for the mud and the smaller for the planter.

Put it all together by mixing the mud and pouring it into the mold.  We poured the bottom and then placed the inner cardboard box on top of that and then poured in the rest of the mud around that box.

You want the walls and bottom to be thick enough so they don't break when being moved.  Experimenting is good but common sense is the best I can suggest.  If you make something really big and heavy it will need to be thicker than if it's just a dainty little thing.

We then cover the whole thing in plastic so it won't dry too fast.  The one pictured has been in the mold since Wednesday and I expect to leave it in the mold probably until a week from Monday (tomorrow).  When I cover it with plastic I don't make it real tight but let it breath a little so it will eventually dry.  I was told that having it dry slowly will make it much stronger... I don't know if they knew what they were talking about but I certainly don't, so I'm passing it on.

Once it's out of the mold just leave it sit outside in the weather for a while.  The cement has lime in it and if you plant something before the lime is gone or cured or what ever happens to it your plants will protest by playing dead only they won't be playing.

There are a number of places on the internet with variations to the above directions.  There is a plethora of different things you can make as well as examples of very ornate and complicated masterpieces.  There are also different recipes for the mud.  Some folks are really creative so do take a look before you jump into your first project.  There are books on how to do all this too.  Heck, even our local nursery has classes on hypertufa projects.

You'll find that the finished product, be it a rough trough or a dazzling masterpiece, is a great planter.  With the peat moss and vermiculite in the mix it will hold water and also still breath.  One of our first attempts at making a pot had walls that were a bit thin so the hold water thing didn't work very well but it's still around doing duty as a leg.

Give it a try... if you want, call me and I'll come over and help you the first time around.

Whoohoo!