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Post by pepperhead212 on Sept 22, 2017 15:12:38 GMT -5
I dump the water out - the buckets are easy, but the big ones I have to tip them on their sides, and let it drain out. Then I uncover them and let them dry out some, and group them together, and cover with a tarp for the winter.
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Post by daylilydude on Sept 22, 2017 17:39:45 GMT -5
So far i'm really liking these buckets for collards... a pic from today:
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Post by pepperhead212 on Sept 22, 2017 19:42:35 GMT -5
I have some chard in them already, and many of those greens I started are going in some of the ones I have removed other plants from. I'll see how they do...I'm sure that I won't be disappointed.
I repotted my curry tree today, which had been in a 4 gal bucket in a 5 gal reservoir, and the reservoir started cracking. Different plastics break down quickly, while others last forever! It was rootbound, but the roots aren't fine - they are large, like the kaffir lime trees. I did a major root pruning (after pruning about half the top a couple days ago, and sharing with a lady from another forum, that lives nearby), and replaced the wicking column with fresh promix (I was surprised the roots were not more packed in there), and I made a mix of osmocote, dolomite, promix, and a little coir, to replace the approx. 50% of the mix that was removed. And another thing I added, which I hope will help fight those scale insects that seem to get on this at the end of the indoor season every time, is datomaceous earth. I got this idea when repotting my small kaffir lime, and just saw a bag of DE in my shed. I added some to the replacement mix, and I put even more in the top layer, scratching it into the surface. We'll see if it works.
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Sept 23, 2017 12:00:59 GMT -5
daylilydude, I'm glad that Dave answered the winter prep question, because down here I keep stuff growing in my boxes all winter long. We generally only go below freezing for a matter of hours, so I don't have to worry about the water in the reservoir or the soil freezing solid and cracking the box. If we are expecting a really hard freeze I will tip boxes to mostly empty the reservoirs, and water again once the freeze is over. I think holding your spinach indoors for a while is a good plan, if you have space for it. If you have more seed, sow some again next month. Spinach will take frosts and light freezes just fine, and doesn't take long to get to harvestable size, especially if you want baby leaves for salad. Your collards look great, BTW. Greens of all kinds go nuts in Earthboxes/SIPS, in my experience. pepperhead212, I'll be interested to hear how the DE works for the scale insects. I always thought you had to dust the entire plant with it for it to work.
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Post by pepperhead212 on Sept 24, 2017 0:22:25 GMT -5
Laura_in_FL I figure that since the insects have to be coming from the soil, I'll try this. Ants also bring them in, to farm them, like aphids, and the ants have to be at least going over the soil. And another thing that I did last season, which delayed it considerably, but they eventually showed up, was to brush some tanglefoot around the lower 2" or so of each stalk. This helped with okra getting aphids, so I thought that I'd try it here. The DE coated the sticky areas, so I left it there, and I'll put some more on above the original areas.
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Post by pepperhead212 on Sept 27, 2017 21:45:54 GMT -5
Today I planted a bunch of my greens seedlings in SIPs that I had pulled tomatoes, cucumbers, melons, and squash from. Still didn't have enough spaces, but I'll have to pull a couple more things out. I planted 3 senposai (the largest - only put two in place of two tomatoes), 11 kohlrabi, 8 bok choy, 1 tatsoi, and 8 shogoin. I already had 4 chard plants that I direct seeded, but they are smaller - the seedlings were started 3 weeks ago. I am hoping that rabbits aren't a problem, being off the ground, but I'll be watching closely...
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Post by daylilydude on Sept 28, 2017 3:57:36 GMT -5
pepperhead212, Laura_in_FL, When switching over from your summer garden to the fall garden, how much of the potting mix would you change... half the sip or more?
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Post by pepperhead212 on Sept 28, 2017 8:27:36 GMT -5
I didn't change any. And I didn't add any fertilizer, though I did give them a one time jolt of a hydroponics solution, to wet the mix around the roots.
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Sept 28, 2017 12:57:38 GMT -5
I usually don't change any potting mix from summer to fall, either. If I have cut down (rather than pulled) my big summer plants that have big, dense, tough roots, I will dig or cut out a hole about the size of a 4-inch nursery pot where the biggest, densest roots were. Then I fill the hole with fresh potting mix to give the fall seeds/seedlings a spot of loose, soft potting mix to get their roots going.
There should be some fertilizer left in the fertilizer band (especially if you used synthetic fertilizer) which the fall plants will use. If you see any sign of deficiencies (rare) you can use a water-soluble fertilizer to give them a boost. Or you can water them in with some, like Dave does. (I'm stealing your idea there, Dave!)
