Do you use fabric containers?

[cpp gardener]

You could put a piece of 1” PVC pipe the length of the pot with holes drilled in it. Put a cap on the bottom and fill each time you water. That will allow you to water to the bottom.

 

[A. Lyric]

Kitchen trash bags with the bottom cut out will keep your water in. (5-7 gal. grow bags)
Put the trash bag in the grow bag & fill it with your growing medium.
Boom! And Bob's your uncle.

That's an idea. No air pruning, but at least the soil would get watered. Thanks!

 

[A. Lyric]

You could put a piece of 1” PVC pipe the length of the pot with holes drilled in it. Put a cap on the bottom and fill each time you water. That will allow you to water to the bottom.

Perfect! And I have plenty of PVC scraps! Even a drill which I know how to use! Thank you!

 

[A. Lyric]

Check out this thread. It might give some ideas.

Small scale demonstration of biodynamic farming, soil replenishment, cover cropping, crop rotation, permaculture, polyculture, and organic gardening

BACKGROUND The common response when I present the techniques I use for gardening is that the techniques will not scale down to small applications. In this thread I will attempt to demonstrate that this premise is incorrect, that in fact the techniques do scale down to as small as ONE single...

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Till all that green manure into your soil. It is tremendous soil conditioner and likely better than any amendment you can purchase anywhere.

Find a source for compost, e.g. cow manure, horse, chicken, etc. and make your own amendments...again far superior to commercial stuff which carries the risk of latent herbicides in it. Also, add all the organic matter you can to your beds.

With three 4x8 beds you can set up a great rotation program. Be creative! Use companion planting. It works.


Start the cover crops NOW or very soon. Don't wait until spring. You can't go wrong with some legumes and/or winter ryes. It takes some time but year after year, your soil will improve, your insect problems and fungal problems virtually disappear and best of all you will produce nutrient dense veggies with great taste.

Don't you put in a cover crop after you've removed your garden plants and debris? I was asking what to do with a growing cover crop when spring comes and you need to plant veggies? But after visiting your thread on it, I'm assuming you just cut it down and leave it there? Also, your sunn hemp experiment appeared to improve soil health not only dramatically, but very quickly. So why shouldn't I use sunn hemp instead of legumes or winter ryes? I want that crazy fast dramatic improvement! But maybe sunn hemp doesn't grow that well in winter?

Apparently, I need a lot of handholding here. If it would improve my soil, I'd pull up my struggling plants and grow some sunn hemp in it right now. If it requires heat, we've had plenty. Then follow with some winter cover crops? Alongside my garlic?

Isn't that garlic in your avatar? I planted garlic for the first time last fall and my process for choosing which bulbs to plant was eeny meeny miny moe, since I didn't know one from another. I like to roast the heads but at the rate I'm using it, I won't have enough bulbs to plant more, which is fine since I'd like to try a different type. Recommendations?

 

[Meadowlark]

Don't you put in a cover crop after you've removed your garden plants and debris? I was asking what to do with a growing cover crop when spring comes and you need to plant veggies? But after visiting your thread on it, I'm assuming you just cut it down and leave it there? Also, your sunn hemp experiment appeared to improve soil health not only dramatically, but very quickly.

Cover crops can be used anytime...but you have to select the right cover for the right season, some like it hot some like it cold. Anytime your garden soil is idle is a great time for a cover crop and likewise anytime you need a rotation crop is a great time for a cover. I make it a rigid practice to never leave my garden soil fallow...always growing either a cover or produce or both 24/7/365. Nature abhors a vacuum and will fill your empty garden plots with weed seed every time.

For example, if you were to ask around some commercial growers in your area, they will likely tell you they always rotate soybeans and corn. Soybeans are good soil builders as a legume especially following corn. Beans of all types are legumes and add nitrogen, not as much as say Sunn Hemp and certainly not if the beans are harvested but nonetheless a great cover/rotation crop.

See the recent thread I made on using cow (field) peas for a cover crop in summer and a harvestable veggie that is delicious in its own right. Cow peas are absolutely great in rotation in your plots. Anyone can grow them and for just pennies they can be used in a great rotation in a small garden.

