Jenga Rafts
Making ‘growing media’ from poplar plywood offcuts
This week we turned some of the scrap poplar ply hanging around Fab Lab Wgtn into useful growing media.
We cut the scraps down to lengths ~120mm and stacked them up 4-5 layers high.
We called our creations Jenga stacks. The stacks have to go through a number of processes so limiting their size is quite important.
They need to be able to fit in:
- Our microwave
- 350mm oven bags
- The pressure cooker
- The 10L soaking bucket
We applied a small dab of PVA so hold the stacks together.
Thinking that the glue would fail and the ply might delaminate we also tied the stacks together with string.
Next we put the Jenga stacks in a bucket of warm water… and remembered that timber floats…..
We submerged the ‘Jenga raft’ by stacking more poplar scraps on top and weighing it down.
We left the Jenga stacks to soak for 60 minutes after which time they had absorbed ~89% of their weight in water.
Transferred the soaked Jenga stack to the oven bags for sterilisation.
Microwaved on high, or pressure cooked for 20 minutes.
Weighed, labeled and dated sterilised Jenga stacks. Increasing from ~390 grams - ~740 grams.
