Rick's Garden Update 6-22-14
 

:DA few shots from the garden...Big Beef, Tycoon, Better Boy and enjoying the fruits of my labor.

wow, beautiful garden and sandwich :) nice work!
KarenO

I see Walmart bags and gutters...looks like it is working really well for you.

Nice work

lovely sandwich!

Garden looks great! So does the BLT....
Not enough bacon....:twisted:

Oh, yum- way to go!

Plants looks great and I am very jealous of that fabulous looking BLT! :)

Beautiful! I'm still a week or two away from that sandwich. Looks delicious!

Amazing!!!! Your garden looks great (sandwich too).

In the first pic (the one that you are standing), are your tomatos in buckets? If so, they are huge. I only ask b/c of the other shots showing the blue buckets. And are those the 5 gallon pail type buckets? If so, I am in awe.

Thanks everyone for the kind comments.

Barb..Thats my son in the picture, he is 19 years old and freshman in college. To answer your question all of my tomato plants are in the blue walmart bags and they hold about 5 gallons of soil mix.

Rick

Very nice. Love the sandwich.

I'm so impressed
 

Hey Rick,

I'm really interested in your set up.

Do I have this correct? Using the walmart cloth bags, sitting on rain gutters for water?. Is your medium is peat based? And do you just let the cloth touch the water for wicking (or net pots/equivalents). It looks like you have brown drippers too. Finally, what are you feeding the plants.

They look so healthy. By the time mine have decent size fruit on them, they look pretty bad. The exception is I still have a marglobe plant that looks good (in an earthbox) even though it's done producing fruit.

It looks like you have a ton of plants.

Thanks,
Barb

Barb, go to youtube land and look at Larry Hall's Rain Gutter Grow System videos! :)

Rick, Go RGGS! GO! That's so awesome!!! You should also post this on the RGGS facebook group page - pple will go NUTS over your pics! :) Do you prune to just a couple of stems or how you decide how to support since you are using the baler twine?

Hello Barb,

Yes Wal-Mart reusable shopping bags fitted with a net cup(no drippers) in the bottom of the bag. The net cup sits into the rain gutter that is filled with water and wicks the water up. I use a regular potting mix(stagreen) and compost mixed about 60/40.I trellis the plants to grow up the orange twine in the pictures. If you have a chance check out Larry Hall's rain gutter grow system on youtube, he has a bunch of videos... a good one to watch-How To Build A Self Watering Rain Gutter Grow System.

Luigiwu...Yes on some plants I prune to 3 or 4 stems but when they get taller I usually just let them go. I like the shade that's provided when the weather really starts heating up.

Rick

Way ahead of me!

Thanks for the info: I watched the you-tube rain gutter videos. I had tried something similar without success. I used the bottom of some bunny cages I already had, drilled some drainage holes, and bought containers, cut the 3" holes for net pots and drilled air holes, placed the buckets on bricks so just the net pot is exposed to the water. I think the media stayed too wet. Maybe that is the difference with using a cloth bag.

I didn't see anything on his channel, re: using the Walmart bags in the rain gutters. Do you just cut the bag for the net pot?

I am still amazed how big and healthgy everything is with 5 gallon bags.

Hello Barb,

The container media needs to be a potting mix like promix,miracle grow,stagreen or any good soilless potting mix. Whether you buy or mix your own it needs to be fairly fast draining and have good wicking abilities.

I just use a sharpie and trace around the net cup on the bottom of the bag and then cut out inside the circle. See Larry's video on YouTube named...Using A Walmart Shopping Bag as A Grow Bag On the Self Watering Rain Gutter Grow System. lots of good information in that video.

And yes you can grow big healthy plants with large tomatoes in a 5 gallon grow bag with the right setup and proper attention to detail.

Barb,
I've use 5 gallon home depot buckets with the RGGS and its fine! For any type of sub-irrigation (incuding the Earthbox) you must have potting MIX (meaning it should be soil-less/peat-based.)

