Maybe I finally have this figured out. In retrospect, should have been obvious years ago; well, that was then, this is now.
As I've posted before, I pretty much only garden in buckets. Bermuda grass wins every time. Or, the bugs, or the birds, or something else...Damn it! Buckets around here just give things a better chance. Heavy soil doesn't work real well in buckets, but I am not about to buy potting soil for what is maybe a 100 plus buckets, many of which are five gallon.
Been messing around with faux-aquaponics (*fauxquaponics* ?) for years, but I don't have electricity out where half of the fish tubs are, so, the tubs are maintained manually, and I do not recirculate the water. All the planted pots have at least some garden soil, and I don't want that going back to the fish. Actually, the more I got into ornamental fish (an obsession that grew somewhat out of hand) the less I wanted them to be stressed by fitting into the grow system. Fish come first. Some aquaponics YouTubers piss me off - they spout terrible fish info, and their own fish are treated poorly. These particular guys should just switch over to hydroponics.
Anyway, back to pots. I bought some large sheets of Matalla pond filter thinking to make some ersatz Zip-grow type towers. I didn't care for the results, and since I ended up using one of the sheets for an indoor viv instead, I had numerous small scraps left over.
I took a two-gallon WM pastry bucket, and drilled a couple dozen one-half inch random holes all over the sides and bottom. The top lid and the bottom each have an inch and a quarter +/- hole drilled in the center. I always use an old sock to serve as a wick with about six inches sticking out from that center bottom hole. (The planted buckets all sit over rain gutters, or in shallow tubs - the moisture drawn up by the wick makes their water supply much more consistent.) I lined the inside of the bucket with some old scrap poly fleece. That allows air to enter, and keeps soil contained. I wrapped three scraps of Matalla pond filter in scraps of an old wool sweater. The filter pieces are about 1 1/2 inches deep and across, by about 8 inches long. I set them like breathing tubes upright inside the bucket. The sweater wrapping should keep soil out, and the filter scraps are fairly sturdy, so they will not crush under soil pressure. Next, fill with soil. You won't need a lot of soil for fill, after all that stuff is inside. Finally, snap on the lid, and plant thru the center hole.
I also cut an old mylar bag, and wrapped the outside of the bucket with that. It should keep some heat off, and save the bucket from any more UV exposure. This was an unused bucket, but I've had a stack of them for several years, and they are getting brittle. Even watered, the bucket is still fairly light weight.
Plants don't need tons of soil - they need some substrate for the roots to support the above ground growth, and the roots prefer constant moisture, and air infiltration. This bucket should do all that, and fish water should provide extra nutrients. Any signs of deficiency, and I'll add epsom salts, and some chem ferts. (I'm definitely not a purist - whatever works.)
Finished two, and plan to make about a dozen more this week.
Chicks have been shipped, so are arriving tomorrow,or the next day. I asked the post office to call me.
As I've posted before, I pretty much only garden in buckets. Bermuda grass wins every time. Or, the bugs, or the birds, or something else...Damn it! Buckets around here just give things a better chance. Heavy soil doesn't work real well in buckets, but I am not about to buy potting soil for what is maybe a 100 plus buckets, many of which are five gallon.
Been messing around with faux-aquaponics (*fauxquaponics* ?) for years, but I don't have electricity out where half of the fish tubs are, so, the tubs are maintained manually, and I do not recirculate the water. All the planted pots have at least some garden soil, and I don't want that going back to the fish. Actually, the more I got into ornamental fish (an obsession that grew somewhat out of hand) the less I wanted them to be stressed by fitting into the grow system. Fish come first. Some aquaponics YouTubers piss me off - they spout terrible fish info, and their own fish are treated poorly. These particular guys should just switch over to hydroponics.
Anyway, back to pots. I bought some large sheets of Matalla pond filter thinking to make some ersatz Zip-grow type towers. I didn't care for the results, and since I ended up using one of the sheets for an indoor viv instead, I had numerous small scraps left over.
I took a two-gallon WM pastry bucket, and drilled a couple dozen one-half inch random holes all over the sides and bottom. The top lid and the bottom each have an inch and a quarter +/- hole drilled in the center. I always use an old sock to serve as a wick with about six inches sticking out from that center bottom hole. (The planted buckets all sit over rain gutters, or in shallow tubs - the moisture drawn up by the wick makes their water supply much more consistent.) I lined the inside of the bucket with some old scrap poly fleece. That allows air to enter, and keeps soil contained. I wrapped three scraps of Matalla pond filter in scraps of an old wool sweater. The filter pieces are about 1 1/2 inches deep and across, by about 8 inches long. I set them like breathing tubes upright inside the bucket. The sweater wrapping should keep soil out, and the filter scraps are fairly sturdy, so they will not crush under soil pressure. Next, fill with soil. You won't need a lot of soil for fill, after all that stuff is inside. Finally, snap on the lid, and plant thru the center hole.
I also cut an old mylar bag, and wrapped the outside of the bucket with that. It should keep some heat off, and save the bucket from any more UV exposure. This was an unused bucket, but I've had a stack of them for several years, and they are getting brittle. Even watered, the bucket is still fairly light weight.
Plants don't need tons of soil - they need some substrate for the roots to support the above ground growth, and the roots prefer constant moisture, and air infiltration. This bucket should do all that, and fish water should provide extra nutrients. Any signs of deficiency, and I'll add epsom salts, and some chem ferts. (I'm definitely not a purist - whatever works.)
Finished two, and plan to make about a dozen more this week.
Chicks have been shipped, so are arriving tomorrow,or the next day. I asked the post office to call me.
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