Quote:
Originally Posted by MileHighGuy
Yeah, that specialty stuff can be expensive... but I was never a fan of specialty stuff. You can locally source ingredients for free, but it takes time. The right soil mix in a container can be much tastier and higher yield. I like trying new things as much as the next guy, but when you require the food to live on, you can't just guess and try again next year. It has to be done right the first time.
In my opinion and most gardeners, it's all about the compost.
Compost can be cheap but you have to plan ahead.
The Soil Mix that I described above works wonderful for tomatoes and is very cheap.
For all of those containers it would cost about $150.00 to fill them to the brim.... and that's with buying the compost. That's cheaper than bagged soil and can be re-used next year so long as you leave room for a good top dress.
Those 25 Gallon containers you have are awesome! Where did you find them so cheap? At a feed store... or from a farmer?
Thanks!
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I understand how some folks use food from their gardens to supplement their nutritional needs. I also work as a volunteer in a fifteen acre community garden which supplies food to many local charities. My difficulty is the fact that if you use all the expensive products many folks recommend, it would probably be cheaper to just buy the food. I grow 90% of my plants from seed. About the only plants I purchase are herbs. With simple plants costing over $3.00 dollars each at the big box stores this year, the plants alone are pretty expensive. I've planted forty tomato plants. Those alone would have cost over $100.00
I really like your idea of using volcanic pumice in the mix. I haven't, but may in the future. My minerals in the mix come from Ironite (inexpensive), epson salt (inexpensive), and some years; dried molasses. I do use the alfalfa pellets in my raised beds, but not in my containers. I just mix everything up in a wheel barrow with a shovel until it looks right and shovel it from the wheel barrow into the containers. I looked up the gallon to cubic foot conversion earlier and I think 25 gallons was equal to three cubic feet. I don't think I spent over $100.00 to fill all fifteen containers including the container cost. The soil in the containers will compress some and when it is down about six inches, I will fill then with pine bark nuggets as mulch. As they decompose over the summer and winter, they will add organics to the soil and slow evaporation in the heat. I drilled drain holes about two inches up the sides from the bottoms, but since they are drip irrigated; I can control soil moisture by resetting the timer as the plants grow.
I got the pots from my local feed store whose owner also raises cattle. He just stacks them up after the cattle empty them. Some ranchers simply burn them to get rid of them. I would imagine most feed stores sell them full of minerals/molasses mix. Some probably save the empties. Most nurseries also sell them with large trees in them, but they never seem to get any back after planting the trees. It may be the fact that they prefer to sell smaller, pretty containers for a lot more money than sell the empty tree pots for less.
Ted