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Post by pepperhead212 on May 14, 2018 22:34:05 GMT -5
Coir does work well in my containers for the indoor plants. By the time that it decomposes, and loses its "airyness", the plants need re-potted. I just make my own mix, using about 60% coir, 15% worm castings, 20% perlite, and maybe 5% vermiculite (whatever leftover I have from the tray I start my pepper seeds in every year, I just dump into a bag). I may also add some of that diatomaceous earth absorbent, next time I re-pot them. I got a huge amount of coir from Earthbox dirt cheap (sorry, I can't help myself), shortly after I started with them, as they realized that it was not good for the EB, and they had it on clearance.
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Post by Laura_in_FL on May 15, 2018 10:05:51 GMT -5
Which is why they had the coir on clearance, of course!
You could use a coir-based potting mix in your EB/SIP for 2-3 years and then replace the mix. The old coir-based potting mix could be worked into your raised bed; it would add good organic matter, and there likely would be some old fertilizer in there to help fertility, too.
But completely replacing the mix in your EB/SIP every few years adds a lot of expense.
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Post by daylilydude on May 26, 2018 19:17:48 GMT -5
Laura_in_FL, pepperhead212, I have another question for y'all... Here is a pick of Sweet Banana and Sweet Cayenne peppers when I first planted them and here is what they look like today... they are growing and a beautful dark green color it's just they look droopy... any ideas why? Sweet Banana: Sweet Cayenne: And it's not just those... all the peppers in the SIP's just look a little droopy to me? And I thought I would show how the cabbage is doing with a before and now pic...
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Post by pepperhead212 on May 26, 2018 20:04:52 GMT -5
daylilydude My peppers take a while to perk up, too, but once they do, they take off! They take longer than tomatoes, which take off almost immediately.
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Post by octave1 on May 26, 2018 20:06:01 GMT -5
Nice thread! What do you guys do with the soil at the end of the season, when you empty your buckets? Do you recycle it? Do you dump it somewhere?
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Post by pepperhead212 on May 26, 2018 20:24:43 GMT -5
I take some of it out, and add it to my raised beds, then I add some more dolomite, for the tomato tubs, then top it off with some more Promix, as well as a bit more fertilizer to the strips. I only use them once a year, but Laura_in_FL uses them constantly, and could tell you more about re-using them.
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Post by Laura_in_FL on May 27, 2018 0:55:50 GMT -5
Yep, I usually use the old potting mix from the Earthboxes in my raised beds. Or maybe as a soil amendment in the planting hole if I am planting a fruit tree or bush. (Not for blueberries, though, because of the dolomite.)
If I am removing a lot of old synthetic fertilizer from a fertilizer strip, I sometimes sprinkle that around in the flower beds or under a fruit tree instead.
But I usually only remove mix from the boxes and add more dolomite once a year. The fall/winter crops seem less demanding than the peppers and tomatoes, so just freshening up the fertilizer strip in the fall seems to work.
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Post by daylilydude on Jun 3, 2018 12:54:56 GMT -5
Now who's just crazy enough to plant and try to grow watermelons (Bush Sugar Baby) from an SIP bucket? Me...
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Jun 4, 2018 14:51:28 GMT -5
I bet the plants will grow just fine, but it will be tricky walking through that area when the vines and developing fruit are everywhere. Even Bush Sugar Baby makes (if I recall correctly; it's been a long time since I grew that variety) about a 4'-5' vine. It's not a bush at all, really; just less sprawling than the regular Sugar Baby.
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Post by pepperhead212 on Jun 6, 2018 15:23:19 GMT -5
I have had the water turned off to my SIPs since all that rain we had, which stopped Sunday morning. I checked a number of them with a dipstick today, and two were down to 1/2" - the tomatillos and bottle gourds, which had the most foliage of all the SIPs. So I had to set that row to fill, but I'll have to watch the others carefully.
