Farm heavy soil bucket gardening

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Faroe

Un-spun
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.:spns:
 
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summerthyme

Administrator
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Great info.

I have used 5 gallon pails, filled halfway with those styrofoam peanuts, and then the rest of the way with barnyard soil (sort of like peat moss, but a LOT richer... in general, it takes 5-7 years before you have to start adding some fertilizer when using it in raised beds or containers). I put a piece of screen over the top of the peanuts, before adding the soil, but while it does help keep the soil out of the peanuts, it also restricts root growth. I might try hardware cloth and a layer of smallish stones (large enough to not go through the hardware cloth) to keep soil/peanuts separate, but allow the roots to grow down into the peanuts if the plants want more root room.

I also put a piece of fabric (old t-shirt material) as a "wick"... tucked it along the side of the bucket extending to the base of the pail, and then up past the screening into the soil.

And because these were outside some of the time, I drilled a hole in the side of the pail just about where the peanuts/soil met.... so if we got too much rain, it would drain out before it drowned the plants.

Since I have plenty of room to plant in soil (160 acres), most of this (like my homemade EarthBox clones, which you might enjoy looking at... they work REALLY well) is more experimental than critical. I grow too much at this point to do it all in containers. But it's fun and interesting, and is excellent experience in learning what works- and what doesn't- especially as we get older and I can see a time where running the big Troybilt tiller, or hand weeding 1/2 acre of corn (which I'm just about finished with) will be more than we can handle (or want to!)

Thanks for the ideas!

Summerthyme
 
F

Faroe

Un-spun
Thanks.
Glad you enjoyed reading it.

Lightweight buckets are so easy to manage. (Most of the heavier ones will eventually grow a good plant, but they were also destroying my back.) I set the pots on cinder block legged pallet platforms so it is all a comfortable working height. I can move individual plants as needed - shadier areas, sunny areas, or into the net house if the birds start pecking. This fall, I'll move most of it under plastic sheeting in the greenhouse and extend the season. (Will need to build another greenhouse since the first is now full of fish.)
 
F

Faroe

Un-spun
One thing I've been experimenting with is wadded up old bird netting. I have bags and bags of it, and I absolutely hate dealing with the stuff for its intended use, particularly once it has been out for a couple seasons. Nevertheless, works great in buckets. Bunched up tight, it is still airy, but dense enough to keep most of the soil out.
 
F

Faroe

Un-spun
I like that guy. I've watched several of his videos. In my favourite, he shows three different ways to grow cabbage, and how they all compare at harvest.

I think I'm allergic to plumbing. If it involves bulkheads, elbows, PVC cement, and half a dozen other fittings, I start looking for something else to do. I did try to bring a list of specific needed fittings to Lowe's - I just hate the plumbing aisle! It must have been a off day for the store, because even the plumbing guys were of no help, and sent me over to gardening, maybe just to get rid of me!
 
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