Yes, the airpruning effects of grow bags are much talked about but I have yet to see any true side-by-side production comparisons between say the same type of tomato, on the same gutter, with the same potting mix but ONLY with the container being different. I am trying two tomato plants this year in 7 gallon gallon root pouches!

[IMG]https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2914/14496811075_058269d4e7_b.jpg[/IMG]

Luigiwu - your set up looks really good too. The 7 gallon root pouch is my favorite size. I have them in 2,3,5,7,10, 15 sizes.

I'm good with the potting mix so that was never my problem; I've bought potting mix from EB, Gardener's Supply (both when I had free shipping), Lambert's Organic (sold by HD), ProMix - I finally found it locally; I refused to pay for shipping; I've made my own from Peat Moss and Perlite. I've experimented adding some with cocoa fiber.

I know in my bunny cage bottom, it was a matter of being too wet; I've stopped adding water to the base and the tomato plants are looking slightly better.

But on the HD buckets, I dumped all the plants and used the same buckets, mix for EggPlant and they thrive.

Do you think the RGS is better than the double bucket system - the bottom bucket being the reservoir?

[QUOTE=Barb_FL;420433]
Do you think the RGS is better than the double bucket system - the bottom bucket being the reservoir?[/QUOTE]

Oh yes ma'am! I can go on vacations now!! LOL! Seriously, I started with the global buckets (bucket in bucket last year.)
When I get up every morning, instead of spending it refilling each bucket reservoir, I am looking at the plants' health. Also with the 5 gallon buckets, my tomatoes and cukes did not make it through a whole work day (I can't come home mid-day to refill. They were so sad and droopy in the height of the summer.) The approx 3-inch high water reservoir at the bottom was not enough for these heavy feeders!

wonderful photos!!! Your tomatoes look great! Darlene

I'm VERY interested in trying a variation of this setup. Has anyone experimented using different sized grow bags? I'm thinking of using the [URL="http://www.homedepot.com/p/Viagrow-7-gal-Breathable-Fabric-Root-Aeration-Pot-With-Handles-5-Pack-V7GAPOT-5/202985190"]viagrow 7 gallon root pot [/URL]instead of the walmart bags. Has anyone used them with a rain gutter setup? I saw a video of a gentleman in Japan using those to grow all sort of things on a rggs system.

Vespertino,
I can recommend the ROOT POUCHES - for both the Kiddie Pool and the RGGS (both Larry Hall ideas.) The grey 3-4 yr rated ones (charcoal) can be had for super reasonable prices at Greenhousemegastore.com. Last summer I used 7 gallons and had two plants in each. I removed all except 2 for each plant. It was on a gutter system. I think you can do 5-gallon if you only wanted to plant one plant per pouch.

Hello Vespertino,

The Root Pouches will work great in the RGGS, almost any container with sufficient volume will do fine. I think that the fabric pots really shine because of the air pruning of the roots, but even 5 gallon buckets work well. I wish you the best of luck.....

Rick

Thanks guys! I think the RGGS system might be the perfect solution to my empty yard, without having to install expensive irrigated raised beds or re-do the whole sprinkler system. I'm going to give the root pouches a try. I used the viagrow plastic grow bags last year, and while they worked really well I had tons of roots growing out of the bottom, one had grown about 4 feet coiled under the bag. They're also only good for one season, the plastic gets too brittle and the bag breaks apart. But, they're dirt cheap and I'd say there's a lot of value there even if you can only use the bag once.

My hubs is on the OCD side and he doesn't like the look of container gardens. So I might modify the RGGS to look like this: [URL]http://imgur.com/a/yrkio?gallery[/URL]

Douglass had posted something about that here:
[URL]http://tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=32876[/URL]

I'm hoping to use something like that on a RGGS with a pipe rather than a gutter/trough for the water. The heat and dry weather here would evaporate the water out of an open trough very quickly. If I use a PVC or other pipe with round holes for the baskets to sit in snugly I hope that would reduce evaporation and prevent mosquitoes from getting into things.

If I use the root bags I'm going to assume I need some flat platform for them (with a hole cut out in the middle for the basket to go through) since the bottoms aren't rigid. Would a bucket top work or is something else recommended?