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Post by daylilydude on Jun 23, 2018 5:56:41 GMT -5
I have noticed that peppers also love the SIP's as much as the greens do! I have peppers on almost all of the plants and are the prettiest "bush like" pepper plants I have ever grown. I will try and get some pics today if I can... have more rain coming today plus the daughter and her husband are coming over with the grand-baby and well you know what comes first... but now the son-in-law is also helping me lay click and snap floating wood floor down in our living room.
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Post by daylilydude on Jun 27, 2018 18:01:47 GMT -5
Laura_in_FL, pepperhead212, I just wanted to show how i'm gonna put the 18 gallon self watering planter together. It's new to me and I found it on the web site link and would love y'alls opinion on it. 1- 18 gallon tote. 4" perforated drain hose (10 ft. piece will make 2 or so planters (2 pieces cut at 17" and 1 at 8 1/2" 6- ties... I just used rubber-bands to see how they will work. 1- 2ft. piece of 3/4" PVC pipe. 1- 2ft. x 3ft. piece of landscape fabric. 6- 10" x 10" pieces of landscape fabric. I hope this works as it was real easy to put together... I know pepperhead212, that you do it a little different, but I just kept screwing up the measurements on doing it that way so I started looking for different ways and found this. And I truly hope that it will help others that want to give the self watering containers a try. Now as you noticed on the short end, the 2 pockets 1 on each side will act as the wicking area... Ok, now let me know what you think, and don't be gentle, I can take it... lol!
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Post by pepperhead212 on Jun 27, 2018 18:17:51 GMT -5
I like the idea! Let us know how this holds up. If they hold up to the weight of it this would be a much easier way to put it together - much fewer holes to drill, and things to cut. And the drain hose is cheaper than PVC.
Hopefully the landscape fabric will hold up - my only reservation about it, as I have had some LF decompose, despite being "20 yr". I had a 250' roll in my shed, using it for 5 or 6 years, and last season, for the first time, the stuff began falling apart in a front flower bed , and in a row in the back (and just put down fresh in the spring, as I do every year). After that, I'm suspicious of landscape fabric!
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Post by daylilydude on Jun 27, 2018 18:26:45 GMT -5
pepperhead212, it's just what I had at the moment, i'm thinking that maybe some window screen might work also.
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Jun 28, 2018 15:28:05 GMT -5
Interesting; it will be good to hear how it works. One question, though: is there an overflow/drain hole? I didn't see one, but maybe the view is blocked by the bottom assembly.
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Post by pepperhead212 on Jun 28, 2018 15:43:09 GMT -5
I didn't think about the drain hole, Laura_in_FL. And in these tubs, I always drill 4 of them - this way, no matter if it is unlevel - the water will still be below the bottom of the soil.
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Post by daylilydude on Jun 28, 2018 16:07:28 GMT -5
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Post by daylilydude on Jul 3, 2018 4:13:08 GMT -5
I also found a diagram on how they planted the 18 gallon planter and thought I would post it here for your thoughts?
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Post by september on Jul 3, 2018 7:19:55 GMT -5
I probably should not comment since I've never grown in this type of container, but I don't understand the relatively few basil plants compared with what looks like overcrowding corn and okra. How many inches long are the containers?
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Post by pepperhead212 on Jul 3, 2018 8:47:44 GMT -5
The okra, squash, and bell pepper tubs look way overcrowded. I would only put 2 squash, unless a very small variety, and only 6 small varieties of peppers, and 6 okra, as 8 seemed to be a little overcrowded - remember, things get even bigger in SIPs! Laura_in_FL can chime in, with more experience in growing other things.
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Jul 9, 2018 12:44:05 GMT -5
I agree with Dave's recommendation. And for pepper varieties that make BIG plants over a long season, consider planting only 4 plants per box.
I would also consider only growing 6 chard, broccoli, and cauliflower per box, and maybe only 4 cabbage unless they are really small types. All of those plants have big leaves that need room to spread.
Not sure why they planted all of the zucchini on one side of the box. Those plants get big and heavy and the box will be prone to tipping if planted that way. I would put 2 zucchini per box, on opposite ends of the box.
