Let’s see what happens in nature:

• If you look at a rock with a microscope, you will see many cracks from very small to clearly visible.
• If you drill a well in rocks you will find water, many times only 5 to 10 meter below the surface.
• This ground water goes up, via the cracks, as due to the capillary principles of nature.
• This is why many mountains, like for instance the Rocky (!) Mountains or the Alps are covered with trees. There’s enough water.
• Let’s take a look how it works in moderate climates: the top of the crack is dry, but in these climates trees produce their seeds in autumn, exactly the period that rain starts.
• The seeds fall on the rocks, which get humid (rain and/or snow) from October to March.
• The seeds that are above a crack push their first small root – the radicle - inside the crack and search the water. This goes very fast, within one day one can already see the new roots.
• The radicle is capable of developing a pressure of over 50 bar (725 psi)
• The roots develop in winter, the leaves don’t, so the plant is absorbing water to build up strength in the seed, for the leaf to develop in April when it gets warmer.
• In April the temperature rises and the seeds germinate.
• Because the roots are already at the capillary water, the leaf develops and once it gets dry in Summer, the plant has water to evaporate to keep itself cool.
• Look how beautiful Nature has done this: first, cold period = development of root system, no evaporation.
• Then a warm period to develop a small (not too much evaporation) plant in order to start the photosynthesis and produce wood.
• Now the plant survives its first Winter. The root development goes on, because deep down in the rocks the temperature is stable at + 8° Celsius. Next year its growth will explode.

The Groasis waterboxx mimics this ‘Autumn principle’ of moderate climates and brings it into practice in hot climates:

• Take a tree as small as possible (little evaporation).
• First let the roots develop.
• Do not disturb the capillary. Capillary action is the ability of soil and rocks to transport water from the top to the groundwater when it rains and from the groundwater to the top when there is a dry period.
• In case we want to plant on rocks we look for the cracks.
• Below the Groasis waterboxx the temperature stays relatively cool and stable.

Do all rocks contain water?

• Almost everywhere in the world there is ground water.
• Between the cracks there’s always a higher humidity, so even if it is little, the roots do find some water.
• Consequently the root system develops a symbiosis with fungi (mycorrhiza) and bacteria. This symbiosis results in a humus system that is able to stay humid.
• The plants are also able, together with the humidity, bacteria and the fungi to extract the, for the plant growth required, minerals (fertilizer) from the rocks.
• The whole of roots, bacteria, fungi, humus and humidity create a system in which the tree starts growing. During the years the trees will form and maintain their own optimal environment.

The Groasis waterboxx works because it mimics the principles of nature.

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