Blue Plastic drums

[johnlee1933]

Hey Guys, I have access to a few blue plastic, 30 gal plastic drums. What do you think about cutting them in half for growing individual plants? I could tie wrap a short piece of 2" PVC vertically inside for watering and monitoring the water level or just drill small holes in the side about 8" up from the bottom to permit drainage.

John

 

[deluxestogie]

John,
You could just drill small holes in the bottom, then add a layer of coarse rocks or gravel below the soil. They should work well for a single plant.

Bob

 

[johnlee1933]

Yes, I tried that with some 55 gal drum halves I had off a job. I still had to water a lot. I figured by drilling the holes a few inches up I would have a reservoir at the botton of the drum and they would still bleed out excess if they got flooded. What do you think?

John

 

[deluxestogie]

Just add Perlite and Vermiculite (from the garden store) to the soil mix, to hold water within the soil.

Bob

 

[johnlee1933]

Just add Perlite and Vermiculite (from the garden store) to the soil mix, to hold water within the soil.

Bob

Yep, I already got the Perlite and Vermiculite is on back order. I'm going to mix in some peat moss to lighten it some and cotton seed meal for continuous nitrogen feeding thru the year.

Thanks,

John

 

[johnlee1933]

What do you think of this idea? Cut a 30 gal drum in half and drill a dozen 3/8" holes around the perimeter near the bottom of each half. Place this half drum in an 8" section cut off a 55 gal drum. The inner section is filled with earth. The plant is in the inner drum and watering is almost automatic. Just watch the level and fill as needed.If mosquitoes are a problem a small section of a "mosquito floater" can be added to kill them and prevent more. The wife of a friend likes tobacco plants and this drum nest is acceptable to her on the large outside deck.

Fertilizer will be added to the top of the soil layer and a circle of black plastic laid on top will retard evaporation and kill weeds.

John

 

[deluxestogie]

For the mosquitoes, just add a couple of goldfish to the standing water.

Bob

 

[Jitterbugdude]

Personally, I think you should invert the barrel and grow your tobacco "upside down" like those tomato things you see in the stores this time of year

 

[johnlee1933]

Personally, I think you should invert the barrel and grow your tobacco "upside down" like those tomato things you see in the stores this time of year

Thanks Bug ! Usually I call you Dude but !!! ;<)) Actually I tried one of those inverted tomato things a few years ago. Didn't work worth a hoot.

J

 

[Chicken]

i think it would work great,,,, ive seen them grew in 5 gallon buskets,,,,and your drums will give the roots more room,

total sucess<

 

[Daniel]

I grew in 5 gallon buckets and am sure a 30 gallon drum would do even better. I would drill the holes at the very bottom though. you don't want standing water around the roots of the plant you just want the soil to be able to get damp. Even with that I have some to find out the buckets and pots have issues with the soil being soaked at the bottom even with holes in the bottom of them. I am going to add strips of rayon cloth to my buckets this year to help wick away the water from the bottom of them.

 

[deluxestogie]

Daniel,
Just adding a bottom layer of coarse gravel, topped with sand, should eliminate the standing water.

Bob

 

[Daniel]

Two problems Bob, I paid over $600 for this soil not inclined to mix sand and gravel with it. It gets dumped out and remixed each year. Second problem is a new thing I learend this year that is s specific problem for containers. Gravity is trying to draw the water our of a container. The water itself has an attracting force to other water molecules. at a point the attraction of the water equals the force of gravity and the water stops draining. this cause nearly the entire bottom half of a container to remain to wet in my estimation and what I observed in my plants root growth last year. The solution is to actually add a wicking material to the bottom of the container. That is the reason the cloth needs to be Rayon specifically. I have been told cotton will work also. It's all new to me but I am going to give it a try and see if I get better roots this year.

Bad news. I really blew the doors off my budget today. $1384.00 spent today alone to grow tobacco this year. I placed all my orders for the electric fence, drip irrigation ($500 for that alone) plus a $200 shopping trip to the hardware store to top it off. Btu we have everything but the second starting stand and some chicken wire. Probably just over $1500 in total when it is all said and done. The good news is the majority of the pain is behind us so we can settle in and enjoy growing the tobacco now.

I set out test plant out in the sun this morning and my grandson got ahold of it while we where at the hardware store. the result is we no longer have a test plant. I am just grateful he didn't chew on the leaves and is not sick. I feel stupid as they come for leaving teh plant where he could reach it. He was not home when I set it out and didn't think about him coming back while we where gone. Not much of an excuse had he gotten sick though.

 

[deluxestogie]

Daniel,
What many home gardeners use in the potting shed is large chunks of broken pot at the bottom for drainage. If you use, say, a piece of paver, or a large rock or two, then it wouldn't mix with your soil. Just a thought to save some cash.

Bob

 

[johnlee1933]

Daniel,
What many home gardeners use in the potting shed is large chunks of broken pot at the bottom for drainage. If you use, say, a piece of paver, or a large rock or two, then it wouldn't mix with your soil. Just a thought to save some cash.

Bob

Daniel, I use broken brick rubble. It's free and the chunks are big enough to separate out easily when I dump my buckets. A couple of buckets of chunks go a long way. I don't do it but a friend throws his new chunks in a cement mixer and washes them. Now that is a noisy operation !

John

 

[Daniel]

Broken brick I might be able to get. As long as it can be seperated at the end of the year. I mix the soil in a concrete mixer but think I will pass on the brick washing. Larger stones is what the ground is made of around here so that is definitely a solution. I will try some test plants using both methods and see if there is any difference.

 

[johnlee1933]

Hey guys, New question -- I just found a source of "well rotted horse manure". As a kid on a dairy farm I remember my uncle saying "Horse manure isn't worth a shit." Since then I have heard comments about it referencing the amount of bedding straw and abundance of weed seed etc.. What is your opinion? Is it worth hauling it to my little plot and if so how much do I want?

Any help/opinion appreciated. Thanks,

John

 

[deluxestogie]

Horse manure contains a lot of weed seed. It also tends to "petrify" into road apples, rather than decompose. If it has been properly composted, the temperature of the compost heap should kill the weed seeds, and if carried out sufficiently, to break it down. Here's a blurb from Washington State Univ: http://whatcom.wsu.edu/ag/compost/horsecompost.htm

Bob

EDIT: Link now correct

 

[johnlee1933]

Hey Bob, I went to the URL listed and got a paper on Chemical Changes in Tobacco etc. Did you post the wrong URL or did I screw up again?

As an aside noticed the Am Chem Soc advert. I published a paper there with MJ Rand back in the late 50's or early 60's.

John

 

[dkh2]

I've fed my worms horse manure and there is a lot of stuff left over undigested matter
Worms just eat the digested part of manure Deluxestogie is correct it contains a lot of unwanted seeds
from weeds and what not.