There is enough root room in the boxes to plant at higher density (except maybe in the case of okra, which gets BIG roots in a SIP), but the plants' canopies need room to spread out so their leaves can get light and air.
For cucumbers and melons, if they have a trellis they can climb, 4-6 plants per box is good. (8 cucumber plants plants is fine even, IF you can keep up with the watering.) If they are all planted along one side and climbing up a trellis, if you put the trellis on the north or east side, you can stick a few small low plants, such as salad greens, along the opposite side. They will still get enough sun and you won't waste any box space. Vining squash are too big and aggressive to share a box with anything else, though.
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Post by pepperhead212 on Aug 24, 2018 21:34:10 GMT -5
I planted some of my greens in some of the SIPs I removed tomatoes, cukes, and melons from. I'm still not up to planting my usual fall crop; just like with the spring crop, I have to 'til a double row, and run a length of T-tape down the middle, and plant seedlings on both sides, and cover with agribon, and seal it on both sides, to protect from rabbits. I'll have less now, but still a generous amount. I planted senposai seeds in the individual buckets, figuring that those get largest, and some kohlrabi and chard in the larger ones, 6 and 5 in each. I have a couple more I can plant, eventually - maybe boc choy and tatsoi, and maybe one of the older komatsuna, that flowered too soon, when planted in spring.
Another thing that I tried, which seems to be working with some tomatoes, though most are beyond hope. I trimmed much of the bad foliage, then, on ones that seemed to have some green leaves up top, though the flowering had slowed greatly on them, I added some fertilizer that is sort of a "bloom boost" that I got super cheap several years ago, when a hydoponics place was going under. I never use them in the ground, and I never really grow any flowering plants hydroponically (just herbs and greens), but I got this for peppers in pots, if they were lagging back. All I put in each reservoir was 1 tsp in buckets, and 2 tsp in large containers, and already, I see new flowers on them! I also put some of the calcium nitrate in them, to help with new foliage, and the BER, if they get some fruits. We'll see what happens.
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Aug 25, 2018 2:12:43 GMT -5
Fingers crossed for you that the fertilizer boost will give your tomatoes a second wind. Hopefully you'll get a break from the excessive rain and humidity soon! That will help your tomato plants even more.
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Post by daylilydude on Jun 14, 2019 15:30:27 GMT -5
Bumping this up again with another question... would it be alright to plant 4 cayenne pepper plants in this new 18 gallon sip? and how would you stake these... 1 for each plant or 1 for 2 plants... I will be putting the fertilizer band down the short way in the center.
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Post by pepperhead212 on Jun 14, 2019 17:15:32 GMT -5
daylilydude I usually put 4 pepper plants in that size, unless they are very large, like 2 habs, or much smaller ones, then 6. So you should have no problem with the cayennes. And I always play it by ear (or eye, rather), when it comes to staking, since peppers are fickle, and one may be thick, and the one right next to it might be taller and thinner, and need a stake. I just staked a number, but not all, of my okras, for the same reason - some were leaning from that wind last night. And sometimes I'll wrap some of that vinyl tape around the entire bunch of them, so they sort of support each other.
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Jun 15, 2019 12:46:32 GMT -5
What Dave said is right on.
With cayennes you can probably play the staking by ear, but honestly nearly all of my Earthbox peppers need a stake or cage by the time they get a full fruit load if not sooner.
I think it's because the potting mix is so fluffy that it can't hold them against much wind. The plants just get pushed over and uprooted.
The flopping over problem is much worse since I set up my automatic irrigation on my Earthboxes. Since the peppers never experience dry soil they don't seem to send roots to the bottom of the box like they did when I was hand watering and sometimes let them dry out by accident.
So I cage all my peppers now as a precaution.
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Post by daylilydude on Jun 15, 2019 20:57:09 GMT -5
Collards are doing really nice in these tubs... may be cutting some of those along with some of the Dinosaur kale and have some greens with dinner tomorrow...
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