I do the major maintenance in early spring before my spring planting. Even during spring maintenance, I don't replace much of the mix. Between losses from pulling/digging out root balls and replacing the fertilizer bands in spring, I'd guess that I replace 15% or so of the mix each year; 20% at most.
One of the reasons I do the major maintenance in early spring is to let winter decompose the roots from the big summer plants. Even in my very mild winters the roots from tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, etc., break down a lot between November and February/March. Especially if I have the box in-use all winter so the potting mix stays consistently moist. I've learned that it is much, much easier to do the maintenance after those old roots have a few months to break down. There will still be some big pieces, but they come out easily since the fine roots around them are mostly gone.
On the other hand, most of the cool-season plants are fairly easy to hand-pull when I start the spring maintenance. (Big collard plants can have some can tough roots, though. Time for the hori hori knife!)
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Post by pepperhead212 on Sept 28, 2017 19:10:07 GMT -5
Laura_in_FL I also leave many of the larger plants in the pots, cutting them down, and leaving just enough to grab onto. The tomatoes that I pulled had died a while back, so they came out easily. Eggplants are the hardest to get out, and one that didn't thrill me much, and I was going to try to pull out, made me realize that it would not be easy when I saw that the stem is about 2" thick at the base! Yet that plant is the shortest of any this year! Those greens are showing considerable growth in just one day! I should have taken photos on planting day.
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Post by daylilydude on Sept 29, 2017 18:35:54 GMT -5
The wife and I stopped at our local lil pizza shop this evening... so I ask and lookie what he will be saving me... it did help that the wife and he went to school together So now it will be a barbecue and a pizza restaurant that will be saving me 4 gallon buckets for free.
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Post by pepperhead212 on Sept 29, 2017 21:35:25 GMT -5
Something that I haven't mentioned, (and I don't know why, since I use this on most of my SIPs), is a trick I learned on the original EB forum: using a "muslin brewing bag" to hold the fertilizer, instead of putting it loose in the trench. I ran out of my original order this last spring (lasted several years), and the thing I liked about it was that I could pull the entire thing out, top it off with a little more fert, then maybe put it in a different place in the container. I did this without thinking while replacing the tomatoes with the greens, as the fertilizer in a tomato SIP goes toward one side, and the two tomatoes toward the other side, while with the greens I put them down both sides (except the senposai, since that is so large). I just reach into the mix, feeling around for the "sock" of fertilizer, pulled it out, and re-positioned it. I didn't bother topping it off, for greens, but for other plants next season I would do that. I also made a bunch of small bags, to hold 1/4 c fertilizer, and put three of them around each bucket. One problem you can run into when re-planting in these containers is that if you plant something right on top of a strip of fertilizer, it can burn the roots. I had this problem once, before I started using this system. I tried to find the thread on the original forum, but all I could find was a small thread, mentioning that some had not had good results with a similar method using women's hosiery. Maybe that isn't as permeable? Anyway, the positive input on this is what got me to try it, and it works great! And even if you don't try it, remember the problem that can result when planting over fertilizer. Here's that stuff I use. The 28" is less than it really is, as it stretches a lot. www.ebay.com/itm/Hops-Grain-Steeping-Beer-Brewing-Muslin-Bags-28-50-Pack-/152349122375?hash=item2378b71f47:g:PMsAAOSwux5YScbE
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Sept 30, 2017 12:39:58 GMT -5
I've thought about using those, and wondered whether the time savings is worth it. I should probably give it a try and see how I like it. It would be easier to reposition the band for different planting patterns for sure.
I've never had the root burn issue, because I've always been really careful about digging out old fertilizer bands and at least an inch of soil all around them. I also mix the box thoroughly after digging out a fertilizer band, so any bits of fertilizer I might have missed are spread out through the box.
I used to place the fertilizer band along one long side when planting tomatoes, but now I place the band across the middle in the short direction. This effectively divides the box into two ~14" squares. I plant the tomatoes centered in each square, with the band between them. The tomatoes do very well this way, and the box is more balanced with the weight of the plants in the center.
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Post by pepperhead212 on Sept 30, 2017 19:25:47 GMT -5
I'll have to try that, Laura_in_FL. The short strip down the middle would probably work really well in the homemade SIPS, since those are wider. And next year I am only going to plant tomatoes in those, due to the larger reservoirs. And then the two halves would be easier to do a replant in, than when the strip is down one side of it.
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Oct 2, 2017 9:54:06 GMT -5
Yes, the short middle strip was great for the homemade tub-based SIPs I used to have. (Currently I only have EBs and a couple of 5-gallon bucket-based SIPs.)