Thanks!

[QUOTE=luigiwu;444117]Vespertino,
I can recommend the ROOT POUCHES - for both the Kiddie Pool and the RGGS (both Larry Hall ideas.) The grey 3-4 yr rated ones (charcoal) can be had for super reasonable prices at Greenhousemegastore.com. Last summer I used 7 gallons and had two plants in each. I removed all except 2 for each plant. It was on a gutter system. I think you can do 5-gallon if you only wanted to plant one plant per pouch.[/QUOTE]


Luigiwu - Can you explain how the kiddie pool works? I have lots of root pouches from Greenhousemegastore; I've always bought the brown longest lasting ones. My favorite is the 7 gallon, but have lots of 2-15 gallon ones.

Does the root pouch just sit in water all the time? Do you need to let the water dry up sometimes so the roots won't be wet all the time? Do you need to put anything in the rootpouch for air - ie an upside down colander?

I am very familiar with SWC - EB, homemade containers, 2 bucket systems and happen to have 2 kiddie pools which I tried using for a strawberry bed; but ended up planting the strawberries in raised beds.

Vespertino- It depends on how you orient the bag on the gutter system. The main thing is that the bag's sides do not sit below the water line, if they do the bags will drip. A bucket lid will work great, just anything so the bags sides do not droop below the water line. I also built a gutter garden using 4" PVC pipe with 3" holes drilled for the net cups and it worked great. Good luck work the RGGS.

Rick


Barb- I also had 1 kiddie pool set up last year and it worked great. I simply drilled a drain hole about 2" up on the side of the pool and kept it filled with about 1" of water at all times. I plumbed a float valve to mine so the water level stayed constant. You can check out Youtube for the design set up. Search for Larry Hall Kiddie Pool and you should see several videos. Good luck with the gardening.....

Rick

Ves, Ricman has all the questions totally covered with great pointers. Myself, I used a bucket lid that I set inside the bag and did a cut out in the middle (both the bucket and bag) for the net cup. I used the 7gallon bags.

Barb, yes the whole bag sits in the pool (mortar bins work great for a smaller scale.) Rule of thumb is with smaller bags like 1 gallon, set your float to provide only 1/2-inch MAX water at atll times. so make sure there is a corresponding drain overflow hole. For the bigger bags like 7 inches, I think the recommendation is 2 inches?

AMAZING things can be grown in the smaller bags even... I'm trialing a whole bunch of 1 gallon root pouches set in boot trays this year for greens.
The third picture below is a pretty setup using 1-gallon root pouches and bigger. The stand is a contained resin stand (Home Depot) that is water tight. You can also see the float housing in that picture (though I don't think its hooked up because you can't see the supply hose.)

[IMG]http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0647/6291/files/dino_kale_1024x1024.JPG?251[/IMG]
[IMG]http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0647/6291/files/bell_peppers_1024x1024.JPG?251[/IMG]
[IMG]http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0647/6291/files/BEST_1024x1024.jpg?328[/IMG]

Barb,
A man over on FB has built what I consider the cadillac of kiddie pools. I wish I had the space to do the same thing! So you see, the 'kiddie pool' just references an idea of setting pouches in a pool of water where the level is tweaked to match the pouch size.
Here are some pics:

Below: "Kiddie pools" made on top of concrete pad with pond liners.
[IMG]https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8600/15690073683_4e3b1ccb88_c.jpg[/IMG]

Below: Float device to regulate water height in pools.
[IMG]https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7564/16123793259_6a75d9d656_z_d.jpg[/IMG]

Below: Voila! So beautiful!
[IMG]https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7526/16124104807_e51b5d3031_z_d.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7482/16122574350_8bf355ca6f_z_d.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7525/16284012626_faf825f1b8_z_d.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7466/16122397858_05595f9fa4_z_d.jpg[/IMG]

Vespertino,
In the 'cadillac' example above, you can see how wonderful the root pouches can look without having to completely shroud them in wood paneling which might take away the benefits of air pruning (and obviously be $$)
All this talk is getting me super excited and anxious for 2015's grow season to be here already!