Chop and Drop Cow Peas

This thread demonstrates how I use cow peas in a chop and drop process in my garden to organically replenish the soil to the status of “No N-P-K” required without the use of synthetic fertilizers. In summer, the peas have a maturity cycle of just over 60 days making it possible to have multiple...

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Hence, why I suggested to you that you plant a winter cover crop now and let it get established before cold weather. Winter rye, clovers, ceral grains etc. all good winter cover that will build soil.

So why shouldn't I use sunn hemp instead of legumes or winter ryes? I want that crazy fast dramatic improvement! But maybe sunn hemp doesn't grow that well in winter? Apparently, I need a lot of handholding here. If it would improve my soil, I'd pull up my struggling plants and grow some sunn hemp in it right now. If it requires heat, we've had plenty. Then follow with some winter cover crops? Alongside my garlic?

Its too late for Sunn Hemp in your zone. It is a tropical requiring temp above 60 deg. f at night and needs about 12 growing weeks of those temps to be really effective. Remember it next summer. You need to be thinking cool weather covers now...preferably some of which that will survive your Mo. winters. Then next spring/late winter mow it if you wish and/or turn it into the soil while green...green manure. Add some homemade compost to it and you are well on your way to raising some great veggies.

Isn't that garlic in your avatar? I planted garlic for the first time last fall and my process for choosing which bulbs to plant was eeny meeny miny moe, since I didn't know one from another. I like to roast the heads but at the rate I'm using it, I won't have enough bulbs to plant more, which is fine since I'd like to try a different type. Recommendations?

No that's my annual supply of onions. I grow about 200 pounds of yellow and red 1015 onions each year for our use.

I also grow garlic and love it. Because of my location I grow softneck garlic mostly the California white. It is great stuff and I grow it just like I grow onions.... plant in fall and harvest following May. In your case, your growing zone, you probably will want the hardneck garlic which does better in your winters there I'm told. I'm not familiar with the varieties of hardneck garlic, so I can't recommend one but maybe someone else on the forum can....but wow those softneck whites are wonderful.

 

[big rockpile]

Most farmers do not rotate or plant cover crops around here. They plant what they hope to make the most of and have time for and weather cooperation.

I have Farmed most my life. Now days they do No Till and use Chemical Fertilizer and Roundup.

So the soil dies.

big rockpile

 

[Avocado]

I guess it depends on how you use it. I grew potatoes in fabric pots from Amazon. And as potatoes grew, I filled with more store bought garden soil. They didn’t really compact, since I was pouring on top of potato plants. So, I never had issues or noticed losing too much water on the sides of my fabric pots.

 

[A. Lyric]

I guess it depends on how you use it. I grew potatoes in fabric pots from Amazon. And as potatoes grew, I filled with more store bought garden soil. They didn’t really compact, since I was pouring on top of potato plants. So, I never had issues or noticed losing too much water on the sides of my fabric pots.

Thanks. What brand fabric pots did you get from Amazon? I'm not sure the brand makes a difference, but I've wondered.

 

[big rockpile]

I guess it depends on how you use it. I grew potatoes in fabric pots from Amazon. And as potatoes grew, I filled with more store bought garden soil. They didn’t really compact, since I was pouring on top of potato plants. So, I never had issues or noticed losing too much water on the sides of my fabric pots.

Mine didn't work with Fabric Pots but I didn't feed them like I should have.

Fabric Pots you have to water real slow it might take me two hours to water 5.

big rockpile

 

[Avocado]

Thanks. What brand fabric pots did you get from Amazon? I'm not sure the brand makes a difference, but I've wondered.

This is the brand I got from Amazon:​

247Garden 5-Pack 7-Gallon Aeration Fabric Pot/Plant Grow Bag w/Handles (260 GSM, Black, 12H x 13D)​

And I used this method for growing my potatoes. I used the fabric pots not burlap bags:

 

[big rockpile]

Mine are 10 gallon but I'm reusing the soil.

big rockpile