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Post by daylilydude on Oct 7, 2017 15:16:49 GMT -5
I'm really liking these self watering grow buckets... big in ground garden has been gone a month now, but with these buckets and city picker planter...
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Post by daylilydude on Oct 9, 2017 15:04:05 GMT -5
pepperhead212, Laura_in_FL, Do you think this caging thing is gonna work with tomatoes in 5 gallon buckets... I will also be driving a piece of re-bar down beside them to strap the cages to try and keep them from falling over.
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Post by pepperhead212 on Oct 9, 2017 18:19:48 GMT -5
You definitely need that rebar to stabilize it! 5 gal buckets don't have much stability, since they don't have a very wide "footprint". Years ago, before my SIPs and upside-down pots, I had an eggplant that kept blowing over in one, and it was a small (3') plant.
I just got rid of another squirrel - 3rd of the week. They have been digging in my SIPs - the only pest I have had in the SIPs. 2 of 3 of the chard were ripped out, and one of the bok choy, though I put that one back in the EB, and it's coming back! I'll have to set those rat traps on a few of them, like I did in the spring.
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Oct 11, 2017 13:09:46 GMT -5
daylilydude, yes, definitely you need the rebar. With that addition, those cages should work well. pepperhead212, ugh, squirrels! I feel for you. It's not bad enough that they eat so many things out of the garden and orchard. No, they have to to the extra step of digging up your baby plants, sometimes dozens of plants in the same day. Good luck thinning out your local population of those furry pests.
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Post by pepperhead212 on Oct 11, 2017 16:51:24 GMT -5
Two more today! One in a rat trap, one in the live trap. And the bok choy that was torn out before, was torn out again!
I got a few SIPs de-planted today, and ready for winterizing, but most things are still producing. Even the habanero peppers got another crop of flowers on them, after this heat we've had! I won't get peppers, of course, but that is unbelievable.
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Post by daylilydude on Oct 15, 2017 14:43:58 GMT -5
Wife went by the BBQ restaurant and picked up more buckets... enough for (5) 2 bucket 4 gallon planters and I stopped by the pizza place and picked up enough for (4) double bucket 4 gallon planters.
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Post by daylilydude on Oct 28, 2017 17:05:43 GMT -5
Is this what is supposed to happen??
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Post by pepperhead212 on Oct 28, 2017 23:34:13 GMT -5
What happened there daylilydude,? Did the wicking cup collapse?
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Post by daylilydude on Oct 30, 2017 3:48:52 GMT -5
Nope, and thank you pepperhead212, I was asking about all those roots growing thru the bottom?
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Post by pepperhead212 on Oct 30, 2017 8:36:11 GMT -5
OK daylilydude, I just saw the black around the sides, and thought that maybe the cup had colapsed. I get a few roots through there all the time, some plants (tomatoes, eggplants) more than others. Since it is pretty much just plain water, the roots stay above, but when I have added some of my hydroponics to some of them, on a regular basis, the roots grew into there a lot more.
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Oct 30, 2017 10:42:47 GMT -5
My experience tracks with pepperhead212's - generally it's just a few roots unless you add soluble fertilizers to the water reservoir regularly. And it is nothing to worry about so long as the roots don't clog up all the holes. If you have a lot of roots in the reservoir, they can make a stinky mess as they rot after you pull the plant. But you can disassemble the SIP and yank the big masses of roots out, or dump the soil into a wheelbarrow or something and fish out the big masses and dense mats of roots. Smaller roots can be left in the potting mix to decompose.
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Post by daylilydude on Dec 13, 2017 5:31:12 GMT -5
Since Thanksgiving I got 12 more buckets...
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Dec 15, 2017 11:30:48 GMT -5
Did you get anything planted in them, or are you waiting until spring?
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Post by daylilydude on Dec 15, 2017 11:36:36 GMT -5
Waiting till spring... when I get them they haven't been washed out so there are some butter and sour-cream to clean out of them but it's way to cold to playing outside in the water... right now it's only at freezing 32f. ,and I really don't think the better half would want me cleaning them in the sink or tub...lol!
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Jan 26, 2018 12:16:07 GMT -5
pepperhead212, I'm 99.9% sure you've posted a link for this before, but I failed at searching for it: What is your source for the silvery reflective plastic (mylar?) that you use as a cover on your Earthboxes and other SIPs? I am thinking about trying it this year to see if it helps to keep soil temperatures lower in my boxes this summer. (Any repellent effect it may have on thrips or other insect pests would be a bonus.) Thanks!
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